T2 and Annexa partnership offers lessons on long-term transformation

As organisations rush to apply AI, they risk overlooking the need to get the right foundations in place.

A decade ago, T2 partnered with Annexa to transform its enterprise architecture to support its omnichannel expansion and simplify its tech platform.

In that time, the specialty tea business has migrated from a bespoke system to Microsoft Dynamics and re-platformed its e-commerce from Salesforce Commerce Cloud to Shopify Plus, with Annexa supporting integration and testing on the NetSuite side. Subscriptions, a long-standing customer request, launched on Shopify shortly after migration.

“[NetSuite] sits as the stable base for us, with tweaks here and there. After more than a decade of bold, strategic moves, that stability is the point,” said Clinton Rice, head of IT, T2.

Annexa has worked through the timing and structure of integrations between the distribution centre, the point of sale and NetSuite to lift stock data quality, particularly through peak periods such as Christmas.

Rice describes the target experience as "order anywhere, pick up anywhere, ship to anywhere," with endless aisle, click and collect and ship-from-store all sitting on a single, trustworthy inventory record.

Annexa has also automated reconciliation across T2's multiple bank feeds and payment gateways, an environment that spans PayPal, credit cards, gift cards, Alipay and other methods used across web and marketplace channels.

The reconciliation work runs on an Annexa-built app. Where once this process used to consume around five days of effort every week, the ongoing evolution of the solution has reduced it to a matter of minutes.

Lessons from a long-term collaboration

The decade-long partnership has provided continuity as technology has changed and the T2 business has grown and expanded. That institutional memory is a valuable asset to support T2.

"They hold a lot of IP with our systems and they have a lot of knowledge of what we do and how we do it," Rice said.

Looking ahead, the team plans to expand the use of native automation and ongoing integration work as the stack consolidates. They’re also considering new planning solutions for budgeting and account reconciliation.

The lesson for other organisations is the importance of getting the fundamentals right, particularly as the demand for AI and governance are moving quickly.

“What T2 shows is how strong the foundation becomes when a business runs on a stable cloud ERP core for that long, each piece of work building on the last,” said Ananda Iyer, head of customer success, Annexa.

However, the fear of missing out is leading organisations to apply AI wherever they can, with mixed results.

“It is easy to look at a ten-year partnership like T2's and assume a transformation on this scale takes a decade. It does not,” he said.

"What T2 shows is how strong the foundation becomes when a business runs on a stable cloud ERP core for that long, each piece of work building on the last,” he added.

The advice is to focus on one or two big projects where the value is highest to get some results and then build on that.

“The effect then spreads out into the rest of the business and it becomes less effortful as people start to see the results for themselves and enjoy the work more,” he said.