The world’s largest marketer of kiwifruit adopts SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition to standardise and automate processes, increase efficiency, and provide a platform for growth and innovation
SYDNEY — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced that Zespri International, the world’s largest marketer of kiwifruit, will become one of the first SAP customers globally to utilise the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition. The new solution forms a key part of the recently announced ‘RISE with SAP’ offer that delivers business transformation as a service. This will help Zespri standardise and automate processes across the organisation, creating efficiencies and providing a platform for growth and innovation to support the fast-growing company.
Cloud transformation
The grower-owned marketer, based in Mount Maunganui, New Zealand, has signed a multi-year deal to support Zespri’s global supply chain process transformation, including a move to SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition and the implementation of several SAP Digital Supply Chain applications including SAP Global Trade Services, SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP) and the SAP Logistics Business Network.
Zespri will also take advantage of SAP Business Technology Platform capabilities, including SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Integration Suite the SAP Extension Suit[1], and SAP endorsed partner solutions from OpenText, Tricentis, and Celonis.
The technology will underpin Zespri’s ambitious four-year Horizon transformation programme to digitise its operations, become more efficient, and increase sales.
Strong demand for its premium-quality fruit has seen the industry grow strongly, recording global sales of NZD$3.14 billion in 2019/20[2]. Longer-term, the industry is forecast to increase global supply of kiwifruit from 164.4 million trays in 2019/20 to around 280 million trays by 2030 [3].
Commenting on the announcement, Dave Scullin, Zespri’s Chief Digital Officer, said: “Zespri’s Horizon programme will transform the way our company operates, replacing legacy systems and processes that were designed 20 years ago, before the significant growth we’ve experienced in recent years. Our new SAP environment will transform the systems and processes across our business, from finance and supply chain to grower enablement and engagement, sales, and business planning. This will strengthen our ability to grow and sustain returns for the industry for decades to come.”
Global demand for kiwifruit is currently outstripping supply, buoyed by the increasing trend of more health-conscious consumers looking for products that taste good and are nutritious.
Innovation at Speed
“Zespri is a large and fast-growing business and we need mature processes and systems to fuel our next stage of growth. Adopting SAP’s standardised core platforms will be transformational in itself, while also letting us leverage SAP’s cloud roadmap to adopt innovation at speed,” said Mr Scullin.
Zespri currently runs its SAP environment on Microsoft Azure public cloud, which will be migrated to the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition, which also runs on Azure. This means Zespri will continue to use Azure for its enterprise infrastructure, bringing the best of Microsoft and SAP.
Zespri’s move to SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition follows the announcement of SAP’s new concierge service to the Intelligent Enterprise, RISE with SAP, which offers software, infrastructure, and technical operations all under one contract. SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition will form a key component of the new RISE with SAP offer.
Designed to deliver business transformation as a service and tailored to each customer’s specific needs, RISE with SAP will include business process redesign, technical migration support, SAP’s Business Technology Platform, the SAP Business Network, SAP S/4HANA Cloud deployment model of choice, and Hyperscaler of choice.
“Moving to the cloud has been a key strategic decision for us, providing greater flexibility, scalability, and faster innovation cycles. We know SAP’s private cloud capabilities have matured significantly in recent years, particularly in the form of customer flexibility, service level security and automation, which makes the new SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition best for our business long-term. This will allow us to focus on our process and systems transformation, knowing that our underlying infrastructure and computing platforms are secure, stable, and available,” continued Mr Scullin.
Removing business risks
“Not only will our transformation help us to reduce business risks by moving to standard systems, it will also enable us to collect and analyse more data, helping us to plan our supply chain more accurately and improve our decision making around shipping and market allocation,” said Mr Scullin.
Damien Bueno, President and Managing Director, SAP Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), said: “The events of the last year have accelerated the move to the cloud, as businesses across markets and industries look to improve the resilience and agility of their operations, while also providing a platform for growth and innovation.
“We are focussed on supporting our customers with the choice, flexibility and a range of delivery and deployment options to meet their needs, and the new SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition will deliver fast time to value, lower total cost of ownership, and the ability to integrate the latest technologies from the internet of things to predictive analytics.”
“As a long-time customer, we are excited that Zespri is leading the way with SAP’s intelligent technologies, to help drive automation, increase profitability, and to support its fast-growing organisation,” continued Mr Bueno.
The implementation will be conducted by a consortium of partners, including Deloitte NZ in partnership with ZAG, part of Accenture. The project will be split into several phases, with the first Digital Core build phase due to begin in February 2021, focused on finance and supply chain processes, before progressing to integrated business planning and sales enablement.
Click here to view a video of Zespri CTO, Dave Scullin, discussing Zespri’s transformation program, and here for images of Dave and Zespri’s kiwi orchards.
For more customer news and stories, visit the SAP ANZ News Centre, and follow SAP ANZ on Twitter @SAPANZ.
About SAP
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[1] SAP Integration Suite the SAP Extension Suit were formally known as the SAP Cloud Platform
[2] In 2019, 4.35 million tonnes of kiwifruit were produced worldwide. This is predicted to reach 5.9 million tonnes by 2025, as a result of increasing global demand. New Zealand produces around 10 percent of the total global production of kiwifruit, around 95 percent of which is exported. Kiwifruit exports in 2019 accounted for more than two thirds of the New Zealand’s fresh fruit exports
[3] Zespri’s 2021 5-Year Outlook Document
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