Situation
Corem is a property group that focuses on warehousing and logistic centres. Previously, Corem had around 60 employees and properties only in Sweden. After merging with Klövern AB in June 2021, Corem’s portfolio of properties grew to include a substantial number of offices and other commercial properties in both Sweden, Denmark and New York, while the number of employees grew to around 350. As part of the merger, a new management team was formed with a 50/50 split between Corem and Klövern, and a new CIO was onboarded – a role that hadn’t existed before the merger.
To set up the new organisation for success, the newly formed management team had to quickly address critical matters such as strategy, internal operations, change management and people management. At the same time, Corem had to evaluate the impact of the merger on various departments and identify opportunities for operational improvements and alignment of best practices. However, no joint management was assigned to coordinate these efforts, and each department was left to find its own solutions. This significantly affected how the IT and Digitalisation department could support the new organisation and its operations. It was therefore critical to establish common practices going forward to ensure consistency and efficiency.
Approach
The newly appointed CIO of Corem asked Valcon to assist in the digital transformation. Valcon began by identifying critical areas, including setting a strategy for digitalisation and financing. By the end of 2021, Valcon delivered a digitalisation strategy for 2022, an IT financing steering model and a requirement model to manage expectations and business needs. With the foundation in place, Valcon collaborated with Corem to establish a tactical digitalisation board of business representatives to identify new needs. Valcon also supported Corem in setting a suitable agenda and providing staff and project management.
One such project included setting up a data warehouse, structuring data accordingly and developing an internal portal for viewing company data to gain insights. The portal would be accessible to all internal staff, and further analysis would be supported in Power BI for selected individuals. Taking over the role as project manager, Valcon helped Corem adapt the scope and successfully launch an MVP in the summer of 2022. Valcon continues to develop the project further, ensuring alignment with the overall company merge progress and functionality and data requirements.
In addition, Valcon continues to provide services such as project management of CRM system procurement and implementation, BI development and UX design and development of low-code applications for on- and offboarding employees and consultants. Valcon also provides general advisory around IT and digitalisation strategy, information architecture and operational execution, where several recommended actions are now being undertaken with Valcon’s assistance.
Results
All activities are still ongoing, and a programme/project plan for all development activities is continuously updated along with an overall roadmap that helps Corem transform how IT and digitalisation both support and develop business operations.
The digital transformation has so far been a success thanks to Valcon’s high involvement of the business and management team, agile approach to change management and ability to swiftly adapt the focus as the merger progressed.
