case study
Not only is Migros Group Switzerland’s largest retail company, it’s also the country’s largest private employer with around 98,000 employees. Find out why this retail market leader switched to ecosio.
Results at a glance
Transparency and effortlessness
The IT team can concentrate on its core tasks instead of constantly problem-solving across different systems
Built to scale
Up to 20 million documents are exchanged every year, with the option to scale volumes upwards at any time
Resilience through outsourced mapping
By outsourcing its EDI mapping to ecosio, Migros made a business-critical area truly resilient
The claim "We love EDI" was decisive for me. Throughout the course of the project I noticed the passion for the work is always there. The team at ecosio is always very cooperative, efficient and professional.
Migros, Switzerland's largest retail company, has developed its own EDI systems for over 30 years and today connects between 800 and 900 partners, exchanging up to 20 million documents a year. After first outsourcing the routing of its X.400 connections to ecosio in 2017, Migros went on to outsource its EDI mapping as well from 2022, in order to make this business-critical area more resilient, transparent and scalable.
About Migros
Migros Group is Switzerland’s largest retail company and its largest private employer, with around 98,000 employees. Through its social commitment, Migros invests a total of 160 million Swiss francs in culture, education, leisure and development projects.
Industry
Automotive / vehicle equipment and mobility solutions
Head office
Zurich, Switzerland
ERP System
SAP®
Migros is absolutely dependent on the smooth exchange of data with all suppliers in order to consistently ensure the reliable supply of all markets. The volume is enormous. Up to 20 million documents are exchanged with external partners every year. “If there were a serious problem here, it would have a massive impact on the entire supply chain,” explains Daniel Schönmann.
The previous provider functioned largely as a “black box”, offering limited insight into message statuses, conversion steps, or error causes. At the same time, Sortimo had to manage increasingly complex country-specific e-invoicing requirements across multiple markets, including Italy and France. This created several challenges:
In 2017, Migros decided to outsource parts of its EDI infrastructure for the first time and selected ecosio as its provider of choice. The focus initially was the routing of all X.400 connections: from around 200 X.400 partner connections, a single consolidated AS2 connection to ecosio was created for the Migros cooperative. In this way, the communication was outsourced, but the mapping was still done by the in-house software, which coordinated different subsystems such as merchandise management and warehouse management. When Migros later decided to outsource the mapping as well, three factors in particular were decisive in selecting ecosio.
Good experience from the first project
The positive experience during the initial routing project spoke clearly in ecosio’s favour.
An overall concept suited to Migros' needs
ecosio’s overall concept was very well suited to Migros’ requirements.
Genuine passion for EDI
With the shortlisted providers technically very similar, it was ecosio’s passion for this complex topic – sensed both during the pitch and in the cooperation – that tipped the scales.
An intensive tender process followed, with six well-known companies from across Europe submitting their bids. As the shortlisted providers were technically very similar, it was ultimately ecosio’s passion for this complex topic – evident both in the pitch and in the cooperation so far – that tipped the scales in its favour.
When the cooperation began in 2022, reliability and scalability were particularly important for Migros: the company wanted an EDI service provider for whom mapping is the core business, while retaining the option to adjust volumes upwards at any time, as these may well increase in the coming years. Schönmann was pleasantly surprised by how smoothly the process ran – although decades of EDI experience had introduced many peculiarities that made certain conversions challenging, ecosio’s solution worked brilliantly right from the start, and it was important to his team that they had to make as few adjustments as possible on their side.
Although Schönmann initially had concerns about handing such a business-critical area as EDI to an external, cloud-based provider, these quickly disappeared once ecosio’s capabilities became clear. For a company that had developed everything in-house for decades, a make-or-buy decision is never easy – but cloud solutions have since proven themselves even for business-critical systems.
Cleaning up, removing legacy issues, reducing system heterogeneity. That’s where ecosio’s know-how was very helpful.
For Migros, the decisive benefits of working with ecosio are transparency and effortlessness – freeing up the IT team to focus on what matters most.
Transparency and effortlessness
Transparency and effortlessness were the decisive factors, helping IT to concentrate on its core tasks
A resilient, business-critical EDI setup
By outsourcing mapping as well, Migros made its EDI area truly resilient
Room to scale
Migros retains the option to scale document volumes upwards at any time, as they may well increase in the coming years
The decisive factors for us are transparency and effortlessness. This helps IT to concentrate on its core tasks. Rather than constantly having to problem solve across different systems, our IT team can now focus on creating innovative solutions to benefit the company in the future.
Rather than constantly having to problem-solve across different systems, Migros’ IT team can now focus on creating innovative solutions to benefit the company in the future.
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