Asda has opted for Rise with SAP S/4 Hana on Microsoft Azure as its core enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, in line with its parent EG Group, which announced a similar decision last month.
Following its acquisition by the Issa Brothers and TDR Capital from Walmart earlier this year, Asda said, in a joint statement with SAP, that it is “transitioning from its legacy solutions and embarking on an accelerated digital transformation strategy to better manage its end-to-end business operations. This includes commercial, procurement, supply chain, logistics and retail operations”.
The supermarket, the third biggest chain in the UK, will also use the SAP Business Technology Platform and SAP Ariba for procurement.
The joint statement said the supermarket was on the lookout for a “digital platform that would improve its understanding of changing customer behaviours, while also ensuring business continuity via improved response to rapidly fluctuating supply chain disruption”.
Carl Dawson, chief information officer at Asda, said: “We are embarking on an exciting business transformation as part of our separation from Walmart. We have chosen SAP as our digital core partner for its market-leading real-time business platforms and proven experience in retail and delivery. Through Rise with SAP, we are looking forward to building on our strategic relationship and achieving Asda’s goals for now and the future in the dynamic retail industry.”
With more than 600 stores and 140,000 employees serving 18 million customers every week, Asda has been the UK’s lowest-cost supermarket for 24 consecutive years, according to The Grocer magazine.
Rise with SAP packages managed cloud infrastructure and managed services into one contract for its customers.
In a recent briefing with Computer Weekly, Michiel Verhoeven, managing director at SAP UK and Ireland, said: “Rise is a way to go to market to convince people who are on-premise and sceptical. What matters [in deals like this] is that SAP says, ‘I will procure the infrastructure from the hyperscaler [public cloud provider] for you. I will make sure you run on BTP [Business Technology Platform] so that your migration is done smoothly.”
The parties added: “The move to Rise with SAP will provide Asda with an agile and single digital core platform to deliver automation and simplification of business processes in the cloud, enhanced user experience, real-time data and insights and near real-time sales, inventory and process visibility.”
The statement also mentioned the Ariba adoption, which would “enable Asda to standardise and streamline its procurement processes across the organisation, which expects to enhance data-driven intelligence, pricing optimisation and supply chain visibility”, adding: “By improving supplier relationships and spend compliance, Asda aims to mitigate risk, reduce waste and achieve long-term resilience against supply chain disruption.”
Rohit Nagarajan, president EMEA north at SAP, said: “We are incredibly proud of the longstanding partnership we have built with Asda over the years. This next phase of business innovation will undoubtedly mean Asda will be able to supercharge its operations, streamline processes and harness the power of its data for increased insight and real-time business decision-making and we look forward to supporting them on this next phase of growth and into the future.”
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