Unique global transformation programme realised in only 18 months
Following the sale of the Domestic Appliances business by Royal Philips in 2021, the newly standalone company, now named Versuni, embarked on a journey to realize a completely new technology landscape within just 18 months. With RISE with SAP and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) as its strategic partner, Versuni managed to migrate to a wall-to-wall SAP environment in 55 countries on time. With SAP S/4HANA as a solid foundation for innovation and growth.
“Versuni begins a new chapter after we moved forward as a standalone company”, said Henk S. de Jong, CEO at Versuni. “We are committed to delivering the best possible solutions for our consumers and customers and will continue to excite with innovations that make life at home better, easier and healthier. And as we continue our journey, we are building an organization that is modern, agile and digital that allows us to expand on our market leadership and explore new opportunities. Our partner SAP is helping us to achieve this.”
“The overall objective is to transform our organization to become truly centred around lifetime engagement with our consumers. Thanks to the latest technologies, we’re able to provide our consumers with faster and better service”, said Corine Adams, the company’s CIO. “Consumers are at the heart of all our decisions and we want to translate their needs into new, innovative products. Therefore, it is essential that we have a good understanding of what they want.”
Starting from scratch
A new landscape should provide those insights. But that landscape also presented Versuni with a major challenge, according to Adams. Within just 18 months, there had to be a solid foundation – a “minimum viable product” – for the company’s operations and continued growth. “At the same time, we saw this challenge as a unique opportunity to be able to start from scratch,” she says. “A greenfield approach offered us the unique opportunity to implement industry-standard processes and working methods.”
Exuviate programme
To achieve this, Versuni launched the Exuviate programme. This is a reference to the process by which animals such as insects, reptiles and some mammals shed their old, too-cramped skin or shell to make room for growth. The programme was based on the principles ‘SAP, unless’ and ‘cloud, unless’, and used RISE with SAP to transition to ERP in the cloud. The aim is to create a company that is digitally focused and drives innovation and growth with data-driven decision-making.
“We have relied on SAP for more than 30 years and we couldn’t think of a better partner to prepare us for the next chapter in our journey,” says Adams. “By using SAP’s suite of applications, we can benefit from integrated end-to-end processes, robust data management and advanced analytics and artificial intelligence. Those components are essential for driving innovation, operational efficiency and better insights.”
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) was selected as a partner to implement the solution. Adams says: “TCS’ expertise and flexibility, combined with their deep understanding of our mission, made them the perfect partner.”
Biggest programme ever
“Our biggest challenge was to lay the foundation for running and scaling our business within a very tight timeframe of 18 months,” Adams outlines. “We replaced or removed every system from email to accounting, marketing to production and supply chain to customer-facing systems. This is the largest programme of its kind – anywhere, in any industry.”
The programme included implementing 40 new networks, replacing 4,700 laptops and desktops, 60+ new cloud applications, migrating more than 300 data objects and redesigning 400 reports and 3,500 processes.
Globally live in one ‘go’
Working closely with SAP and TCS, Versuni succeeded in making the switch to the SAP Best of Suite within the deadline. On 1 May 2023, Versuni went live with the new environment globally in one ‘go’. Adams: “With SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition at the core of our entire SAP environment, we are well on our way to becoming the modern company we need to be.”
Foundation for innovation
This transformation program has earned Versuni the SAP Innovation Award 2023 in the Industry Leader category for driving innovation and delivering customer value-transforming solutions.
“This digital transformation helps us to continuously deliver a superior consumer experience”, concludes De Jong. “And to stay true to our purpose: turning houses into homes.”