At the UK and Ireland SAP User Group Connect conference in Birmingham, Conor Riordan, the new chair of UKISUG, kicked off the event with a straight talk about SAP Rise. He made it clear to the attendees: “Moving to Rise isn’t a question of if, but when and how.”
Taking over as chair in April, Riordan emphasized that transitioning to SAP is more like running a marathon than a sprint. He urged the crowd not to rush into the move, stating, “We’re in it for the long game. It’s a process that takes time.”
With 20 years of experience in SAP implementations under his belt, Riordan currently works with Pfizer’s business process improvement team, which operates a single instance of SAP for 18,500 products across more than 200 markets. Pfizer recently migrated from a 20-year-old SAP Enterprise Core Component to S/4Hana, taking just five years of data live in August.
Companies are feeling the pressure to leave ECC behind before support ends in 2027. However, the upgrade to S/4Hana is no small feat and can stretch over several years for many organizations.
AstraZeneca’s project is a prime example of this lengthy effort. Russell Smith, vice-president of ERP transformation technology at AstraZeneca, described their initiative as the company’s “largest technology programme by far.” He referred to it as a “once-in-a-generation programme,” highlighting that it involves a six-year greenfield implementation aimed at simplifying over 1,500 processes throughout their value chain. They’re working with 750 systems, over 3,000 interfaces, and 150 data objects.
Ade Welsh, AstraZeneca’s senior director of solution design and delivery, shared that this year is focused on establishing a global design for testing. He pointed out the importance of running parts of the project in parallel, saying, “We’re learning how to do things in parallel. It’s crucial this year and will ramp up next year.”
Data management is a prominent hurdle as they update their systems. Smith acknowledged, “It doesn’t matter when you start with the data; it always feels like it’s too late.”
In the opening session, Leila Romane, SAP’s newly appointed managing director for the UK and Ireland, aimed to reshape perceptions of the company. Recognizing that the upgrade to SAP Rise isn’t a quick race, she indicated a shift from last year’s heavy Rise focus. “We’ve spent the last two years discussing Rise, but it’s really about the complete suite of our solutions. Our main goal is to be recognized as a leader in business applications and business AI,” she stated.