Client Case Study · Digital Transformation in Retail

Gap Analysis, Process Mapping and System Implementation: How IMA Consulting Drove Digital Transformation at Staples Canada

When Staples Canada decided to modernize its merchandising technology, it needed more than new software. It needed a partner who could run a rigorous gap analysis, map every process end to end, translate the findings into clear requirements, and see the system implementation through to adoption. That is exactly the digital transformation work IMA Consulting delivered.

The Challenge: A Merchandising Process Ready for Digital Transformation

Merchandising is where a retailer either wins or loses the shelf. Staples Canada was running its space planning and category management on legacy software that no longer kept pace with the business. Planograms were slow to build and change, template options were limited, and the data stores needed to execute a reset was scattered across disconnected systems. Leadership knew the fix was not a single tool swap but a broader digital transformation, and that any successful system implementation had to start with an honest gap analysis of how work actually happened.

The friction showed up everywhere in daily operations:

• Manual, error prone signage. Space planners generated text files by hand to produce shelf tags, and promotional or demo signage frequently fell through the cracks, leading to missing tags, price overrides, and confusion at the shelf.
• Replenishment disconnected from planograms. With no link between the planogram and replenishment settings, merchants adjusted flags store by store. Products sometimes shipped to the wrong number of stores, or arrived where they were never assorted.
• Limited store level accuracy. Planograms were clustered by region and sell through rather than true store demographics, and minimum presentation quantities had to be corrected by hand.
• Fragmented, swivel chair execution. Store teams jumped between multiple tools to view planograms, check shipments, and report reset status, adding time and risk to every reset.

Our Approach: Gap Analysis and Process Mapping First

IMA Consulting treats every engagement as a matter of trust. Before recommending change, we make sure we understand the client’s world better than anyone. Companies invest heavily in tools that should not only solve today’s problems but open tomorrow’s opportunities, so getting the foundation right through disciplined business analysis matters.

Becoming experts on the process, fast

We embedded with Staples’ teams to learn the current merchandising process from end to end, from building and loading planograms to publishing them and reporting reset status back from stores. Because a process this size touches many hands, we took stakeholder interviews seriously, sitting down with merchants, space planners, category managers, supply chain leads, and store operations to capture how the work truly flows.

Process mapping that everyone can see

We documented the workflow using a SIPOC model and built a visual process map so every stakeholder could see the current state flow in one place. Process mapping did two things at once. It created shared understanding across departments, and it surfaced the exact gaps and improvement opportunities that would shape the project.

Gap analysis that turns findings into requirements

From that gap analysis we authored a detailed statement of work and business requirements set, more than three dozen concrete capabilities the new platform had to deliver. They spanned planogram creation, fixture libraries, product and performance data, validation, lifecycle management, publishing, and reporting. Every requirement traced back to a real pain point we observed in the field, which is what keeps a system implementation grounded in outcomes rather than features.

The Solution: A System Implementation Built on the Requirements

With the requirements locked, IMA guided the system implementation of Blue Yonder’s space planning platform and the process changes around it, then validated the build through user acceptance testing and hands on training. Key capabilities delivered included:

• Faster planogram creation with reusable templates that space planners simply did not have in the old software, letting teams make changes far more quickly than before.
• A managed planogram lifecycle covering build, merchandise, validate, finalize, publish, and monitor, with the ability to run multiple releases and store or chain specific versions.
• Better store execution through web based planogram access, 3D views, bilingual English and French planogram PDFs, and cleaner reset status reporting from stores back to headquarters.
• Tighter data integration, including planogram data feeding shelf tag creation, so marketing and signage materials that once got lost or neglected were tracked and displayed correctly in store.

A second implementation extended the platform to end of lifecycle products, giving category teams a structured way to review aging inventory and submit it for clearance pricing, effectively acting as a category manager focused on reducing inventory while protecting margin.

The Results: Digital Transformation That Reached the Shelf

The engagement moved Staples Canada from a manual, fragmented merchandising process to an industry standard platform with the process discipline to match. Space planners could build and change planograms faster than ever, on templates previously unavailable to them. Marketing and signage materials that used to slip through the cracks were now tracked and consistently presented on the shelf. By pairing a modern system implementation with rigorous process mapping and gap analysis, Staples raised merchandising standards across its store network in Canada. That is what real digital transformation looks like: better tools, a clearer process, and people ready to use both.

Companies spend a large amount of money on tools that not only solve problems but also create new opportunities. Our job was to make sure Staples got both.

Why It Worked

Software rarely fails on features alone. It fails when the process and the people around it are not ready. IMA’s value was in the groundwork: running a thorough gap analysis, mapping the process so everyone could see it, translating gaps into precise requirements, and staying through testing, training, and rollout. That end to end ownership is how a system implementation becomes a genuine business transformation rather than an expensive tool.

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