Dealing with disparate information systems is the bane of every project manager’s existence. How can you create reports on time or see the big picture when you have to pull data from one system and manually compare it to another? You’re at a distinct disadvantage when you don’t have the insights you need.
Such was the case for SAB Holding, a conglomerate headquartered in Saudi Arabia. The company found its construction subsidiary struggling to get a clear view of materials on hand, procurement, planning and scheduling, as well as process and project documentation. Short of having someone on hand to take notes, there was no good way to keep close tabs on a project.
For example, the company carried more inventory than it needed to, which was inefficient.
A new technology platform
SAB Holding needed a streamlined way to conduct business so its projects could run more profitably. Leaders investigated a new technology platform to handle the company’s rapid growth and enable it to take on more projects. SAB Holding chose SAP S/4HANA because it’s a modern, high-performance technology solution that can scale to fit its needs going forward.
SAB Holding’s executives decided on a cloud deployment because they didn’t want to invest in or think about managing a data center or try to keep up with technology changes. The company looked at several providers and ultimately selected IBM Cloud for SAP Applications, a fully managed, highly secure platform. IBM has global data center coverage and SLA for SAP application availability.
SAB execs chose to use IBM Cloud Managed Services so it would have access to IBM Cloud specialists who could help accelerate time to market and deliver around-the-clock support. SAB Holding leaders would not need to concern themselves with the associated systems administration and maintenance.
Getting started
With a large project pending, the initial ERP environment consisting of several mission-critical SAP S/4HANA applications was set up in just seven days.
TechnoWireless, the SAB Holding IT subsidiary tasked with guiding the project, worked with support from IBM to migrate existing data and implement the new solution. The team deployed multiple SAP  S/4HANA databases for development, quality and production to the IBM Cloud, which supported 15 users to start. Eventually the solution will support 200 users and SAB Holding expects its data to grow by 5 percent per month.
Now project managers can view timely reports from an integrated system that comprises finance, supply chain management, project system and enterprise content management information.
Next steps
Since the construction industry demonstrated early success with the new SAP HANA on IBM Cloud solution, other SAB Holding companies will follow, including two subsidiaries in Dubai and three in Saudi Arabia.
Additionally, SAB Holding formed The Innovation IT Company to take the end-to-end SAP and IBM solution to market as a commercial offering to help other organizations become more efficient. SAB Holdings will begin with the construction industry and move on to other sectors.
With SAP S/4HANA on IBM Cloud, SAB Holding has become smarter, leaner and more efficient, all while creating another revenue stream for its own business.
Read the case study for more details.
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Quelle: Thoughts on Cloud