Great synergy at carve out Eye Wish

A very important deadline was recently celebrated at Eye Wish. Eye Wish, one of the optical giants in the Netherlands and Belgium, was recently acquired by the Austrian company MPG. Fortunately, this has not affected glasses wearers. Behind the scenes, however, a huge transition has taken place in recent months.

Colleague Maarten van der Linden was able to contribute to this project. He was involved in one of the more than 35 projects set up to separate Eye Wish Opticians from its previous owner, Grandvision. Last May, he joined Frank Frerichs as project manager for the POS (Point of Sale) project.

This team took on the responsibility of implementing a completely new POS system in more than 180 stores in the Netherlands and Belgium. Anyone who has ever been to an optician has probably experienced the many unique variables at play in this market. Customers order (sun)glasses (or contact lenses) with highly personalized specifications, from a vast and rapidly changing selection of frames.

There was a very specific deadline from day one: Eye Wish had to be fully independent by October 1, 2023. This resulted in an even tighter deadline for the POS project: all stores had to be migrated to the new POS system before the summer holidays.

Maarten: "I have never experienced anything like this. Eye Wish is such a fantastic company. The culture that has been in place over the past year has been, for me, the epitome of synergy. The focus was so strong that something truly great was achieved in an impossible time. When in your life do you experience this?"

The more than 35 projects were, of course, extremely intertwined. A practical example, according to Maarten: "The POS system we were working on had to be connected to a completely new supply chain with a new supplier and distribution partner."

Program management was therefore extremely important in this regard. Weekly reports were submitted to each other, ensuring everyone was kept meticulously informed and could respond promptly to influencing factors. Communication within this chain was clear. "Peter Sinnige was the perfect person for this. A fantastic program manager who knows how to challenge people in the right way," says Maarten.

People make the difference

"The team was exceptionally strong. Take Cees Stahlie, for example, a source of knowledge with a very clear vision, but my Agerion colleague Coen van den Berg also managed all the integrations of interfacing between Ocuco and all third parties exceptionally well.

In a short time, people are flying towards an unwavering end goal." The fact that we have achieved this together means we no longer believe anyone when something is called "impossible." With the right people on an IT project, we can move mountains. And quickly, too.