S4 Big Bang: Prysmian Group's upgrade project to SAP S/4HANA technology is live
The update of Prysmian's management system to SAP S4HANA technology has been completed: another challenging project successfully completed by our consultants.
Mashfrog continues to successfully lead the digital transformation programme for Prysmian Group focusing on the integration of cloud systems and on a scalable operational-management model that is constantly updated. Our consultants on Prysmian - a young, international and skilled team - tackled the demanding upgrade of the client's entire management system to SAP S/4HANA technology. The project, which began in 2019 and concluded at the end of 2021, was named S4 Big Bang because of its impact on a global scale, and it allowed the technology to be kept updated so that the database could be compatible with tools under development, such as the Fiori App - still in its infancy but with great potential - and also allowed the business processes already present in SAP to be optimised.
"The move to S4HANA was an unprecedented project, not only because of its geographical extension, but also because of its enormous diversity compared to Prysmian's conventional roll-outs" explained Fabio Galiffa and Pietro De Deco, respectively BU Director SAP and Business SAP Consultant, who followed the project for Mashfrog. "In fact, there were no new Commercial Organisations or Plant to add to the ERP, but the entire database received an upgrade, making the Big Bang a project with a strong technical component."
“The unconventional form of the project and the interaction of the users, who were necessary for testing the processes on the new upgraded system, made Big Bang a project that as not so easy in terms of technical and cross-sectoral skills. Communication with users carried out entirely remotely was not easy, but their active involvement was necessary for those processes that in S4HANA have been completely changed with respect to their ECC version (practical examples are the Business Partners, International Trade, Rebates). The user-oriented approach was characterised by an initial ramp up, and subsequently a follow up downstream of comprehensive tests on the user side so that their operational transition to the new system could be quick and free of obstacles." explained Pietro, who was at the forefront in following the project.
Big Bang officially went live during the second half of September 2021, and two months after the new production system had been switched on, the post go-live support proved effective and in line with Prysmian's old canonical projects. Despite the complex requirements and difficulties arising from the pandemic, the great teamwork as well as the clear communication between during the work - despite being in different locations - were decisive factors in reaching this objective quickly and effectively.
2022 will see an 80-strong team engaged on a series of SAP projects in North America and Canada, and this will allow us to operationally launch the SAP BU for Mashfrog US using a task-force from Italy that will have the aim of developing skills, providing a more efficient customer service and overseeing the local territory.
