Hess Natur-Textilien GmbH

Developing a new, future-oriented IT strategy using design thinking

About hessnatur

hessnatur is (worldwide) a pioneer for ecological and social standards in textile production. The company, founded in 1976 by Heinz and Dorothea Hess, launched the first natural baby collection and developed the first organic cotton production in 1991 in a global pioneering effort.

Today, hessnatur, with around 340 employees, operates stores in German cities like Butzbach, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Munich, in addition to their online shop and catalogue service. Europe's leading supplier of sustainable textiles offers women's and men's fashion, outdoor clothing, home textiles, and baby and children's items.

CLIENT	Hess Natur-Textilien GmbH
INDUSTRY	Fashion
FOCUS	IT Strategy Consultation; Further Store Development
Project Period	November 2018 to Present
SYSTEM	SAP Commerce

Initial Situation & Goals

hessnatur initially approached dotSource wanting to develop an IT strategy. In order to gain a comprehensive overview of the current situation, dotSource together with hessnatur, visualised the landscape of all existing systems in two IT strategy workshops with the help of methods such as Territory Mapping and Lego technology and then analysed which product, data, customer, and e-commerce processes in the company exist and in which places the different systems mingle.

In addition to the ongoing development of the existing SAP Commerce-based online store, dotSource is also supporting hessnatur with transfering existing systems into a cloud environment. By switching to a cloud solution, hessnatur intends to standardise its internal processes as well as increase its flexibility, as extensions in the cloud can be implemented much faster.

hessnatur strives to make its own user approach even more targeted and to ensure a consistent brand presence across all channels. The company uses diverse functions from SAP Commerce.

Design Thinking for an Innovative IT Strategy – dotSource Created a Digital Roadmap for hessnatur

Based on a structured process model, the IT strategy was developed, which resulted in a goal sheet and a digital roadmap. Thanks to creative workshop methods and the intense involvement of all those involved in the process, internal cooperation at hessnatur improved significantly.

As a result, all project participants now have clarity about responsibilities and system requirements. In addition, workshops with dotSource not only analysed today's and tomorrow's digital customer touchpoints and addressed the painpoints of various internal specialist departments, but also identified specific tasks and project successes that were easy and quick to achieve.

hessnatur now has a detailed model of its system landscape, which forms the basis for all further decisions. Building on this, hessnatur will take the next steps to enable its customers to have a personalised shopping experience and to retain their brand for the long term. In addition, important criteria for future system evaluations were identified, enabling hessnatur to pave the way for the next steps in its digital roadmap.