Homeware retailer vidaXL signs three-year Google Cloud deal to enable SAP systems migration

Netherlands-based online homeware retailer vidaXL has signed a three-year deal with Google Cloud that will see it move part of the underlying infrastructure of its core SAP workloads off-premise.

VidaXL, which is active in 29 countries, said the Google Cloud migration is geared towards shoring up its SAP infrastructure, as it sets about becoming a more data-led organisation. “The brand’s goal is to build new tools, capabilities and an organised culture that acts on data – particularly from its SAP systems that include transactions, customer behaviour, supply chain information and more,” said the company, in a statement.

To achieve this, vidaXL said it will use its newly forged relationship with Google Cloud to tap into the tech giant’s portfolio of cloud infrastructure, data management and analytics tools to provide its customers with more personalised shopping experiences.

It also plans to use the insights gleaned from its customer data to decide which new product lines to bring to market, while also weighing up which parts of the world to launch in next.

Making theses sorts of decisions requires being able to manage SAP datasets at scale, which typically contain large and disparate sets of data, so vidaXL plans to make use of Google Cloud’s serverless data warehouse tool BigQuery to make the management of this data easier, the company statement confirmed.

Ted van Dongen, CIO of vidaXL, described the appointment of Google Cloud as its chosen supplier for this project as a “logical and valuable” IT decision.

“VidaXL is growing at pace, and our customers are at the heart of everything we do,” he said. “By investing in an open cloud infrastructure, we can scale and keep up with our customer needs. And speed is exactly what it’s all about: we’re not just growing, we’re growing very fast. And with Google Cloud, we can facilitate that now.”

Joris Schoonis, country manager of Google Cloud in Benelux, said bringing vidaXL’s business-critical systems into the cloud would provide the firm with a “data-driven foundation” for future growth.

“Brands like vidaXL possess vast quantities of data, often in SAP systems, which can be leveraged for better insights into customer behaviour and market trends,” said Schoonis.

The customer win is the latest in a long line of retail clients Google Cloud has signed up to use its public cloud platform in recent years, with Computer Weekly previously covering the work the firm is doing with fashion retailer AllSaints, fellow furniture retailer DFS and anti-food waste app provider Karma.