CDS Replatforming

Cutover Strategy & Phased Execution Plan

The Strategic Approach: A Phased Ramp-Down

A temporary and controlled ramp-down of operations is a standard industry best-practice for large-scale platform migrations. The objective is to mitigate risks to data, finance, and customer experience during the final cutover.

💣Risks of No Ramp-Down

  • Data & Order Loss: Last-minute transactions may not migrate, resulting in unfulfilled orders.
  • Financial Discrepancies: Unreconciled payments require significant post-launch manual effort.
  • Marketplace Sync Failure: Partner products and orders will be out of sync, impacting sales.

🛡️Benefits of the Ramp-Down Plan

  • ✔️
    Data Integrity: Creates a stable data set for a complete and verifiable migration.
  • ✔️
    Seamless Order Fulfillment: Confirms all legacy system orders are processed before the cutover.
  • ✔️
    Stable Launch Environment: Provides a clean and predictable starting point for the new platform.

Contingency Analysis for a No Ramp-Down Scenario

Proceeding without an operational pause necessitates the following reactive, high-effort mitigation plans, which will still result in a negative impact to customers and internal teams.

Impact Mitigation Plan (High-Effort & Reactive)
Payment settlement error. The finance team must perform a manual payment settlement of all transactions, risking delays in financial closing.
"Stuck" & Lost In-flight Orders. Operations team must manually reconcile and adjust every orders from old platform in the new system. CS team must manually call customers to manage fulfillment.
Marketplace Sync Failure. No immediate mitigation is available from tech team. Sellers must re-sync the missing products manually.

The Phased Cutover Plan (Go-Live: Sep 15, 2025)

Phase 1

Ramp-Down

D-28 (Aug 18)

Final Production Data Migration

Initial bulk migration of MDC Customer & Order data.

D-21 (Aug 25)

Disable Click & Collect

Ensures all existing pickup orders are fulfilled.

D-14 (Sep 1)

Production Delta Data Migration

Migrates Customer & Order data changes from the last 14 days.

D-14 (Sep 1)

Freeze Marketplace Product Uploads

Prevents catalog sync errors during migration.

D-5 (Sep 10)

Disable Standard Home Delivery

Centralizes final store fulfillment to main warehouse.

D-3 (Sep 12)

Disable Marketplace Orders

Finalizes partner orders before data freeze.

D-2 (Sep 13)

Disable Manual Payments

Includes Bank Transfer & COD for reconciliation.

Phase 2

D-Day Cutover (Sep 14-15)

Sep 14, 19:00

Maintenance Page Up

Freeze period begins. Legacy site is offline.

Sep 15, 00:00 - 07:00

Final Delta Data Migration

Final sync of delta data from MDC and verification.

07:00 - 08:30

Final Smoke Testing

QA and Business test critical user journeys.

08:30 - 09:00

Final Go/No-Go Decision

Steering committee gives final approval.

09:00 - 10:00

DNS Switch & Traffic Redirect

Public traffic is pointed to new platform.

10:00

GO LIVE 🎉

New platform begins accepting traffic.

Phase 3

Ramp-Up (Sep 15+)

Post-Launch

Enable Standard Delivery

Core fulfillment capability is restored.

Post-Launch

Enable Click & Collect

A key customer convenience is returned.

Post-Launch

Enable All Payment Methods

All payment options are restored.

Post-Launch

Enable Marketplace Sync

Partner ecosystem is fully re-engaged.

Post-Launch

Begin Post-Launch Monitoring

Hypercare support team begins work.