“Ingo and John came to work for Perry as managers of sub-projects, just before the millennium. Some of the Vendex (Maxeda) specialist retailers had to switch to new software, because their software was out-of-date and because of the threat posed by the 'Millennium bug'. The holding company pressed us to go for SAP Retail and, although our issues were somewhat different to those of the other operating companies, we did make the switch some time later.”

In 2005 Perry Sport was on the eve of an upgrade. Guy explains: “The organisation had grown greatly within two years and was set to grow much further. In order to maintain that growth we had to do something about our software." An upgrade was recommended, but this generated internal resistance. “We didn't have the time or manpower to make a thorough study of the new SAP release.”
In its search for improvements to its logistical performance, the Perry organisation took a long look at its entire supply chain. Then it sought out an external partner to explain which software application would suit them best. “And that's when Ingo and Johan's names were mentioned. Why? Big organisations are often unwieldy and require a lot of preparatory research. We just didn't have the money for that. We knew about the quality that Ingo and Johan offered: the references we received about them made clear that they could supply what we needed. They think strategically and act pragmatically, applying unconventional ideas to move an organisation forwards.”

“At our first meeting they gave us exactly the advice we were looking for - that what we needed could be found partly in the current SAP release and partly in the most recent one. But, at Sapito's advice, we decided that in order to avoid teething troubles we would, in so far as it was responsible to do so, tackle the issues we had at that time by implementing improvements within the current release. This took place under the guarantee that those adjustments would not be lost if we were later to switch to the most recent release. This enabled Sapito to satisfy requests from the supply chain extremely rationally and at very little expense. We also achieved sizeable cost-savings as a result. And all of this despite the initial resistance.”

Guy believes that there are many reasons to explain why Sapito's approach works. He lists three of them. “Firstly, Sapito works on achieving acceptance by helping an organisation to secure successes in the short term. They tackle the highest priorities first. 'Action' is an important factor to us. Sapito's approach has won all-round recognition and has made our employees feel that IT involves us all.” The second reason concerns the individual consultant with whom Guy has worked the most. “Ingo's strength lies in his combination of knowledge and empathy. He is very good at imagining himself as part of the company where he is working. He combines this with an extensive knowledge of SAP as well. He is an external consultant who is able to carry people with him through the change process. Time and again he manages to get even the greatest critics to go along with him... And thirdly, Sapito has taught us to claim our successes. It's not something that IT people find easy to do. But we have managed to do that as well.”

“It's also worth knowing that when you call, they respond quickly. If you have a problem then you get the necessary information right away to solve it, without immediately finding an invoice in the letterbox. I don't think they should aim to get much bigger.”