Leading ANZ business essentials supplier chooses SAP to drive business efficiency
Sydney, Australia — Corporate Express has selected SAP’s market leading Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution to support the growth and expansion of its business. Corporate Express is Australia and New Zealand’s leading single source supplier of office products and business essentials.
Corporate Express projects cost savings, margin expansion and working capital benefits of AU$14m (pre depreciation) per annum, as a result of the project. The company will invest AU$34.5m on the project, which will be implemented in stages over the next three years.
Corporate Express provides businesses with IT solutions, print services, promotional marketing, business furniture, facilities supplies, catering and kitchen supplies and office essentials.
“We will roll out SAP ERP as part of a phased implementation, which has been named Project nXtgen. The nXtgen system will provide the company with an IT platform for the future. It will support our rapidly growing enterprise and allow for the integration of acquisitions as well as expansion into new markets and geographies,” said Garry Whatley, Chief Information Officer, Corporate Express Australia Ltd.
“After an exhaustive evaluation of potential ERP technology platforms, we selected SAP. The decision was made on the basis of the strong product offering but also SAP’s readiness to work in partnership with the Corporate Express team,” continued Mr Whatley. “SAP presented solutions in an energetic and innovative way, which matches our own approach to doing business.”
The company said that while the previous IT system has served them well, its ability to scale and support the future strategic objectives of the business is limited.
“The new solution will replace our legacy ERP system,” said Mr Whatley. “We have a highly experienced and dedicated team who have been working closely with the business for the past two years in standardising and simplifying processes. With this knowledge of our business, the phased rollout strategy and the support of SAP, we are confident of a smooth implementation.”
The first phase of the implementation is scheduled to be completed towards the end of 2009 and will include Employee Portal and Master Data Management. This will serve to provide the foundation for the new SAP ERP system to be subsequently integrated and fully operational by the end of 2010.
