[VIDEO] Building more inclusive futures with SAP RISE at Bewel

Apr 19, 2024

IT
operations
people
SAP

Sheltered workshops have a unique role in society. They create employment opportunities, help participants develop new skills, and provide a vital social network. At the same time, they also need to deliver quality work to clients in a wide range of activities – from assembly to logistics. Succeeding on all those different fronts requires hard work, commitment, and a thirst to keep evolving and innovating. It explains why Bewel, one of the largest sheltered workshops in Belgium, was among the first companies in the country to make the switch to SAP RISE. delaware played a key role in making it happen.

Client: Bewel, a leading sheltered workshops with 2,200 employees across 8 work centers. To promote inclusivity, 400 of Bewel’s employees work in-house at various customers.
Challenge: Replacing end-of-life on-premise IT infrastructure with a future-proof cloud solution to establish a solid foundation for further modernization and innovation.
Solution: SAP RISE, SAP’s (private) cloud-based SAP S/4HANA solution, offers a range of new features and sets the stage for key HR innovations, like competency management.

The challenge: necessity is the mother of invention

Until recently, Bewel’s IT landscape depended almost entirely on two large on-premise servers, located near its headquarters in Diepenbeek. But when the hardware became end-of-life, the organization faced a difficult choice. Should they extend the contract for now, or take steps to move everything to a hyperscaler?

Several factors weighed heavily on this decision, including:

the prospect that Bewel’s current SAP ECC ERP would soon have to be upgraded to SAP S/4HANA;
the need to keep up with ever-evolving customer expectations to safeguard Bewel’s position as a frontrunner on the Belgian market;
limited budget and a small in-house IT management to strategize, plan, and execute this crucial transition.

“One thing was clear,” says General Director Johan Bongaerts. “Standing still was not an option for us if we wanted to achieve our goals and remain competitive. At the same time, we also realized that upgrading our IT foundation presented a unique opportunity to lay the groundworks for future innovation as well. The question remained: how could we do all this with limited resources and within a strict budget?”

Standing still was not an option for us if we wanted to achieve our goals and remain competitive. At the same time, we also realized that upgrading our IT foundation presented a unique opportunity to lay the groundworks for future innovation as well.

Johan Bongaerts, general director at Bewel

The solution: setting the standard for exceptionality

In search of an answer, Bewel turned to delaware, which had been one of its trusted IT partners for many years. “Organizations like Bewel operate within very specific boundaries, which challenges us to be creative,” says Patrick Carmans, partner at delaware. “When we received their question, SAP had just launched a full-service cloud solution, then called SAP Private Cloud and now known as SAP RISE. Upon closer inspection, it was clear that SAP RISE could solve many of Bewel’s most pressing challenges.”

In fact, SAP RISE would allow Bewel to:

take the necessary leap to SAP S/4HANA, and benefit from crucial new functionalities and an improved user interface;
establish a stable and robust cloud platform that could handle future developments and innovations;
standardize numerous ERP processes for improved efficiency.

But what about costs? “To make the switch as cost-efficient as possible, we proposed a so-called brownfield migration,” adds Patrick. “Their setup of SAP ECC was very standard, so keeping existing data and configurations was easy. This also meant we could leverage most of Bewel’s historic investments.”

Fields of green, blue and brown

Cloud migrations come in different colors, most commonly green, blue, and brown. But what do these mean, exactly?

You can think of a greenfield migration as a completely fresh start. You’re building a new system from scratch in the cloud, without reusing any components of the existing system. The pro: higher flexibility and more room for innovation and flexibility, as well as better alignment with the cloud architecture and best practices. The downside: this method can be costly, time-consuming, and risky, as it requires quite a lot of development and testing.
Brownfield migration, then, is a lift-and-shift approach: you move the existing system to the cloud as it is, without making any changes or modifications. This makes it relatively fast and easy. Moreover, because only minimal development and testing is needed, the risks and costs are relatively low. However, this approach means you can’t fully optimize your system for the new environment. In the case of Bewel, the fact that the on-premise setup was already pretty standard made this less of a concern.
You probably guessed it: a bluefield migration combines aspects of greenfield and brownfield approaches. Here, the existing system is replicated in the cloud, but with some changes and improvements to optimize it for the new environment.

The result: fast upgrade, long-term advantages

Going with a brownfield approach, guided by delaware, meant Bewel could upgrade to its new platform in a single step. “Thanks to rigorous preparation, the actual, technical migration was completed over the course of a single weekend,” says Johan. “We started on Friday, and on Monday we were running in this entirely new environment – no one in the business had noticed anything.”

While the upgrade itself was speedy, the benefits for Bewel are long-term. “Our teams now have access to a host of new features and an intuitive user interface,” says Johan. “But perhaps even more important for Bewel as whole is that we’re 100% cloud-ready and in alignment with SAP’s overarching cloud strategy. This means, for example, that we can confidently engage in other innovation projects as well.”

At the time of writing, Bewel is already working with delaware on digitizing key HR processes like competency management. “For this project, we are leveraging SAP SuccessFactors,” explains Patrick. “The goal is to replace Bewel’s current Excel-based and labor-intensive approach with a modernized alternative that eliminates administrative overhead. In this way, there will be more time for the teams to focus on delivering high-quality products and services to their many customers.”

Perhaps even more important for Bewel as whole is that we’re 100% cloud-ready and in alignment with SAP’s overarching cloud strategy. This means, for example, that we can confidently engage in other innovation projects as well.

Johan Bongaerts, general director at Bewel