Project One supports energy group with transformation to S/4HANA
When an energy group decided to transform its ERP system to SAP S/4HANA, it commenced a four-year programme with a budget of around £150 million. Working together with delivery partner Project One, the complex project was delivered on time and within budget.
SAP S/4HANA is an enterprise resource planning software for large enterprises developed by SAP. Its potential benefits led a leading energy group to decide S/4HANA was the right ERP for the firm – prompting a multi-million pound migration.
As with any ERP transformation, the transition to SAP S/4HANA is notoriously complex. In the case of the energy group, the move would have major impacts on business processes for a user base of 8,000 across supply chain, stores, project systems, payroll, asset management and accounting.
To make matters more challenging, the organisation was struggling to get a high-quality system integration team, and lacked the requisite skills and capacity in house. This led to challenges in cross platform data consistency and quality, insufficient business engagement and ownership.
That’s when Project One was commissioned by the CFO to undertake an independent assurance review of the programme and make recommendations to improve the organisation and ways of working.
Project One
There are many, many variations on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions. Independent consultancy Project One has extensive experience helping their clients get to grips with a wide range of them. While the firm has no ties or alliances to specific vendors, a number of its largest clients are aligned to the SAP world, meaning the firm has gained significant experience and insight from programmes implementing the new S/4HANA system.
Following the review, Project One supported a 10-week reset process working closely with the internal team and other external advisors. With the programme stabilised and reset, the firm provided a small team of senior change consultants to undertake key roles including the IT programme director and business change lead roles for the second release, which covered core finance and project systems capability and the critical move for the rest of the company onto the S/4HANA platform.
As the programme developed, Project One also provided additional support in other areas including user acceptance testing and the design and planning work for the final release comprising enhanced project systems and reporting capability. This support provided the client with an injection of external expertise around major ERP programmes, specifically SAP S/4HANA, and senior level change and transformation experience to supplement their internal team and ensure successful programme delivery.
Thanks to the work of Project One, the client achieved a successful transfer, with minimal business disruption owing to effective planning around a lengthy outage period. The project even held closely to revised programme budget and timelines, despite the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Reflecting on the results, Project One stated, “We made up around 2% of the programme cost and exerted significant leverage on the rest of the customer’s investment to secure success. Project One had the process and content skills to know how an undertaking such at this should be delivered, and how long it should take. Our consultants brought the expertise and gravitas to fulfil the leadership roles and to effectively manage teams and work packages.”
“And as trusted advisors, Project One deployed on the customer side to enable and assure the work of the delivery partners.”
The move to SAP S/4HANA
Eight years after the launch of SAP S/4HANA, over 90% of the companies using SAP have started their transformation to the cutting-edge platform, according to recent international research.
Completing the move will become increasingly important in the years ahead – in 2027, SAP will cease support for its legacy ERP systems (ECC and R3).
