and the are showcasing how modernisation programmes built on 麻豆原创 technologies are helping organisations move beyond fragmented systems and legacy processes toward more unified, scalable and intelligent operating models.

At this year鈥檚 flagship 麻豆原创 麻豆原创PHIRE event held in Madrid between 19 and 21 May, both organisations shared insights into their modernisation efforts and the impact of initiatives such as RISE with 麻豆原创 to fast-track digital transformation and unlock business outcomes.

, Managing Director for Southern Africa at 麻豆原创, says: 鈥淢odernisation is no longer only about replacing legacy systems. It is about building the digital foundations that allow organisations to simplify complexity, improve efficiency and unlock new value from cloud, data and AI. Whether in the public sector or global industry, 麻豆原创 is helping customers create more agile, intelligent and future-ready organisations.鈥�

City of Madrid advances digital public administration

The Madrid City Council is collaborating with 麻豆原创 Spain on the comprehensive modernisation of its internal management through 麻豆原创 software. The objective is to digitalise procedures, improve efficiency and deliver better services to municipal employees and citizens in finance, revenue management and human resources.

The City Council has worked with 麻豆原创 software for two decades, beginning in 2004 with solutions in finance and HR. In 2020, it launched its public administration modernisation project with the migration to the private cloud. This process is now advancing with the adoption of and .

The challenge was to move beyond traditional models based on fragmented systems, paper-based procedures and isolated developments. In public administration, this fragmentation can slow processes, duplicate data, limit visibility and make it harder to manage revenues, budgets and human resources in an integrated way.

The solution has been to consolidate a new public management model based on unified management, real-time information and digitalised processes. RISE with 麻豆原创 provides the foundation for the move to the private cloud, while 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform provides the platform for integration, extension and application development.

The transformation has had a significant impact in the tax domain, where 麻豆原创 tax and revenue management solutions are being integrated into the city鈥檚 financial platform. This enables municipal revenues to be managed as a natural extension of the financial system, supporting an end-to-end view of the full cycle from taxpayer registration and assessment to collection and inspection.

Currently, two-thirds of the City Council鈥檚 tax revenues are already managed within this environment, including Property Tax, the Urban Waste Tax for Business Activities, Capital Gains Tax and the Terrace Tax. The next step will be to incorporate the Motor Vehicle Tax and the Economic Activities Tax.

The project has also focused on data quality. During the first year, the City Council carried out a cleansing and harmonisation of master data from previous management systems, generating taxpayer 鈥淕olden Records鈥� and enabling an efficiency rate of 98.02% for Property Tax in 2024.

, IT Manager of Madrid City Council, says: 鈥淭his project marks a paradigm shift: we are moving from managing paper files and isolated systems to managing information and processes in an integrated and intelligent way, with a 360-degree view.鈥�

The impact is being felt across internal management and citizen services. The project supports end-to-end process digitalisation and a 鈥減aperless鈥� administration model, while automation, AI capabilities and robotic process automation are helping reduce manual workloads, minimise errors and improve decision-making through real-time analytics.

Prysmian builds an AI-ready global platform

Prysmian, a global leader in cable solutions for energy and telecommunications, is demonstrating how modernisation can create the foundation for broader business transformation.

The challenge for Prysmian was to strengthen its digital core as it evolved from a cable manufacturer to a global provider of solutions supporting the energy transition and digital transformation. With 鈧�20 billion in revenue, 34 000 employees across more than 50 countries, 109 manufacturing plants and 30 R&D centres, the company needed a unified, resilient and AI-ready platform to support its next phase of business evolution.

Prysmian completed the evolution of its digital infrastructure through RISE with 麻豆原创 in just four months, creating a unified, resilient and AI-ready cloud platform. Through the integration of , , and 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform, the company built an intelligent platform designed to improve operational efficiency, accelerate decision-making and enhance predictive capabilities.

, Group CIO and Digital Officer at Prysmian, says: 鈥淩ISE with 麻豆原创 provided us with a global ERP foundation, 麻豆原创 BTP connected engineering and business, while embedded AI transformed the way our employees interact with data, redefining how Prysmian operates at scale.鈥�

The impact has been significant. Prysmian has achieved 70% automation of repetitive activities through embedded AI, an 80% reduction in the implementation time of new innovative solutions, and a 50% acceleration in time-to-market for new products.

The company has also introduced concrete AI use cases across business processes, including intelligent customer order automation, automated payment reconciliation and smart expense management. At the same time, Prysmian is using 麻豆原创 BTP to build an advanced cable design platform connecting engineering and business functions, standardising rules, processes and bills of materials to accelerate product development and increase competitiveness.

Pillay adds: 鈥淭he City of Madrid and Prysmian show how modernisation creates measurable value when it is connected to clear organisational priorities. By integrating processes, improving data quality and building intelligent cloud platforms, organisations can improve how they operate today while preparing for the next wave of innovation.鈥�

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For ,聽a leading pan-African financial services group focused on emerging markets headquartered in South Africa, with a strong presence in 31聽countries,聽this transformation journey has accelerated over the past 18 months as the organisation expanded its focus beyond HR modernisation toward a broader cloud, data and AI-enabled human capital strategy.

, Group Human Capital: Chief Operating Officer at Sanlam, says the organisation鈥檚 approach balances immediate operational requirements with longer-term transformation objectives. 鈥淲e have adopted an ambidextrous strategy for our digital and data transformation journey, simultaneously exploiting operational excellence, proficiency and efficiency in our current landscape while exploring incremental innovation that enhances and elevates the user experience and driving our longer-term transformation journey 鈥� focused on leveraging intelligent, transformative technology to unlock business value.鈥�

A central focus throughout the implementation has been ensuring that transformation delivers tangible business value while also enabling the teams responsible for sustaining change. Sanlam is supported by a dedicated support structure for the programme that includes a technical centre of excellence team, programme management, change management, and business analysis capabilities.

鈥淭ransformation required us to approach change from multiple perspectives simultaneously. We always look at transformation through the lens of people, process and technology. One of the realities organisations face is that many people are not ready to embrace the pace of technological change, which makes change adoption and leadership sponsorship critically important.鈥� 

According to Bandyopadhyay, Sanlam鈥檚 broader transformation strategy spans several interconnected focus areas. 鈥淎 key priority being rebuilding our job architecture for relevance to the current and future workforce and more importantly to transition to a skills-based organisation. This will then unlock the opportunity for us to leverage 麻豆原创鈥檚 AI-enabled Talent Intelligence Hub which is the golden thread that links all talent practices to a skills currency.鈥�

The organisation has also prioritised the implementation of a cloud data solution, master data management and platform scalability as part of its effort to establish a more unified data core across the business. With multiple business entities operating across the group, standardising and scaling trusted workforce and operational data remains a significant strategic focus area.

, Group: Head of HC Tech and Talent Intelligence at Sanlam, says cloud adoption will continue to accelerate over the next two years. 鈥淲e are moving aggressively towards a cloud-first strategy, including payroll migration, data platform evolution, and broader business integration initiatives. Our focus is on how we build scalable platforms and data capabilities that position us for the future.鈥�

As part of this strategy, Sanlam is piloting -related capabilities and is progressing towards broader business data cloud initiatives planned over the coming years. The organisation is also exploring how 麻豆原创 Business Data Cloud, 麻豆原创 agents, and Joule capabilities can support orchestration, analytics, and employee-related workflows across the employee life cycle.

Alongside its platform modernisation efforts, Sanlam is re-evaluating core HR services and processes, including employee experience, employee relations, and document management, while strengthening its talent intelligence and people analytics capabilities to support better workforce planning and predictive decision-making. The Talent Intelligence function has matured significantly from reports and dashboards to trends, insights and predictive analytics. A key achievement has been the development of a solution to measure productivity across the various Sanlam business entities.

Intelligent automation is also playing an increasing role across areas such as service management, payments, compliance, and administrative HR functions, alongside the digitisation of compliance related scorecards like skills development to improve planning, monitoring and achievement of compliance targets. This has allowed Sanlam to service an increased customer base with a greater service offering at reduced costs.

Govindsamy says the transformation journey remains ongoing rather than a once-off implementation project. 鈥淭he next phase of our journey is focused on accelerating cloud propagation, strengthening analytics and data capabilities, and embedding intelligent automation more deeply into the business. Success depends not only on technology, but on sustained leadership sponsorship, adoption, and preparing the workforce for the future.鈥� 

, Managing Director for Southern Africa at 麻豆原创, says: 鈥淎s organisations modernise their workforce strategies, there is growing recognition that human capital transformation depends on more than digitising HR processes. It requires an integrated foundation that combines cloud, data, analytics and intelligent technologies to support better decision-making, stronger employee experiences, and greater organisational agility. Sanlam鈥檚 ongoing transformation journey reflects how forward-looking organisations are building scalable, future-ready HR environments that can evolve alongside changing business and workforce requirements.鈥�

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The Bellville Civic Centre in Africa now has a “digital twin,” a virtual copy that uses 1,200 sensors and a drone to watch everything in real-time. This smart system helps fix problems before they start, like finding leaky pipes or saving energy.聽It’s built for Cape Town’s exact needs, not just copied from Europe,聽and even helps with social issues and teaches people about upkeep. Now, this building can “talk” and help the city run better and save money.

What is a digital twin and how does it work?

A digital twin is a virtual model of a physical object or system, updated in real-time with sensor data. For Bellville Civic Centre, 1,200 sensors, a LiDAR drone, and a cloud physics engine created a digital replica, allowing real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance. This helps identify inefficiencies and potential issues proactively, optimizing building performance.

1. A Quiet Thursday That Changed Everything

The janitor鈥檚 clipboard still showed the same temperature columns, the electricians still argued about fluorescent tubes, and the leak in the basement still had to be fixed before the next council session. Yet, beneath this ordinary choreography, Bellville Civic Centre had quietly grown a second brain. Overnight, 1 200 credit-card-sized sensors, a spinning LiDAR drone, and a cloud physics engine 60脳 faster than real life stitched themselves into an invisible mesh. The concrete giant could now interrogate itself the way a doctor interrogates a heartbeat – asking, not just answering.

Inside the foyer, a Finnish suitcase snapped open. Out came matchbox fog-computing gateways, a stack of district-heating printouts from Helsinki, and – most convincing of all – signed data-sharing contracts with Nordic utilities that proved the jump from pilot to portfolio was already bankable. A projector threw the building鈥檚 new pulse onto the marble wall: cool blues for steady organs, warning reds for arrhythmias. One red vein leaked two-percent inefficiency from a chilled-water pump; another showed a third-floor zone that had spent three nights 0.4 掳C warmer than its set-point. A fire-exit sensor whispered that someone was forcing the door with three extra newtons – hinges beginning to seize.

In the old script those micro-clues would have become phone calls, Excel rows, and work orders already yellow with age. Now the digital twin ranks every intervention by life-cycle cost, authors its own weekly 鈥渕aintenance dance card,鈥� and beams it to handhelds. The deputy director tapped the red stairwell on the screen; instantly the model surfaced a 2024 actuator invoice, cross-checked the manufacturer鈥檚 mean-time-to-failure curve, and advised a swap before quarter-end. Predicted disruption: twelve minutes during a planned fire-system test. Likely downtime prevented: eleven hours. The Finns grinned; they had seen an Espoo courthouse cut annual energy use 18 % after only six months of the same ritual.

2. Built for Cape Town, Not Copy-Pasted from Europe

Espoo doesn鈥檛 stage blackouts; Cape Town does. Procurement here demands three quotes for anything above R2 000, and one depot may serve 250 scattered sites. So the architects tucked palm-sized, fan-less edge servers into electrical risers. When the fibre dies, these nodes keep a compressed, privacy-scrubbed clone of the twin alive, steering local loops: rooftop PV, battery UPS, smart-lighting relays. During outages, the conference wing stays lit on a 60 kWh buffer while corridors dim to 30 %, trimming 12 kW of peak without a human finger.

Sensor playlists are equally mixed. Some wings are 1970s concrete, others 1990s steel sheds, others brand-new mass-timber chasing net-zero. Thread, LoRaWAN and Wi-Sun radios chat in parallel; legacy breaker panels wear NFC tags that any TVET-college student can reflash in 90 seconds. Instead of marrying one vendor, the City hosts an 鈥淢-Bus to MQTT鈥� translator whose YAML recipes live on GitLab under Creative Commons. The only lock-in is curiosity.

Citizen privacy is engineered, not promised. Visitors renewing licences trigger anonymised heat-maps that forget faces after 900 seconds. Maintenance staff sign in with biometric fobs; an HVAC tech may raise a chiller set-point yet cannot unlock court archives. University researchers receive time-boxed API tokens that auto-expire without two-key renewal inside the firewall. The mantra is 鈥渟hare insights, not identities.鈥�

3. From Valves to Social Infrastructure – Ripple Effects No Spreadsheet Predicted

Borrowing from shipyards, the Finns gave every component a tamper-proof digital passport. Snap a photo of a corroded valve and the hash, signature, and timestamp lock into a private Ethereum fork. Smart contracts release micro-payment to the plumber only when AI vision confirms the fix. Early runs show disputed invoices down 35 % and warranty cycles shrinking from months to days. The building pays for proof, not promises.

Energy planning dives deeper than kilowatt dashboards. The twin ingests Time-of-Use tariffs, Eskom鈥檚 wind forecasts, and weather-service gust predictions to build a 72-hour optimiser. In a late-June rehearsal it slid 210 kWh from evening peak to pre-dawn, pre-cooling slabs and charging fleet EVs. Saved: R3 420 – one librarian鈥檚 annual salary when extrapolated across 70 facilities. Treasury is now modelling a green-bond tranche: a guaranteed 5 % energy cut could unlock R400 million for further retrofits.

Water joins the choreography. A 30 000-litre basement tank maps stratification layers, predicts Legionella risk, and diverts first-flush to sewer when rainfall tops 6 mm h鈦宦�. An ML model schedules irrigation only when evapotranspiration exceeds 3 mm and soil moisture drops below 22 %. Result: 46 % less potable water on landscaping, sparing 2.7 million litres – enough for seventeen households for a year.

Scaling is under way. Three libraries, two clinics, and the colossal Cape Town Civic Centre have already been LiDAR-scanned. The once-labyrinthine 麻豆原创 spreadsheet has collapsed into a lightning-fast graph database; planners can ask for 鈥渁ll coastal-zone boilers older than fifteen years that serve community halls with >30 % Saturday occupancy鈥� and receive a ranked replacement schedule linked to tender calendars.

Social infrastructure is next. Early-childhood centres with no in-house tech get a WhatsApp 鈥渕aintenance buddy鈥� that speaks isiXhosa voice notes. A caregiver photographs a flickering light; vision-recognition IDs the ballast and dispatches the nearest handyman. Where data is scarce, the bot reverts to one-cent USSD menus. Cape Town鈥檚 code is already tempting subtropical eThekwini and equatorial Singapore into south-south exchanges that outbid traditional donor loops.

4. A Living Curriculum for the City of Tomorrow

Every Thursday the disused records room becomes a 鈥淭win Lab.鈥� Failed circuit boards hang like hunting trophies, each annotated with failure mode and intern nickname. A live dashboard streams on the wall; if trainees trim another percentage point off weekly energy, the mayor tweets spinning wind-turbine GIFs. Maintenance is no longer an exile for the IT department – it is a badge for cleaners, clerks, councillors.

Occupants gamify stewardship. Guards hunt daylight sensors left in override, librarians chase dust alerts on HVAC grilles. Points buy canteen vouchers; the leaderboard hangs by the lift like a school sports chart. Behaviour bends faster than steel when feedback loops are witty and immediate.

If the roadmap hits 100 buildings by 2029, the City will have digitised 4.5 million square metres – Helsinki鈥檚 whole downtown. The next mayor will open one map and query every pump, lift, and luminaire in milliseconds. Finnish mentors now log into Cape Town servers to debug their own Espoo high-rises, admitting the student has become the server room. Between Bellville鈥檚 granite walls and Helsinki鈥檚 glass lecture halls pulses a new civic circulatory system whose language is open data, whose currency is kilowatts saved in real time, and whose winner is the resident breathing cooler air long before anyone knew the building had learned to speak.

What is a digital twin and how does it work at Bellville Civic Centre?

A digital twin is a virtual model of a physical object or system, updated in real-time with sensor data. For Bellville Civic Centre, 1,200 credit-card-sized sensors, a LiDAR drone, and a cloud physics engine were used to create a digital replica. This system allows for real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance, identifying inefficiencies and potential issues proactively to optimize building performance. It’s like giving the building a ‘second brain’ to interrogate itself and make smart decisions.

How is Bellville Civic Centre’s digital twin uniquely designed for Cape Town’s needs?

Unlike solutions simply copied from Europe, Bellville’s digital twin is specifically built for Cape Town’s environment, which includes factors like blackouts and specific procurement processes. It features palm-sized, fan-less edge servers that maintain a compressed, privacy-scrubbed clone of the twin during fiber outages, ensuring local operations like rooftop PV and smart-lighting relays continue. The system uses a diverse mix of sensor technologies (Thread, LoRaWAN, Wi-Sun) to accommodate various building types and avoids vendor lock-in by using an ‘M-Bus to MQTT’ translator with open-source YAML recipes.

How does the digital twin enhance maintenance and operational efficiency?

The digital twin significantly enhances maintenance by prioritizing interventions based on life-cycle cost, generating weekly ‘maintenance dance cards,’ and beaming them to handheld devices. For example, it can predict component failures, like a stairwell actuator, by cross-referencing invoices and manufacturer data, suggesting swaps to prevent downtime. This proactive approach has been shown to cut annual energy use significantly, as seen in similar implementations like an Espoo courthouse which reduced energy consumption by 18% in six months.

What are the ripple effects of the digital twin beyond building management?

The digital twin’s impact extends beyond basic building management to social infrastructure and financial benefits. It uses blockchain technology for tamper-proof digital passports for components, ensuring plumbers are paid only when AI vision confirms a fix, reducing disputed invoices. It also optimizes energy planning by integrating Time-of-Use tariffs, weather forecasts, and Eskom’s wind predictions to shift energy consumption and save costs. Furthermore, it optimizes water usage, reducing potable water for landscaping by scheduling irrigation based on precise environmental data. The system also supports social initiatives, such as a WhatsApp ‘maintenance buddy’ for early-childhood centers.

How does the digital twin project foster learning and community engagement?

The project includes a ‘Twin Lab’ where failed circuit boards are studied, and trainees are incentivized to reduce energy consumption, making maintenance a valued skill. Occupants are encouraged to ‘gamify stewardship’ by hunting for inefficiencies like overridden daylight sensors or dust alerts, with points leading to rewards like canteen vouchers. This approach fosters a culture of awareness and responsibility among building users and staff, effectively turning the building into a ‘living curriculum’ for the city’s future.

What is the future outlook and scalability of Bellville Civic Centre’s digital twin initiative?

The initiative is already scaling, with three libraries, two clinics, and the colossal Cape Town Civic Centre having been LiDAR-scanned. The goal is to digitize 100 buildings by 2029, covering 4.5 million square meters, equivalent to Helsinki’s entire downtown. This will allow city planners to query every pump, lift, and luminaire in milliseconds. The project has also garnered international interest, leading to ‘south-south exchanges’ with other cities like eThekwini and Singapore, demonstrating its potential as a global model for smart city development.

This article first appeared on .

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Leading organisations throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa are revealing how business AI has shifted from experimentation to realised business value at this year鈥檚 麻豆原创 麻豆原创PHIRE, held in Madrid between 19 and 21 May.

The event included demonstrations of two different but connected approaches to AI adoption by and . Ericsson is building the governed data foundation needed to scale AI across the enterprise, while Martur Fompak International is embedding AI directly into physical manufacturing operations to transform execution on the shop floor.

Nazia Pillay, Managing Director for Southern Africa at 麻豆原创, says: 鈥淭he next phase of AI adoption is about execution. Organisations are looking for trusted data foundations, strong governance and practical business use cases that can deliver measurable value. By embedding AI into the systems and workflows companies already use, 麻豆原创 is helping customers scale AI responsibly and turn ambition into real-world impact.鈥�

Nazia Pillay

Ericsson builds the foundation for trusted AI at scale

Ericsson is moving from AI experimentation to enterprise-wide execution by building a unified business data fabric with . The approach enables the company to scale AI use cases across the business, accelerate decision-making and deliver measurable operational impact.

Ericsson, which celebrates its 150th anniversary this year, provides mobile network infrastructure across 180 countries, with more than 40% of the world鈥檚 mobile traffic passing through its networks. As AI becomes central to both its technology roadmap and how it runs the business, Ericsson has prioritised building a strong, governed data foundation to support scalable and trusted AI.

鈥淥nce you scale AI, it stops being an AI problem鈥攁nd becomes a data problem,鈥� says , Vice President, Customer Experience, Enterprise IT at Ericsson. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we invested early in a business data fabric. With 麻豆原创 Business Data Cloud, we can define what data means once鈥攆rom revenue to market structures and access rules鈥攁nd apply it consistently across the enterprise. That鈥檚 what allows us to scale AI in a way that is trusted, repeatable and delivers real business value.鈥�

At the core of Ericsson鈥檚 approach is a federated data architecture that allows data to remain in place while centrally managing business semantics, governance and lifecycle policies. By focusing on high-impact use cases and organising around end-to-end business processes rather than isolated solutions, Ericsson has moved beyond pilots to scaled deployment. Today, more than 85 000 users are live on unified Joule, supported by strong executive sponsorship and governance.

麻豆原创 and Ericsson are also collaborating on AI co-innovation initiatives, including an intelligent goal recommendation capability developed within 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors. The solution generates contextual, business-aligned goals for employees, improving execution and reducing administrative effort.

Martur Fompak brings AI into physical manufacturing operations

Martur Fompak International, a global leader in automotive seating and interior systems, has deployed an autonomous intralogistics model enabled by and embodied AI capabilities from 麻豆原创, marking a significant milestone in its journey toward intelligent, AI-driven manufacturing operations.

In an industry rapidly shifting toward AI-powered operations, Martur Fompak International saw an opportunity to reimagine its material flow. Building on efficient, people-driven processes already in place, the company partnered with 麻豆原创 and , a UK-based robotics and AI company, to explore how embodied AI-powered robotics could redefine material flow across its automotive manufacturing environment.

Using Joule and embodied AI capabilities from 麻豆原创, Martur Fompak International now connects production signals and business context directly to autonomous execution, creating a context-aware automation system that prioritises, picks and delivers materials while adapting in real time to changing business conditions.

Built on and enabled by , the solution enriches humanoid robots with real-time knowledge of tasks, attributes and exception handling. Guided by material data, storage locations, sequencing and production priorities, humanoid robots execute material flows across a live automotive manufacturing environment, identifying, transporting and delivering materials to the line while continuously confirming back into 麻豆原创 solutions.

Together with autonomous mobile robots, the company has created a fully automated, scalable material flow that boosts throughput, improves accuracy and reduces reliance on manual coordination. By assigning repetitive, non-value-adding and physically demanding tasks to robots, Martur Fompak International is enabling its people to focus on safer, more meaningful and higher-value work.

鈥淥ur humanoid robot collaborates with digital production systems to ensure seamless coordination across order management, logistics and production, enabling scalable AI adoption and improving efficiency, consistency and operational resilience,鈥� says , Group Intelligent Technologies Director at Martur Fompak International.

Early results show increased throughput, fewer errors and a scalable, AI-driven intralogistics model. With 400 daily production line feeds and 100% 麻豆原创 software-driven decision-making already in place, Martur Fompak International is advancing beyond traditional automation and pioneering a scalable, intelligent factory model.

Pillay adds: 鈥淓ricsson and Martur Fompak International show that AI delivers the greatest value when it is grounded in business context and embedded into core processes. From enterprise data foundations to intelligent robotics on the factory floor, these examples demonstrate how organisations can scale AI responsibly, improve productivity and create measurable business impact.鈥�

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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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, a global leader in fiber-based specialty materials, together with its digital business partner , set and achieved an ambitious goal: to implement a fully operational ERP system, , at one of their factories within a month. With over 6,000 customers Ahlstrom runs 36 factories in 13 countries. Each factory鈥檚 operations are supported by an ERP system ensuring production runs smoothly without interruptions.

A New Era for ERP Implementations: From Months to Weeks

Ahlstrom was seeking a cost-effective, fast, and scalable way to implement Cloud ERP in one of its smaller production units, while also creating a replicable operating model that could be used for similar projects at other company factories.

The extremely tight schedule made the rollout historic. Traditionally, ERP renewals take months or even years, but Ahlstrom wanted to find out how quickly and cost-effectively a modern 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Public Cloud implementation could be done. Vincit鈥檚 team accepted the challenge, and together with Ahlstrom, they succeeded in completing the entire rollout in less than a month.

鈥淲e didn鈥檛 just implement a new system but proved that a project that used to take months and massive resources can be done in four weeks. Vincit succeeded with a truly ambitious schedule and gave us a scalable, modern foundation that will define our future 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Public Cloud rollouts. This would not have been possible without their exceptional expertise in both S/4HANA implementations and manufacturing industry processes,鈥� says , Head of Shared IT Platforms, Ahlstrom.

Success Factors for a Rapid Rollout

At the core of the 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Public Cloud system is the clean core philosophy: the ERP system is kept standardized, and necessary customizations are done through integrations and application extentions on the 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform. Compared to traditional ERP projects, a four-week cloud rollout requires each 麻豆原创 consultant to have very broad and versatile expertise, rather than deep specialization. Consultants must manage the entire supply chain and be able to lead change so that end users commit to the new solution. When the team is built on multi-skilled experts, the team size remains small, time use is efficient, and overall productivity increases.

Vincit had previously productized the Public Cloud implementation, which significantly accelerated the project. Ahlstrom鈥檚 strong commitment, and Vincit鈥檚 麻豆原创 expertise and knowledge of manufacturing industry processes from procurement to distribution were also significant success factors for the rapid rollout.

鈥淭his is possibly the most significant change in ERP implementations since 麻豆原创 was founded in 1972,鈥� says , Vincit鈥檚 Business Area Lead. 鈥淓RP projects have traditionally been seen as slow and expensive, but cloud-based ERP systems have permanently changed the game. Fast rollouts also motivate 麻豆原创 consultants: value can be delivered to the customer faster and with smaller teams than ever before.鈥�

Significant Business Impact

A scalable system delivers added value immediately. The Ahlstrom factory in question now has a modern ERP system that improves operational efficiency right from the start. The clean core approach enables new extensions and functionalities to be added more quickly and cost-effectively in the future.

Ahlstrom can reuse the 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud project model in its other factories. The cloud transition gives the company access to 麻豆原创鈥檚 latest innovations, including 麻豆原创 Joule鈥檚 AI capabilities. At the same time, long-term maintenance costs are significantly reduced.

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The Ocean Cleanup focuses on reducing plastic pollution in rivers and oceans, operates internationally, and is growing rapidly. To date, they have already removed more than 40 million kilograms of waste. However, their ambitions go further: by 2040, The Ocean Cleanup aims to have removed 90% of floating ocean plastic and cleaned up plastic pollution in 90 river cities. This represents a major scale-up of their work, with more activities and installations in rivers and oceans worldwide.

Flexible Growth

To properly manage global processes and support international activities, The Ocean Cleanup urgently needed a modern and scalable system. The Dutch non-profit organization therefore chose to replace its NetSuite system with 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition. This modern ERP platform enables The Ocean Cleanup to achieve its growth ambitions: the system is easily scalable and can be flexibly adapted as processes, projects, or international activities expand.

A strong foundation for global collaboration is essential. For example, financial teams must work closely with fundraisers to optimally distribute donations across international projects, while project teams, engineers, and data analysts coordinate daily on technology, planning, and budgets for initiatives in rivers and oceans worldwide. As , Senior Partnership Manager at The Ocean Cleanup, puts it: 鈥淧erfect coordination between teams is essential; we hunt plastic together as a pack. The system helps us with that collaboration, allowing us to respond quickly to new challenges.鈥�

Aurelia Ferraro further explains: 鈥淲e are growing exponentially, and our internal processes have become increasingly complex, with operations spanning multiple countries. 麻豆原创 S/4HANA is the ideal system to manage that complexity.鈥� She emphasizes that the transformation is about more than just technology: 鈥淐hange and innovation are always complex, but our organization is accustomed to change. We invest a lot of energy in communication and training, which ensures smooth 麻豆原创 adoption.鈥�

Fast implementation and configuration

, Strategic Advisor at , The Ocean Cleanup’s implementation partner, adds: 鈥淭ogether with The Ocean Cleanup, we are following a phased implementation. 麻豆原创’s 80-20 fit-to-standard approach allows us to implement quickly, after which we configure specific processes in 麻豆原创 according to The Ocean Cleanup’s needs.鈥�

The implementation began with financial administration and purchasing modules for five Dutch entities. The upcoming phases will include project management and logistics modules that provide insight into The Ocean Cleanup’s complex river and ocean projects. The organization expects to complete the transition to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA by the end of 2025.

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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.”

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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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KTDA Group Chief Executive Officer, Wilson Muthaura said the agency was executing a comprehensive transformation strategy anchored on sustainability, innovation and farmer-centric governance.

He said KTDA鈥檚 singular goal was to maximise value for farmers while building a world-class, future-ready tea enterprise.

Muthaura revealed that KTDA had launched a major internal restructuring effort to ensure that the transformation and intended goals were achieved.

He added that the agency鈥檚 board had established ten cross-functional management committees to drive efficiency, reduce costs and accelerate value addition.

The GCEO said the committees would also identify business opportunities along the entire value chain from farm to factory and all the way to the market.

鈥淭hese committees are actively feeding into our newly developed KTDA Group Strategic Plan, which aims to future-proof our operations,鈥� he added.

He explained that the transformation strategy was not a top-down process since it was arrived at after a landmark meeting, the first of its kind since the Tea Act reforms of 2020 which was convened by KTDA chairman.

鈥淎ll the 71 factory unit managers and KTDA鈥檚 senior leadership came together to co-develop a roadmap that ensures every decision made benefited the farmer.,鈥� he said.

Muthaura said KTDA鈥檚 main objective was to ensure that farmers received not just better prices but better services.

鈥淭he services range from enhancing fertiliser distribution and leaf collection logistics to upgrading factory efficiency and introducing traceability tools,鈥� he said.

The GCEO observed that implementation of the Systems, Applications and Products (麻豆原创) enterprise system was already streamlining operations across KTDA thereby ensuring smarter, data-driven decisions.

He said KTDA had enhanced its digital backbone to create more agile processes and eliminate inefficiencies.

鈥淭he agency is doubling down on communication and farmer engagement to ensure that growers are not just recipients of services, but co-owners of the solutions because they are shareholders, stakeholders, and strategic partners,鈥� he said.

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