AJ Vaccines is accelerating its digital foundation with a new cloud platform and advanced IT solutions from SAP.
With sales to 86 countries, 450 employees from more than 30 nationalities, and production of vital vaccines against diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, tuberculosis, and bladder cancer, AJ Vaccines is a significant player in global vaccine preparedness.
Since the Statens Serum Institut (SSI) sold its vaccine production in 2017 and it was taken over by AJ Vaccines, the organization has transitioned from a public entity to a private pharmaceutical company based in Copenhagen.
From legacy to cloud and compliance
After the divestment from SSI, AJ Vaccines inherited an SAP system from the late 1990s, which was designed more for a public health organization than a pharmaceutical company.
“We were left with an outdated system that didn’t really fit our needs as a private player in a global market,” Michael Kvistholm, head of IT at AJ Vaccines, said. “That’s why we decided to go all-in on a cloud solution with SAP S/4HANA Cloud. We carried out a pure standard implementation from scratch (greenfield) in a RISE with SAP setup and now have a modern, flexible, and scalable cloud ERP platform that supports our entire business.”
The decision was made to ensure a platform that matches the company’s needs and future growth.
“We have reduced our technological debt and consolidated our systems, gaining a more intuitive and user-friendly platform so we can work more efficiently and securely—while also meeting the high standards for quality, traceability, and documentation required in our industry,” he explained.
Everyday examples: efficiency and user-friendliness
Since implementing SAP S/4HANA Cloud in October 2025, AJ Vaccines has gained a unified platform that creates new opportunities to optimize and integrate processes across the company. The solution provides a solid foundation for better data quality and workflows, enabling improved management, increased transparency, and more effective decision-making.
The IT department has gained an overview and reduced complexity with SAP LeanIX, a tool for mapping and managing the company’s entire application landscape and ensuring governance across both SAP and non-SAP solutions. SAP Cloud ALM is used for project management and lifecycle management, so releases, testing, and documentation are handled efficiently, and compliance is always top-notch.
During the implementation, AJ Vaccines used SAP Signavio and based its approach on SAP standard processes, which brought several advantages.
“We’ve saved a lot of hours by using standard test cases from SAP Signavio, which is our platform for process mapping, modelling, and optimization,” said Kvistholm. “We’ll also use these tools for other projects across the company.”
At the same time, SAP Enable Now—for change management and end-user training—has made learning for existing staff and onboarding new employees easier.
“We’ve created over 100 training videos so all employees can quickly find answers and learn new workflows—it’s been a huge success,” Kvistholm confirmed.
Kvistholm also looks forward to early 2026, when the recruitment process will be digitized with SAP SuccessFactors. Finally, he and his team will carefully consider the new opportunities created by SAP Business Technology Platform. The platform enables rapid development and integration of new solutions and apps, allowing IT to support business needs flexibly, and, among other things, consolidate other platforms: “There’s really no reason to pay double,” as Kvistholm put it.
Change management and the foundation for the future
AJ Vaccines is focused on formalizing its superuser organization and strengthening governance around master data.
“We need to clean everything up and keep things in order,” Kvistholm said. “SAP has become the foundation for our continued digitalization. From now on, it’s about seeing how we can get SAP spread even more out throughout the company.”
Advice for other companies
Kvistholm emphasized the importance of management support and a narrow scope: “It’s about staying focused and achieving a fundamental implementation—and then continuously carrying out smaller improvement projects. That is and will be the key to our success.”
Ellen Vig Nelausen is an integrated communications expert for SAP Regional Communications.
