Fast, efficient, successful.

When ERP becomes SAP S/4HANA in just six months.

JOANNEUM RESEARCH migrates to a future-proof platform in record time with SRB expertise.

JOANNEUM RESEARCH, headquartered in Graz, stands for top-level research at an international level and offers technologies and innovative solutions in the fields of digital and green transformation, health and care, mobility, production and manufacturing, security and defence, space, and economic and social policy. The company's IT must also be 'top-notch', as it handles many sensitive customer data. SRB has ensured that this is secured today and in the future, supporting JOANNEUM RESEARCH in migrating its SAP ERP to SAP S/4HANA in an external data centre. In record time and highly efficiently.

It has been a long time - specifically around 30 years. Back then, JOANNEUM RESEARCH was one of the first companies in Austria to adopt SAP R/3, thus implementing a modern IT-supported process and data management for its time. SAP ERP followed - and now the next step into the future was due, as Reinhard Brantner, IT strategist at JOANNEUM RESEARCH, explains: “ERP is the backbone of many of our processes. Therefore, it is crucial for us to keep the platform current and future-proof. And today, that means migrating to SAP S/4HANA.”

The importance of this can be seen in the bare numbers: Since the founding of the research company in 1986, JOANNEUM RESEARCH has developed into one of the most important research institutions and 'innovation hubs' for applied research in Southeast Austria, with around 500 employees at six locations and an annual research output of around 50 million euros. The company, owned by the states of Styria, Carinthia, and Burgenland, supports customers from across Europe and worldwide in about 800 projects per year on their path to innovative solutions, thereby strengthening economic power.

SRB Expertise Impresses

Accordingly ambitious, JOANNEUM RESEARCH set to work. At the end of 2022, the project was launched - and in just six months, the new SAP S/4HANA instance for five clients went live. The swift migration was also due to the IT partner, which was SRB.

In a tender, the Vienna-based SAP expert prevailed against well-known local competitors, particularly scoring with its conversion experience even with smaller, lean IT infrastructures. A decision that Brantner does not regret: “Our timeline for the brownfield migration was quite challenging - and SRB adhered to it,” summarises the IT strategist. What usually takes around a year for projects of comparable scope was implemented in half the time - and also 'under budget', meaning with less effort than initially assumed.

Good collaboration is half the battle

The success of the conversion can largely be attributed to Martin Kasper from SRB, who emphasises the pragmatic and collegial approach: “By focusing on the necessary and most important adjustments and having everyone contribute unbureaucratically to problems, every issue could be resolved without causing significant delays.”

Martin Kasper cites examples: There were interruptions during the upgrade of the 3rd party add-ons and also errors that neither the pre-check nor the custom code analysis had indicated. Solutions had to be found relatively quickly to avoid jeopardising the tight schedule. Of course, there were also preliminary projects and activities that we had to consider. Thus, the business partner conversion, custom code cleansing, and cleaning up obsolete company codes took place within the project. And that was done 'agile and lean', always in close coordination with the project team and the key users from the very beginning.

In a three-stage process, action was taken. First, 'sandboxing' was done, followed by trial migration, before the entire system went into production. During the executions, SRB and the JOANNEUM RESEARCH team always kept the auditors in mind. The migration was documented to withstand a later audit.

What was also considered: SAP Human Capital Management, or HCM. The SAP solution for personnel management, accounting, and HR is being completely revamped by SAP with a simplified data model on SAP S/4HANA on-premise (H4S4). However, within the framework of the project, the existing solution was migrated in the Compatibility Scope, paving the way for the transition to SAP H4S4.

Successful strategic shift

What many companies in Austria still face, namely the transition to SAP S/4HANA, has now been realised by JOANNEUM RESEARCH – while simultaneously executing a strategic shift: During the migration, the SAP system was transferred from its own data centre to the on-premise infrastructure of an external outsourcing partner. There were no security concerns: 'Even though the data is not physically with us, we have full control over it,' Brantner remains calm.

Thanks to the conversion with SRB support, new opportunities are now opening up for JOANNEUM RESEARCH on the modernised ERP platform. 'SRB met our expectations in the project and helped us migrate to the current release of our SAP system without issues. Thus, we can now focus on new projects that will further simplify our processes,' says the IT strategist of JOANNEUM RESEARCH.

About Joanneum Research

JOANNEUM RESEARCH, headquartered in Graz, is an innovation and technology provider in the field of applied research. As a research company of the states and regions, we shape the development of our modern society and economy sustainably and human-centred with our research competencies. As a multidisciplinary team in flexible, innovation-friendly structures, we uphold the highest societal and scientific standards. More about JOANNEUM RESEARCH at www.joanneum.at.

Challenges

• Conversion from SAP ERP to SAP S/4HANA for 5 clients
• Tight timeframe
• Legacy system with extensive additional developments
• Transfer of systems from the own data centre to an outsourcing partner

Solution

SAP S/4HANA migration with various add-ons in a brownfield approach

Results

• SAP S/4HANA fully in production
• Implementation of the migration in just six months

• Implementation of the migration 'under budget'
• Implementation of a modern platform as a basis for future synergies