The construction kit of the Colruyt Group

You don't build a company like the Colruyt Group with only bricks and cement. Enterprise architects take their virtual spirit levels and get to work on the organisation, processes and systems of the Colruyt Group. They're working to build a solid house that is ready for the future. We went for coffee and a chat with Wouter Depoortere (IT Architecture) and Marc Vandeperre (Business Architecture).

Put simply: what is enterprise architecture?

Marc : "My starting point is always that which everyone knows: building a house. When you build a house, you're the building contractor. You take all the decisions. But you need someone who can help you draw up a building plan. The architect helps you design a solid house based on your wishes and needs, with doors and windows and the right connections for water or electricity. They make suggestions, you decide. An enterprise architect does the same, but for a company. The companies in the Colruyt Group determine their own strategies and we help them achieve that plan in a logical sequence. And in such a way that all the 'connections' work effectively too."

Wouter : "The same is true for IT systems. We make sure that those business choices are feasible on the IT side of things. If we didn't do that, we would be building castles in the air, which in practice is unfeasible or very expensive. There are a great many IT systems within the Colruyt Group. It's important that they can all keep communicating with each other and that everything is complementary. That's why an enterprise business architect always works together with an enterprise IT architect, each approaching things from their own perspective."

“Technology involves serious investments. It's therefore essential to consider options rationally.”

Wouter

Marc : "Obviously you don't need an architect for every decision you take about your house. As soon as you know where the supporting walls are and where the windows and doors will be placed, you can choose your kitchen yourself. You don't need an architect for that. You only need them for new build and structural work. That goes for the Colruyt Group too."

Can you be more specific?

Marc : "Bringing goods round to distribution centres. Is that so different at Colruyt compared to Retail Partners or Bio-Planet? No. There are a great many similarities. So we choose to provide the support processes and systems just once, rather than separately for each business. So they all work in the same, standardised way. Naturally, that is not connected to organisation decisions: everyone maintains their own distribution centres and their own people.”

Wouter : "It's exactly the same on the IT side of things. For some time now, we've been building logistics software which can support every business but at the same time can deal with variations. Each operating unit can configure that platform to suit their own activities. The advantage is that we only have to invest once in good logistics software which is also better than the one the competition is using."

“We believe we can achieve much more with the Colruyt Group by working together.”

Marc

So why does the Colruyt Group have to be involved in that?

Marc : "We choose to make a family of companies with the Colruyt Group. We believe we can achieve much more by working together. That we can create synergy. With all the consequences of that: as a group, we have to organise things around that. We have to determine the direction we want to go in, which things we will do together, and which things we will do apart. And that's where the enterprise architect comes into the picture. An architect helps the business to make those decisions by laying out all the possible scenarios. Always with the advantages, disadvantages and long-term consequences. But the businesses themselves make the final decisions. We structure, help decide and document."

Wouter : "Our architects think about things about which others think far less. What exactly do we want to make easier with IT and what don't we? Technology involves serious investments. It's therefore essential to consider options rationally. We consciously focus on two matters. One: for how long does that piece of technology have to function. And two: how distinctive do we want to be in that? That gives us a general direction: do we build the technology ourselves, buy an existing system or go for co-creation with a partner? Our platforms for logistics and price are unique and give us an advantage over our competition. But we don't need to distinguish ourselves with the IT in book-keeping, for example. So we choose existing software."

Are there any other advantages apart from cost efficiency?

Marc : "I'm absolutely convinced that the Colruyt Group will look very different in the future. Retail changes at such a rapid pace. And that pace is only increasing. In all functionalities, processes and systems that we build, we take the future into consideration. You can compare it to a big box of building blocks. There are multifunctional blocks in there such as 'Product information', 'HR' or 'Supply chain'. You can take any block out of the box and combine it with other blocks to make a new tower. So it's relatively easy to build new businesses with them. For example, we've bought Fiets! All our existing processes and systems for HR, bookkeeping and infrastructure can actually all be applied to Fiets! And that goes for other new companies we start up or acquire in the future. That way, we keep the Colruyt Group flexible and future-proof.

Is the vision of the Colruyt Group on Enterprise Architecture unique compared to the others?

Wouter : "You'll find part of our vision on architecture present in the market, in particular at companies working in fusions or acquisitions. Because if you merge two companies, you have to look for points of synergy. But I think we are unique in the way we apply it, with the business in the driving seat. You rarely find vacancies at other companies for our exact job. And that's the reason we set up Myreas. And the fact that Jef is so involved is also special. Other companies have a staff position of Chief Enterprise Architect. That position is filled at the Colruyt Group by Jef Colruyt. Everyone is jealous of that. And so they should be", he laughs.