Introduction

French sports goods retailer Decathlon S.A. It is the biggest athletic goods retailer in the
world, with more than 1500 outlets spread over 49 countries. Michel Leclercq established
Decathlon in 1976 with a shop in Lille, France. After ten years, it began to spread
internationally, first to Germany in 1986, then to Spain in 1992, Italy in 1998, Portugal, the
United Kingdom in 1999, China in 2003, India in 2009, Hong Kong in 2013, Malaysia in
2016 and Southeast Asia in 2012, South Africa in 2017, the Philippines in 2018, Australia in
2019, and then to Germany, Spain, Italy, and Germany in 1986. More than 87,000 employees
from 80 different nationalities work for the organization’s merchant typically maintains a
huge superstore with an average square footage of 4,000m2 that offers a variety of athletic
products, from tennis rackets to sophisticated scuba diving equipment. Additionally, the
Decathlon Group owns over 20 brands and has research and development centers throughout
France to create the most cutting-edge designs, filing up to 40 patents annually. Each brand
has a specific product development and design team that is focused on representing a certain
sport or range of sports. Due to its popularity, independent merchants in France have
considerably decreased, and conventional manufacturers have faced significant challenges
because of the proliferation of its own brands.

The issue/problem in the case study.

We can observe from this case study that the primary problems from the decathlon to deal with are
Decathlon's cybersecurity strategy focuses mostly on centralization and automation. The business
required its infrastructure to share and integrate internal data security. In a quick-paced commercial
climate, it also required to develop international security standards and swiftly put them into practice.
"Innovation is a key emphasis for Decathlon. According to Decathlon's security manager, Matthieu
Vanoost, "We aim to become the leading sports goods platform; therefore, the digital part of the
business has to be creative and stay up with technological advancements.

Decathlon wanted to make sure that its retail locations employed the same cybersecurity precautions
as the rest of the business as it expanded digitally. To safeguard all applications and other assets and
guarantee compliance with national and international cybersecurity requirements, it was also
necessary to develop strong governance.
Data security is the practice of preventing digital data from being accessed by unauthorized parties,
being corrupted, or being stolen at any point in its lifespan. It is a notion that covers all facets of
information security, including administrative and access controls, logical security of software
programmer, and physical security of hardware and storage devices. Organizational policies and
procedures are also included.

Describe the solution provided and the characteristic of the technology approach for the
solution.

The innovative technology of Trend pleased the Decathlon crew. Additionally, Trend demonstrated its
versatility as a partner by becoming the first company on the market to provide extended detection
and response (XDR) across email, network, server, and cloud workloads. "Trend provides us with
complete security coverage, including email, endpoints, and the cloud. Few businesses can support us
across all those aspects, according to Matthieu.

Trend was a helpful partner that worked with Matthieu and his group to jointly identify issues and
come up with solutions. Trend was open to criticism and integrated it into new product releases,
rollouts, and debuts. "The personal touch, which is crucial if you want to form a connection, is what
sets me apart from the competition, in my opinion. According to Matthieu, "Human worth is more
significant than commercial value.

By looking at the issue directly, we can see that Decathlon has been able to pursue its digital strategy
confidently and actively thanks to Trend's solutions. Trend Micro Apex One as a Service, Trend
Micro Cloud App Security, Trend Cloud One Workload Security, and Trend Micro XDR were all
implemented by Decathlon.

Trend's solutions provide Decathlon a consistent picture of risk throughout the organization, enabling
the business to better plan for managing possible risks, and cost flexibility. "There is no danger with
Trend's pricing strategy, which is fantastic. Decathlon pay more as you go as we utilize the cloud
more. They will have to pay less if adoption falls. When compared to earlier pricing methods, this
flexibility enables us to grow and shrink as necessary, saving us a lot of money, adds Matthieu.

Explain the benefits of IT-business alignment to the firm.

Access to a variety of tools, technologies, and services to support employee collaboration,

communication, and productivity is one of Decathlon's IT advantages. This provides access to
enterprise-level business software, secure file sharing, cloud storage, and more. To make sure staff
members are knowledgeable about the most recent technology and competent users of the resources at
their disposal, it also involves training and assistance. Finally, as part of Decathlon's IT perks, staff
members have access to a variety of IT support services to assist them in resolving any issues or
difficulties they may run into.

Conclusion

A Decathlon Company investigation concluded that the business has a significant market presence
and is expanding. Many customers find it to be an appealing alternative because of the large variety of
goods and services it offers that meet different demands. Over the years, it has consistently increased
revenue and earnings while successfully extending its reach and market share. Decathlon's
competitive advantages, including its strong emphasis on innovation and concentration on customer
service, have allowed company to maintain its competitiveness in the worldwide market.