‘Take every step with care, and you won’t have to worry about passing the milestones’

Migrating a major retailer from a legacy ERP system to S/4HANA was an enormous job, says lead consultant and technical architect Ruchita Trisal. Her advice: see it as a series of small jobs.

“I took my first steps as an SAP specialist in 2012. Where I come from, in India, I was working as an SAP Basis consultant for a large organizational consulting bureau. Back then, I wanted to gain as much knowledge and experience as possible. I switched to Capgemini three years later; first in India, where I started working as SAP consultant and technical lead.”

“In the Netherlands, I’m the technical lead for a project team of 50 people, with whom I supported Maxeda with the migration of a legacy ERP system to S/4HANA for Retail, as one of the first retailers in Europa. Recently we’ve successfully completed the second phase: a SAP upgrade combined with a transition from our datacenters to the Public Google Cloud platform.”

“In the Netherlands, I’m the technical lead for a project team of 50 people, with whom I supported Maxeda with the migration of a legacy ERP system to S/4HANA for Retail, as one of the first retailers in Europa. Recently we’ve successfully completed the second phase: a SAP upgrade combined with a transition from our datacenters to the Public Google Cloud platform.”

“Maxeda has used SAP for decades. In fact, they had it before I was even born! Since then, the company has grown enormously. So it was time to adapt the systems to that development and to switch to the more advanced solution that SAP offers now.”

“But for such a big business, with so many suppliers and with all of the legacy the company has accumulated over the past several decades, a transformation like this one can’t be arranged from one day to the next. And the retail sector itself is dynamic as well; new challenges are waiting around every corner. So it comes down to the careful approach I was just talking about. We go step-by-step into the new world together with the client.”

“That’s a very intensive process. Everyone’s constantly on the edge, both on our side and on the client’s side. Every day - and night - there are new questions to answer, new problems to solve, and new functionalities to develop. Yes, it’s a tough job. But to be honest, that’s how I prefer to work. I perform best under pressure.”

“Plus, I can build upon the enormous pile of knowledge and experience that we have in-house here at Capgemini. As an architect, I look at the bigger picture, but here are many colleagues working here who are specialized in the specific SAP modules that Maxeda uses. Finance, HR, you name it. All together, we have up to 200 people in the Netherlands and worldwide even many more, with some of them having more than 30 years of experience. So there’s always someone to help me when I have questions or challenges.”

“The great thing is: all these people have the same drive. All colleagues here love their work, and they strive for the best. So when you have a client that thinks the same way, you know it’ll be a success. And now we have the proof: we successfully completed the migration to S/4HANA for Retail in the year 2020. And then there’s the successful completion of the SAP upgrade combined with the transition to the Public Google Cloud platform I just mentioned. These are the results of countless tiny steps we’ve taken together with our client and partners in a project of 9 months.”