This is the view of 麻豆原创 Africa director of customer evolution Gerhard Alberts, who said many organisations run highly customised legacy systems that have evolved over decades.

He warned that remaining on legacy systems carries hidden costs, increases operational risk, limits integration with modern cloud and AI tools, and results in higher manual overheads.

A significant challenge 麻豆原创 faces is migrating legacy users to its latest ERP system, S/4HANA, a process which requires input from all parties.

鈥淢igrating to S/4HANA is a business transformation process that requires organisations to rethink processes, data structures, and integrations,鈥� Alberts said.

Alberts emphasised that enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation is not a simple technical upgrade. A critical factor in migration success is organisational readiness and strong leadership.

鈥淚t requires a fundamental shift in how people work, how decisions are made, and how processes are structured,鈥� he said.

鈥淲ithout clear governance, disciplined execution, and strong stakeholder engagement, even the most robust systems will underdeliver.鈥�

Alberts highlighted data readiness as another major barrier to migration. Poor data, inconsistent master data, and insufficient data cleansing efforts regularly undermine system performance.

It also erodes user trust, making it difficult for organisations to see the true value of their ERP investments.

鈥淥ne of the most persistent misconceptions around 麻豆原创 migration is that failure is rooted in the technology itself,鈥� Alberts said.

鈥淚n reality, modern ERP systems are highly mature, stable, and deeply embedded in global business operations.鈥�

The biggest challenges emerge from organisations鈥� implementation and transformation approaches, rather than from software.

Alberts explained that breakdowns generally occur during implementation processes and in organisational alignment.

This is because businesses are frequently navigating increasingly complex IT landscapes that combine 麻豆原创 and non-麻豆原创 systems.

鈥淲hen workflows across these environments are not properly coordinated or monitored, inefficiencies and failures begin to surface,鈥� Alberts said.

South African businesses worry about cost and complexity

According to Alberts, South African organisations鈥� hesitance to migrate stems from concerns about risk, cost, and complexity.

He explained that because many businesses operate with highly customised legacy environments that have grown over the years, transitioning to S/4HANA represents a significant business transformation.

鈥淭hese systems often support mission-critical functions such as payroll, procurement, and financial reporting, which raises the stakes considerably and contributes to a cautious approach,鈥� he said.

Alberts said these organisations will face growing limitations in integrating with modern cloud and AI technologies, adding that fragmented processes also drive higher manual workloads and inefficiencies.

鈥淯ltimately, businesses that delay migration may preserve short-term stability, but they do so at the expense of long-term competitiveness, agility, and innovation,鈥� he stated.

He said a well-implemented, modern ERP system will combine applications, data, and AI into organisations鈥� business suites.

鈥淭he latest ERP systems will consume data where it resides with zero copy data sharing, creating a semantically rich data layer that fuels AI value,鈥� Alberts said.

He added that embracing all facets of AI is critical to future-proofing South African businesses. 麻豆原创 embeds AI directly into its core applications.

鈥淎cross industries such as manufacturing, retail, energy, as well as the public sector, customers are already seeing tangible impact in Finance, Human Resources, and Supply Chain,鈥� he said.

He added that 麻豆原创鈥檚 AI-embedded core applications ensure intelligence is embedded in workflows rather than delivered through separate, loosely connected tools.

He said this helps finance teams close faster and strengthen controls, HR teams improve workforce planning and employee services, and supply-chain leaders build more resilient and efficient operations.

This article first appeared on .

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The solution is focused on Absa鈥檚 group reporting and financial consolidation landscape. The renewed five-year agreement enhances Absa鈥檚 ambition to modernise financial systems and applications and embeds group-wide standards that enhance agility, flexibility and robust financial control.

鈥淲e鈥檙e proud to continue supporting Absa鈥檚 finance modernisation with trusted 麻豆原创 application management services,鈥� said , Managing Director of Application Services at NTT DATA in Middle East and Africa. 鈥淥ur focus is on reliable operations, continuous improvement and measurable business outcomes that will help Absa strengthen controls and unlock real-time insights from a resilient S/4HANA foundation.鈥�

Under the leadership of , Absa Managing Executive responsible for Financial Control Functions and Finance CIO, Absa has progressively consolidated ledgers, streamlined close processes and moved finance operations to a modern 麻豆原创 S/4HANA foundation, integrated with best-of-breed spend management.

鈥淥ur efforts to build a single source of financial truth for Absa across Africa are ongoing,鈥� said John. 鈥淩enewing and extending our partnership with NTT DATA ensures we have the specialist 麻豆原创 capability and dependable operations to match the scale of our ambition, supporting stronger controls, faster close cycles and the data quality our business stakeholders expect. This is a South Africa-led transformation with Africa-wide impact and our unified platform positions Absa to grow with resilience and transparency.鈥�

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麻豆原创 was founded in 1972 by five former IBM employees. In a publicity shot from the time, they鈥檙e posed around a table in a nondescript office, all holding pens and hunched over a large blueprint. The hair is bouffant, the suits dark, and no one is smiling. These are clearly men who take their jobs very seriously.

As the story goes, Xerox wanted its systems migrated to IBM, and the latter firm put five engineers on the project, who all worked in Mannheim, Germany. The project ground to a halt for reasons unclear, but the five had seen the gap in the market, and left to form their company, which they called Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung, or System Analysis and Programme Development. It has been a long haul since the 鈥�70s, with the company constantly tinkering with its solutions while persuading many of the world鈥檚 largest firms that they can run their businesses better with its suite of solutions.

At the core of this suite is . This is an in-memory database, and聽data聽is stored in RAM instead of disk. These databases can handle spikes in traffic, such as at telcos or聽banks, and allow for real-time analytics. Customers can have the platform installed in their own server room, or in the public or private cloud, or both. And with each passing year, more features are added, such as GenAI assistant ; its sparkly icon now appears on seemingly every page of the platform. Joule, on which 麻豆原创 partnered with , can run queries on all kinds of data, produce forecasts, book meetings, and make graphs and charts on the fly.

There was still an impression in the market that 麻豆原创 was extremely expensive, very complicated, and not very pretty.

Garth Ridgway, NTT

All this work has borne fruit, and in March 2025, the company overtook Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk to become the EU鈥檚 most valuable company, with a market cap of 鈧�313bn. It reported strong results for its third quarter in October 2025, seeing revenue rise by 7% to 鈧�9.08bn. Cloud revenue saw growth of 22%. But there are challenges ahead, not least of which is convincing customers that it鈥檚 now past the time to migrate their workloads from the old system called ECC, which is usually run on-prem, to S4. The company would like nothing better than for all its customers to move to S4, but many are proving to be recalcitrant. Support for ECC, introduced in 2015, is meant to come to an end in 2027, but customers can buy extended support until 2030, which will cost them an extra 2% in addition to their annual maintenance costs. Many companies contend that the current systems seem to be working just fine, and many are also cognisant, and terrified, of the upheaval the聽migration聽is going to cause. To this, the company dangles the prospect of new features with S4, along with the constant refrain that support for the old systems is, at some point, going to grind to a halt.

An estimated 40% of 麻豆原创 customers in North America are yet to start migrating, according to a survey run by the Americas鈥� 麻豆原创 User Group. About 60% of the 173 members are already live on S4, or are in the process of moving over, according to the research in November. Gartner said in March 2025 that most ECC customers had still not bought S4 licences. It said that in Q4 in 2024, 29% of 35 000 ECC customers had bought or subscribed to S4 licences.

Christian Hestermann, Gartner senior director and analyst for business applications, believes this is likely to remain the status quo. Speaking to聽The Register, he said that since September 2023, the company鈥檚 messaging had been about AI and Joule. 鈥淭he message now is, ‘You have to have AI, or you’ll not be able to survive’. So far, that did not have a major influence. So none of those big events or big announcements has made a massive change up to now; the [migration] progress has remained fairly steady.”

No such third-party survey has been run in South Africa, and the company doesn鈥檛 make public either its customer numbers or how many have migrated.

I asked , CTO, 麻豆原创; , MD of 麻豆原创 South Africa; and , senior director, 麻豆原创, at NTT, for their views on how this migration conversation is progressing, and they spoke as one voice. Pillay says 麻豆原创 had 鈥渕ade a clear line in the sand鈥� with the date past which it won鈥檛 continue with maintenance. 鈥淐ustomers are aware of that and are making their plans to transform.鈥�

Pillay was appointed to the top job in August 2025, and says she鈥檚 going to ensure the local operation is well equipped to have these conversations with its customers, as well as partners.

Why haven鈥檛 they moved yet?

It鈥檚 a matter of context, she says. 鈥淲e have customers who have been with us for 20, 30 years, and that鈥檚 a godsend. But they bring a lot of legacy with them, and not just technical legacy. They have unarchived environments, non-optimised processes, or a lot of custom-built systems. They may have implemented ERP back in the day, and, in most cases, it was a project with a long duration, with a lot of blood and sweat going into it. Most companies understand they need to take that technology transformation journey, but they鈥檙e trying to balance the timing and effort required to bring a legacy system across [to S/4HANA]. There鈥檚 hesitation, because in the back of their minds, they remember that when they did it [last], it was really very difficult.鈥�

Financial services is one vertical where customers have realised the imperative of the move, she says. The move was a 鈥渘o-brainer鈥� for Pillay, and offered data analysis, AI, agentic AI, and GenAI capabilities. She says if a customer isn鈥檛 speaking to 麻豆原创 about the move, it may well be too late to get a system installed before the cut-off date.

鈥淲e鈥檙e prioritising helping those who are speaking to us to make that decision. We have to work with every customer individually to understand how they can do that transformation. There are different routes, based on capacity, budget and risk appetite. If you delay a decision, it鈥檚 going to be too late.鈥�

The slow movers are also going to bring pressure to bear on system integrator partners, as Pillay envisages them being at capacity, or overcapacity, doing 麻豆原创 implementations as the deadline draws ever closer.

鈥淭hen you鈥檒l pay for skills, either locally, or you鈥檒l have to look abroad. There鈥檚 going to be a material impact if a business takes this decision later on, and that鈥檚 what we鈥檙e trying to discuss with our customers and help them plan properly, so they don鈥檛 get into a position where they say, 鈥榃ow, we鈥檝e left this too late, and now this is a monster鈥�.鈥�

麻豆原创 NTT鈥檚 Ridgway says he鈥檚 spent the better part of three decades implementing 麻豆原创 at customers, during which time the ERP landscape has changed dramatically. In the past, it was a two-horse race, the other being Oracle, and both companies served the large enterprise almost exclusively, he says. Large implementations took a lot longer than they do nowadays, two to four years, on average. He says 麻豆原创 now comes more pre-configured, or more off-the-shelf than in the past. He and his team will do a quick discovery at a customer, and will then do what he calls a 鈥渧anilla鈥� implementation to get the system up and running. Any innovation can come later, post the go-live date.

Another change in the market is that 麻豆原创 is now competing for business with companies such as Microsoft and Sage.聽Ridgway says he鈥檚 seen a shift in the attitude and sales pitch from 麻豆原创.聽鈥淚n South Africa, there was a time when 麻豆原创 owned 60%, 65% of the large enterprise ERP market, and Oracle was lagging behind. Every single large enterprise in South Africa has some form of ERP. There was still an impression in the market that 麻豆原创 was extremely expensive, very complicated, and not very pretty.鈥�

As for looks, he says the new interface is more user-friendly, and 鈥渕uch nicer to play with鈥�. The company has also realised that there aren鈥檛 any R100mn projects out there anymore, which has meant its gone looking for customers among medium-sized businesses. 鈥淭hese aren鈥檛 small businesses, but they鈥檙e just not the $1bn organisations. I don鈥檛 think 麻豆原创 wants to play in the small space, because that鈥檚 where Sage and QuickBooks are playing. But there鈥檚 a massive market in the mid-tier, which wasn鈥檛 untapped, but which 麻豆原创 wasn鈥檛 focused on,鈥� he says.

Customers have also become 鈥渟marter than they used to be鈥�. 鈥淚n the old days, we would go and sell 麻豆原创 to them, explaining what it did. Today, the CIO knows everything about 麻豆原创 and what it can do for them. It鈥檚 less about consulting around the roadmap, and more about, 鈥楾his is what I want. Can you get me there?鈥� CIOs are m ore well-read, and they know what they want. It鈥檚 no longer about selling the technology; maybe it wasn鈥檛 ever about selling the technology. It鈥檚 more about selling the business solution. Once it鈥檚 implemented, what are the benefits that they鈥檙e going to realise? What is the innovation that we can bring to it, and what will be the ease of integration?鈥�

Ridgway says the biggest part of its business is its application managed service (AMS) offering, and it鈥檚 serving around 100 clients on that platform.

As for the transition to S4, he thinks 麻豆原创, 鈥渢ried to use a stick to force people to move. It realised that there weren鈥檛 enough consultants and capacity worldwide to move every single 麻豆原创 customer from ECC to S4. It found a lot of resistance from clients, and it had a couple of clients that left them because they felt irritated by the stick and the threat of having support cut off. Coca-Cola Beverages Africa moved off 麻豆原创 and went onto [Microsoft] Dynamics, which I think it found quite difficult. It鈥檚 a massive change and huge investment to start all over again. So 麻豆原创 did lose some clients, but it eventually moved the date out to 2027. It also changed the sales approach from a stick to more of a carrot.鈥�

The carrot appears to involve talking up the benefits and exciting new features of S4. Ridgway says 麻豆原创 has dramatically changed the way it does business. 鈥淚n the past, I think 麻豆原创 was seen as very arrogant, very expensive and very complex. Today, it seems less arrogant and is playing in a different market.鈥�

The company is now far more flexible with its pricing and subscription models. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also not as complex as it used to be. I鈥檝e been involved in projects that took 24 months from start to go-live. We鈥檝e just completed a project that was five weeks from start to go-live.鈥�

Do you still have customers who are on ECC? 鈥淟ots,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he biggest part of our consulting business is trying to convince customers who are on ECC that we get to the cloud, and we can get them to S4, with all the innovations and advantages.

鈥淪ome customers will say, 鈥榠f it鈥檚 not broken, I don鈥檛 need to fix it. It鈥檚 giving me what I need鈥�,鈥� he says, but he believes this will add business risk because if something does go wrong, 鈥渃ome January 1 2028, you have no support from 麻豆原创鈥�.

This conversation with customers reminds him of those held when the cloud model was nascent around a decade ago, and 鈥渆verybody said they had to move to the cloud鈥�, which he says is similar to where AI is at the moment. 鈥淣obody actually knows what it means. A lot of clients did rush to the cloud, and realised two years later that it was quite expensive, and it鈥檚 more complicated. But we鈥檙e a lot more mature now, 10 years in. There are a lot of clients who are hybrid. I think the way 麻豆原创 designed its solution allows for that.鈥�

He says with the application managed services part of the business, NTT will provide support for customers, many of which will sign up for a 36-month contract that will give them access to a call centre with certified, senior agents. As for what the customers are struggling with, he says the majority of the calls are related to password resets and authorisations.

Herzig, 麻豆原创 CTO, speaking at this year鈥檚 Saphire conference in Madrid, said the company doesn鈥檛 disclose the official numbers, but it has around 10 000 customers worldwide that are on the cloud path. 鈥淭he majority of customers are now making the cloud decision, specifically because the maintenance will definitely be over in 2028. And with all the innovation, there鈥檚 a very clear reason why they need to move.鈥�

Why don鈥檛 they want to move?

鈥淚t depends on the customer,鈥� he says. 鈥淭heir systems have grown, historically, and they鈥檝e been heavily customised. Back in the day, you could code left and right, because the code was open. Every table and every function module, and the systems integrators added their part to it. They did a lot of custom code. Maybe they were adding functionality, but they didn鈥檛 know [what effect it would have]. You鈥檇 start off with a very clean version of what 麻豆原创 delivered, and then we innovated with the product. We built capabilities, and we changed the technology, and the customer did the same. And the longer this branching took, the harder it is to reconcile.鈥�

* Article first published on聽

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As part of its broader digital transformation strategy, Al-Futtaim Automotive, a division of Al-Futtaim, partnered with SNP and IBM to modernize and future-proof its 麻豆原创 environment. The project involved converting a 16-terabyte 麻豆原创 ECC system to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA, an initiative of significant scale and complexity. Despite this, the transformation was completed ahead of schedule in August 2025, with only 30.5 hours of technical downtime.

“This project showcases what can be achieved when deep expertise and partnership come together”, says , CEO of SNP SE. “I am humbled to meet our partners at Al-Futtaim Group here in Dubai to celebrate this milestone together. Their trust in SNP underscores our commitment to the region, supporting their growth journey as they embrace digital transformation.”

This article first appeared here:

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With mainstream support for legacy 麻豆原创 ECC systems ending in 2027, IBM guided Toyota through a Brownfield upgrade strategy, enabling a seamless transition to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA while preserving existing business process investments. This approach minimized disruption, accelerated deployment timelines, and ensured continuity for critical operations.

Driving Transformation Across Core Business Functions

Vehicle Management Modernization

IBM led the upgrade of Toyota鈥檚 national Vehicle Management System鈥攁 mission-critical platform for managing orders, inventory, sales, and financial reporting across manufacturing and dealerships. By migrating to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA, Toyota now benefits from real-time data visibility, improved inventory optimization, and faster responsiveness to customer demand.

Human Capital Management Enhancement

The second phase focused on modernizing Toyota鈥檚 HR systems, including payroll and personnel administration. IBM delivered a streamlined 麻豆原创 S/4HANA-based HCM platform that simplifies workforce processes and lays the foundation for enhanced talent management and employee engagement.

Speed, Continuity, and Risk Reduction

Both upgrades were delivered on schedule and without operational disruption, ensuring Toyota maintained business continuity while modernizing its core systems. IBM鈥檚 proven methodologies and deep 麻豆原创 expertise enabled a risk-mitigated transformation aligned with Toyota鈥檚 strategic objectives.

鈥淲e are proud to support Toyota South Africa Motors in their digital transformation journey by delivering technology solutions that accelerate innovation and strengthen business resilience,鈥� said , Managing Partner, IBM Consulting South Africa. 鈥淎t IBM, we call this the Science of Consulting – combining human expertise, AI, and technology to deliver scalable, data-driven transformations. By improving data visibility and governance, we help organizations like Toyota achieve their goals with speed and confidence.鈥�

, Managing Director, Southern Africa at 麻豆原创, says: 鈥淭he best companies run on trusted data, optimised business processes and real-time intelligence into every part of the business. By upgrading to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA, companies like Toyota unlock a suite of intelligent technologies that help transform business processes with intelligent automation. We commend Toyota and IBM on this powerful business transformation initiative and wish them well as they continue their rollout.鈥�

A Partnership Built for the Future

Building on these successes, IBM is collaborating with Toyota on the next phase of its 麻豆原创 modernization program, focusing on parts management systems. IBM and 麻豆原创鈥檚 long-standing partnership brings together hybrid cloud infrastructure, automation, and generative AI innovations powered by IBM watsonx鈩�, enabling clients to unlock new value and drive industry-specific transformation.

With over 18,000 certified 麻豆原创 consultants and 300+ 麻豆原创 S/4HANA implementations in the past five years, IBM helps organizations define transformation roadmaps, co-innovate solutions, and deploy modernization strategies with speed, scale, and AI-driven outcomes.

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These are important, but many migration projects come to a grinding halt because of an area that often goes unnoticed: Customer-Vendor Integration (CVI).

In S/4HANA, 麻豆原创 introduced the Business Partner model as the single, unified master data object. CVI synchronises and converts Customers and Vendors into Business Partners, and 麻豆原创 S/4HANA migration cannot happen until the CVI is complete.

A prerequisite

CVI is perhaps the most common 鈥済otcha鈥� in 麻豆原创 migrations. Even those few companies that are aware of the fact that something needs to get done tend to assume it鈥檚 optional or can be done later.

Data structure changes like CVI often feel like backend IT work rather than a strategic enabler, so it gets pushed down the priority list. The fact that the focus is on customer and vendor records doesn鈥檛 help, making CVI appear like a housekeeping exercise.

Some teams assume CVI will just happen as part of the technical conversion to S/4HANA, not realising that CVI is a separate and often lengthy project that needs business involvement, governance, and cleanup.

Without CVI completion, the migration cannot begin, it鈥檚 the bridge between old ECC master data and the S/4HANA world. Unfortunately, by the time most companies realise this, their migration project has already been delayed.

It鈥檚 at this point that many organisations also realise how fragmented, inconsistent, or duplicated their customer and vendor data is. CVI forces these issues into the open, but by then, it鈥檚 often too late.

Building the foundation

The same way no-one would build a house without starting with a foundation, you can鈥檛 start a 麻豆原创 migration without CVI in place. However, CVI is more than a simple data exercise. It requires co-ordination across finance, procurement, and sales teams, not to mention technical preparation.

This is why we recommend an audit of existing Customer and Vendor records in ECC alongside the design of the CVI strategy. This will help assess data quality issues and decide how various groups, roles, and categories will be structured. Aligning with business processes will then be much easier, after which the technical elements can come into play.

While many companies try to do this themselves, most find that they don鈥檛 have the time or skills to ensure that there is no need to redo elements, leading to downtime and budget overruns. Using a partner allows the business to access the cross-functional expertise they need to align IT and business teams, so the migration actually works in practice.

From chaos to control

CVI projects are notorious for unexpected challenges such as duplicate records, incomplete data & inconsistent processes. A seasoned partner has seen these issues before and knows how to resolve them quickly without derailing timelines.

CVI forces companies to confront messy customer and vendor data. Partners offer data cleansing and governance best practices, ensuring the migration doesn鈥檛 just move bad data into a new system.

On their own, internal teams often underestimate the time and effort needed for CVI. A partner brings proven methodologies, accelerators, and tools that cut down the workload and speed up readiness for the actual S/4HANA migration. Since CVI requires collaboration between finance, sales, procurement, and IT, partners can act as facilitators to get stakeholders aligned and moving forward.

Done right, CVI is more than a prerequisite. It鈥檚 the foundation for better customer, supplier, and partner insights in the new 麻豆原创 landscape. A partner ensures CVI doesn鈥檛 just tick a box, but sets up long-term business value.

A partner transforms CVI from a painful bottleneck into a strategic enabler, helping to ensure the migration goes smoothly, avoids nasty surprises, and delivers the promised business benefits of S/4HANA.

This article first appeared on .

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The company has announced the completion of a private cloud data centre in Durban, as well as a Gauteng-based colocation facility in partnership with mobile operator Vodacom.

The announcement comes after Transnet last week聽聽its enterprise resource planning system from ECC 6.0 to 麻豆原创 S4/HANA.

Transnet plays a central role in the country鈥檚 economy by managing key infrastructure that supports trade and industrial growth.

Despite facing operational and financial challenges in recent years, it remains a strategic asset tasked with modernising South Africa鈥檚 logistics network, improving efficiencies and positioning the country as a competitive hub for global trade.

According to Transnet, the completion of the facilities will modernise its data centre and hosting capabilities.

It says this move will allow it to navigate the increasingly complex digital landscapes, ensuring the foundational operations are resilient, secure and capable of supporting next-generation business applications.

This initiative is one of the four strategic pillars of Transnet鈥檚 ICT digital modernisation strategy, says the state-owned company (SOC).

It explains that the private cloud data centre in Durban is designed to serve as a secure and scalable hub for business-critical systems. The colocation environment provides geographic redundancy and resilience, while extending reach into one of the country鈥檚 primary ICT corridors.

Supported by a public cloud on Microsoft Azure through its strategic聽partners聽鈭� Microsoft and Liquid Intelligence Technologies 鈭� these facilities provide the necessary capacity, flexibility and operational resilience to migrate core business applications and decades of data into a hybrid cloud architecture, says the SOC.

Critical to this transformation has been the collaboration with Altron, with its original equipment manufacturer, Huawei, the technology聽partner聽responsible for configuring and preparing the two private cloud environments, it states.

Transnet notes their expertise in data centre and cloud solutions accelerated readiness, ensuring the environments are optimised for migration and future integration into the broader hybrid cloud strategy.

By partnering with Vodacom for colocation services in Gauteng, Transnet has also ensured strong network integration and high availability within South Africa鈥檚 ICT ecosystem, it adds.

鈥淭he journey towards digital transformation is ongoing but achieving readiness at the data centre and hosting level marks an essential milestone,鈥� says Transnet group chief information officer Pandelani Munyai.

鈥淏y investing in private and public cloud facilities, leveraging colocation partnerships and collaborating with trusted technology partners, the organisation has built a robust foundation for the future where ICT is a key driver of growth, efficiency and resilience.鈥�

Munyai notes that with the data centre and infrastructure foundation in place, the organisation is now well-positioned to migrate core business applications and vast repositories of historical data into its new hybrid cloud environment.

He points out that this will not only modernise ICT operations, but will also unlock opportunities for advanced analytics, digital platforms and innovation across the business.

This article first appeared on .

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麻豆原创 S/4HANA is 麻豆原创鈥檚 latest ERP software suite, built on the company鈥檚 HANA in-memory database platform, enabling real-time data processing, advanced analytics, and integration of intelligent technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

It serves as the core of an organisation鈥檚聽digital聽operations, managing everything from finance and HR to sales and supply chain, and is available for cloud, on-premises, or hybrid deployment.

罢丑别听migration聽comes after Transnet had been grappling with severe delays at South Africa鈥檚 major ports, where backlogs have disrupted the flow of goods and dented business confidence.

Congestion at container terminals, equipment breakdowns, and inefficiencies in rail and logistics operations have worsened turnaround times, leaving cargo ships waiting offshore for days and slowing exports of key commodities.

In a statement, Transnet says through in-memory computing and advanced analytics, the migration allows the company to operate with greater agility, reliability and insight, all of which are critical factors in ensuring the entity remains competitive and resilient in a rapidly-changing environment.

This migration is part of Transnet鈥檚 ICT Digital Modernisation Strategy, which is built on four strategic pillars, including the modernisation of its core applications, it notes.

Changing with the times

According to the state-owned company (SOC), the S4/HANA modernisation programme is one of several strategic initiatives within the broader ICT strategy, aimed at driving innovation and improving Transnet鈥檚 service delivery.

The ERP is core to Transnet鈥檚 operations and has been formulated as a strategic initiative driven by a programme with a focus on Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) as the leading operating division in the company鈥檚 migration roadmap, the SOC notes.

The successful transition of TPT is just the beginning, says the company, adding that it plans to migrate the remaining 麻豆原创 ECC6 systems across its operating divisions as part of a broader S4/HANA modernisation programme, leveraging the lessons learned from the initial success of TPT.

Transnet group chief information officer says this step aligns with the SOC鈥檚 ongoing digital transformation agenda and marks a pivotal moment for the organisation.

鈥淚t underscores our commitment to enhancing operational efficiency and supports Transnet鈥檚 鈥楻einvent for Growth鈥� strategy, which focuses on sustainable growth, operational excellence and creating value for stakeholders. Our successful move to S/4 HANA is more than a system upgrade; it鈥檚 a foundation for innovation and growth across the organisation,鈥� says Munyai.

He points out that as part of the digital transformation journey, TPT has reached a milestone by completing the migration across all 16 sea-cargo terminals nationwide.

鈥淭his transition represents not just a technological upgrade, but a fundamental step forward in modernising our business processes, improving efficiency and enabling smarter decision-making across Transnet.鈥�

, general manager for corporate services and information communication technology at TPT, emphasises the scale and significance of the achievement.

鈥淲e鈥檝e completed our transition to S/4HANA with minimal disruption to operations. This is a major accomplishment, considering the complexity of such upgrades. Many global organisations have faced significant delays, cost overruns, or even failed implementations.鈥�

He says the success is a testament to the dedication and collaboration of Transnet鈥檚 internal teams and partners.

Raliphada adds: 鈥淭his system empowers us with enhanced visibility and control across sourcing, billing, pricing, inventory, contracts and credit management. It also supports our OEM [original equipment manufacturer] partnerships and maintenance contracts, ensuring our investment in new equipment is backed by a robust digital backbone.鈥�

For Munyai, this achievement is a testament to the collective effort of TPT leadership and the project team, group ICT PMO and system integrator Tech Mahindra.

鈥淭his shows that when technical expertise meets teamwork, there are no limits to what can be achieved. Moving to S4/HANA not only aligns us with the long-term 麻豆原创 roadmap but also opens the door to future innovation.鈥�

Munyai explains that the in-memory database capabilities of HANA enable instant processing of large datasets, empowering Transnet to run predictive analytics, AI applications, and real-time reporting without the need for data duplication into business warehouse or other business intelligence tools.

鈥淭he introduction of simplified data models 鈥� eliminating aggregates and index tables 鈥� significantly reduces system complexity and lowers total cost of ownership, while helping to standardise and harmonise processes across business units.

鈥淭his successful migration is a testament to the dedicated teams and their commitment to driving Transnet forward to embrace the future of digital operations,鈥� Munyai concludes.

This article first appeared in .

The post Transnet Upgrades ERP system to 麻豆原创 S4/HANA appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

Over the last seven years, PwC has made signi铿乧ant investments in digital transformation. Our business urgency was driven by the need to scale global delivery, reimagine operations to manage costs, and empower our people with powerful digital experiences. The 铿乺m made signi铿乧ant investments and innovations in cloud, advanced analytics, and GenAI. But we recognized that modernizing our ERP core was a foundational dependency to applying these technologies to our operations, and to achieving the global, cost, and experience objectives.

We learned that traditional ROI methods for S/4HANA migration don鈥檛 always yield 铿乬ures that will impress a CFO. Licensing and implementation costs stack up high relative to value from conventional process improvements from new functionality. But considering the technology suite 鈥� centered on the resilient S/4HANA applications and extended by new technologies and cloud services 鈥� the potential emerges for ERP to become a modern ERP core. And a modern ERP core is key to unlocking the next wave of automation and intelligence in business operations.

PwC recognized that future-proof business systems should enable four digital pillars 鈥� each representing a shift in how users will interact with business systems and data:

These are all critical elements. Without them, it becomes signi铿乧antly harder to build reliable, agentic AI for business processes that include ERP functionality or data. They also combine to make intelligence possible. To predict 铿乶ancial performance, for example, data must become more reliable at the source, as it鈥檚 transacted and classi铿乪d. Maintaining reliable data at the source has traditionally been dif铿乧ult for humans, but automations and co-pilots will help.

It is still important to develop a set of business improvement targets that can be traced to new functionality and process simpli铿乧ations. It鈥檚 necessary for leadership approval and useful in motivating functional managers to help drive the program. But effective modernization should also aim to deliver these integral features that establish ERP as a foundational enabler for the four digital pillars. This is the digital core imperative.

The PwC global network now has multiple territories live on S/4HANA and is adding more sites quickly. We have digitally mapped each business process, deployed global standard data models, extended the solution with our own cloud-native creations (winning an unprecedented three 麻豆原创 innovation awards in a row), and began testing how to use 麻豆原创 applications with a conversational AI experience.

Achieving a digital core 鈥� combined with the lessons from our own transformation journey- has become a pivotal lens through which we can now guide clients.

So, hold on to your seats 鈥� we鈥檙e launching the next generation of business applications, and we鈥檙e just beginning to see how far this can take our 铿乺m and our clients.

We built for what鈥檚 next, so you can get there now.

Learn more about聽, view system demonstrations, or discuss how to build the architectural imperatives into your enterprise鈥檚 S/4HANA migration.

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When financial services group began its ERP transformation journey more than a decade ago, the goal was ambitious: build a unified digital platform that could support operations across multiple African markets, streamline finance and procurement processes, and drive long-term business agility.

But large-scale transformation is rarely linear.

鈥淭he first phase of our transformation started in 2011, a few years after the Barclays acquisition,鈥� says , Head: FC Technology Enablement and Finance Business Sponsor for the 麻豆原创 rollout at Absa. 鈥淭he goal was to move all African entities onto a single Barclays platform. However, this platform was unsuitable for retail banking in Africa due to limitations in handling master data, general ledger accounts, and granular core banking functions.鈥�

Absa initiated 鈥楶roject Owari鈥�, named after a popular board game played in various parts of Africa that dates back to 700AD. Project Owari would see Absa鈥檚 operations in each country transformed using the Barclays 麻豆原创 platform. Tanzania would be the first country to undergo the transformation, but the experience caused the implementation team to pause and reassess.

鈥淲e put the project on hold for seven months to determine the best course of action after realising the limitations of the Barclays platform,鈥� says Hurter. 鈥淲e engaged in extensive consultations, all the way to the CEO鈥檚 desk, and ultimately decided to be slightly less ambitious. We chose to test our rollout on a smaller market to ensure we had a viable blueprint for the rest of the group.鈥�

Zambia was chosen as the first country to go live with a hybrid of the local South Africa 麻豆原创 ECC6 platform and 麻豆原创 Supplier Relationship Management solution in 2016, followed by similar implementations in Mauritius and Seychelles (2016), Ghana and Tanzania (2017-2018), Botswana (2018) and Uganda (2019). This period also marked the separation with Barclays in 2017, and the news that 麻豆原创 ECC6 is approaching its end-of-life following 麻豆原创鈥檚 shift to the more powerful, cloud-ready 麻豆原创 S/4HANA.

Hurter believes the deliberate approach to reducing complexity, support from leadership in each country and a boots-on-the-ground approach to support ultimately made the difference and ensured the project rolled out successfully. 鈥淎 significant portion of this work was done during the pandemic, which meant we had to rely on remote teams. This added an immensely challenging dimension to the project.鈥�

While the Kenyan rollout was completed mostly remotely during the pandemic, the South African go-live highlighted the need for flexibility and realism. Initial plans to launch the ledger, group reporting, and procurement simultaneously were too complex. Instead, Absa split the rollout and adopted Coupa as its procurement solution, introducing stricter spend controls and digitising mandates.

鈥淲ith improved data models, we are now able to respond faster to regulatory requirements, enhance external disclosures, and prepare for further innovation,鈥� says Hurter. 鈥淭his includes the potential deployment of 麻豆原创 Financial Products Subledger and business AI in future. This journey has taken commitment, focus, effort and dedication, but remains worth it as we chart a course toward sustainable and scalable growth.鈥�

, Interim Managing Director for Southern Africa at 麻豆原创, says: 鈥淒igital transformation in the banking sector is immensely complex, with companies perpetually balancing the need for business continuity and regulatory compliance with essential technology deployments to ensure they continue to deliver to customer needs. Absa has overcome every challenge to transform its core banking processes and lay a solid foundation for further tech-led innovation. We are proud to continue to support Absa as it implements its exciting vision for the future of banking on the African continent.鈥�

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