Brand integrations and SAP evolutions
L'Oréal USA · SAP SD and FI Team Lead
After the SalonCentric rollout, led the SAP SD team, and later SAP FI as well, through the integration of the brands L'Oréal USA kept acquiring and the deployment of group projects into the US subsidiary.
- Client / organization
- L'Oréal USA
- Consulting firm
- VISEO USA
- Role
- SAP SD and FI Team Lead
- Period
- Aug 2013 - May 2017
- Duration
- 46 months
- Location
- Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, USA
- Work mode
- On site at the client
- Team
- SD and FI developers, on site and offshore
Business context
Once SalonCentric was live, L'Oréal USA kept buying brands that had to move onto its SAP system: SkinCeuticals, NYX, Baxter of California, Carol's Daughter, Clarisonic, The Body Shop and Urban Decay. Each integration was a phase of its own, with its sales flows, pricing, invoicing and reporting. Projects designed in France for the group core system were also deployed locally in the US subsidiary. This work ran in parallel with the FOX applications support, BW maintenance, the HANA sidecar and the 2015 SAP upgrade.
Key contributions
- Led the SAP SD development team through one integration phase per acquired brand, so each brand ran on the existing L'Oréal USA SAP system.
- Took over the SAP FI team as well, owning the chain from the sales order to the finance posting.
- Adapted customers, pricing, order types, invoices and reports to each brand's way of selling, inside the core model rather than beside it.
- Deployed group core-system projects designed in France into the US subsidiary, with the US-specific adjustments.
Responsibilities in detail
Team leadership
- Prepared quotations, workload estimates and delivery schedules for each phase.
- Recruited subcontractors; managed and signed off timesheets; tracked tasks and deliveries.
- Supported steering committees and followed up each go-live.
Analysis & design
- Analyzed each brand's business requirements and wrote technical specifications.
- Assessed the impact of group core-system changes on the US subsidiary.
Development
- ABAP development on SD and FI: sales orders, pricing, invoicing, reports, interfaces and IDocs.
- Added new brands and categories to the sales and allocation reports.
- Followed up SAP performance recommendations on the production system.
Testing & support
- Unit tests and integration testing support for each phase.
- Go-live support and production fixes after each integration.
How an integration worked
Each acquired brand arrived with its own customers, prices, order types, invoices and the reports its business used. Rather than run it on the side, my team mapped those onto the L'Oréal USA model in SAP: SD flows and custom programs were adapted, finance postings followed once I also led the FI team, and the brand's reporting was added to the existing sales and allocation reports. Each phase ended with integration tests, a go-live and a period of production fixes before the next brand started.