RISE with SAP in under three months
With bubbling speed into the cloud
The European mineral water company Spadel is one of the market leaders in the Benelux countries and is continuously driving its growth. This also changes the requirements for the company’s IT infrastructure. Spadel decided to move its ERP system from its own data center to the private cloud with RISE with SAP. The goal: easier scaling and 24/7 availability.
The Challenge
Due to Spadel’s now five production sites, the IT infrastructure is highly diversified. Over the years, numerous third-party applications have been connected to the ERP system. Preparing the system for the move to the cloud was correspondingly complex due to the configuration of the many interfaces and required special expertise.
However, Spadel faced not only technical challenges. The migration was to be carried out on a tight schedule. Within the first quarter of 2024, all preparatory work from analysis to optimization to testing had to be completed, otherwise double license fees would have been incurred for both the on-premise and cloud versions of SAP S/4HANA.
We were aware of the quality of consolut. However, the speed with which the project team completed the transition was fascinating. We are more than satisfied with the project process.
The solution
Spadel chose consolut as one of the partners for the migration. One reason: our experience with the complexity of international base projects and the willingness to implement the migration in a short time.
The project team first gained an overview of the entire SAP infrastructure and explored optimization potentials: Which old data is no longer needed? Can individual processes be aligned with the SAP standard in advance to simplify the migration? In an iterative process and weekly consultations with Spadel, the team thoroughly cleaned up the system and made necessary preparations, such as implementing various SAP notes and significantly changing the sizing of the SAP spool instance.
One challenge of the system change: SAP S/4HANA is based on a HANA database that runs on Linux. Application servers in RISE also run on Linux; however, the on-premise system ran on Windows. All variants and accesses had to be converted from Windows drive letters to Linux path specifications. The consolut team prepared the system with its configurations for the Linux environment to avoid problems with the variants after the move. Interfaces, such as ADS connections, played a central role in this process. These determine whether cross-application processes such as data analysis, printing, and email communication function properly. Finally, the team moved the entire system to the cloud.
After various test runs, the go-live, and hypercare support, the project team handed over the project to Spadel in record time of less than twelve weeks. Afterwards, the customer continues to maintain the system in collaboration with consolut.
About the Company
© Spadel Group
Spadel is a family-run traditional company for mineral water and mineral water-based refreshing beverages and is one of the market leaders in its field in the Benelux countries. With around 1300 employees, the company produces over 900 million liters of mineral water in 2023 at its locations in Belgium, France, Netherlands, and Bulgaria. Spadel places particular emphasis on sustainability. The company is BCorp certified and has been repeatedly recognized for its sustainability measures.
The Result
After successfully transitioning to RISE with SAP, Spadel benefits from all the advantages of a cloud-based ERP. The internal workload and costs for ERP operations have been minimized. The IT team now has free capacity to drive strategic digitization projects, while SAP as a service ensures the availability and up-to-dateness of the ERP system.
With the move to the cloud, Spadel has primarily secured the future viability of its IT: New features can now be added at SAP without any installation effort. One could say: They receive innovation on demand. And since their own hardware has been decommissioned, the project also contributes to Spadel’s sustainability, which is one of the company’s core values.
Advantages
Cost reduction and labor savings in IT operations
Higher overall system stability
Easy access to the latest SAP ERP features
High data security through SAP Private Cloud
We had already supported Spadel in the past with the upgrade to SAP S/4HANA and were able to build on this good collaboration. As a well-coordinated team, we were able to efficiently make all arrangements and quickly bring the project to its goal using proven methodology.
Benefits
Easy scalability of IT resources supports growth trajectory
Improved innovation capability through RISE services
Free capacity in the IT team for strategic future projects
Contact
