Clean water, good food, secure homes and sustainable transportation are among the basics we count on every day. Thanks to innovations like SAP S/4HANA, access to these basics is changing for the better. Four leaders from companies at the vanguard of a better future recently shared their experiences at the annual SAPPHIRE NOW & ASUG Conference.Connected, electric cars
SAP cloud software was the unexpected yet entirely logical choice for Karma Automotive, a two-year old plug-in electric luxury car manufacturer that just shipped its first vehicles.
“When I said we’re going with SAP mainly because of their deep industry expertise, and out-of-the-box best practices for processes, that was not the answer our interim CEO expected,” said Mikael Elley, CIO at Karma. “In his mind, we’re a startup company so of course, we’d be completely in cloud. It became obvious through our research that to meet the demands of our new company for flexible, scalable, easy-to-use and cost-effective we had to go to SAP S/4HANA, and in addition, go to the SAP Cloud Platform and SAP Hybris. We’re running our complete business on the SAP platform.”
Real-time data in the SAP cloud is behind Karma's complete car experience, from buying a vehicle in the dealership to manufacturing in the factory and driving every day. With a few clicks, customers can configure cars that match their personal preferences using the SAP Cloud Platform. Employees on the factory floor at Karma Automotive conduct quality inspections and quickly manage rework. Once on the road, cars emit diagnostic codes that automatically trigger workflows alerting customers of steps to take.
People-first, inclusive workplace
As a cloud-only shop with a lean IT organization, MOD Pizza found SAP S/4HANA Cloud was the ideal solution to support the casual eatery’s aggressive growth and achieve its goal “to be a cool place to eat and an inspiring place to work.” Over 4,000 employees work in more than 200 MOD Pizza locations across the United States and the United Kingdom.
“We needed to continue to expand while creating a platform for innovation. SAP S/4HANA helped simplify our control points and data, and standardize core processes so we can focus on innovation and differentiation,” said Tara Gambill, Director of IT at MOD Pizza. “One of our biggest differentiators is our employees. We have a people-first mantra called spreading MODness, where we empower employees doing things like second-chance hires, embracing diversity, focusing on someone’s future and not being hampered by their past. SAP S/4HANA in the cloud, with its natural integration with SAP SuccessFactors, made it the best possible solution for us.”
L to R: Mikael Elley, CIO at Karma Automotive @KarmaAutomotive, Tara Gambill, Director of IT at MOD Pizza, Manish Sinha, Head of IT at Vectus Industries, jerry Druce, Senior Director and Program Manager at Vivint Smart Home
Clean, safe water
For Vectus Industries, SAP S/4HANA delivered much-needed transparency and speed, helping connect its mobile workforce of over 200 people across India that brings life-saving water to communities.
“We needed visibility into how our products were moving into the market, insights about our users, and the ability to share information across departments,” said Manish Sinha, Head of IT at Vectus Industries. “We’re helping address a water crisis, and the insights that SAP S/4HANA provides help us stay in touch with customers, integrate our mobile workforce, and have a connected platform for using innovations like IoT.”
Since implementing SAP S/4HANA, Manish said Vectus Industries has increased efficiency by 60 percent while reducing operational costs. “Now there’s no downtime, and year-end closings have gone from taking months to days.”
Agility to grow on demand
High-growth company Vivint SmartHome had to innovate systems in synch with its rapidly changing business model. They replaced a patchwork of siloed software and apps across finance, inventory, warehousing and sales with SAP S/4HANA.
“As innovative as we are, we’re taking on new initiatives with new partnerships for a direct sales direct model,” Jerry Druce, Senior Director and Program Manager at Vivint SmartHome. “To reach our goals we need to go through retail markets. The expansion of our sales and distribution channels led us to SAP. We needed the agility to grow on demand, especially as new channels for multi-dwelling, short-term rentals are growing.”
As for advice to companies “standing on the ledge” of digital transformation, Elley said to “read through SAP’s well-documented release notes to make sure the version and release supports the business processes you have, try out the solution, and assess where you should go. We did the same things, and it was remarkably easy to upgrade compared to what we had thought.”
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