The excellence of SAP Project Management is a big reason why I recommend SAP Consulting so highly.
Claudio Fontes, Information Technology Division Manager, Spaipa S.A.

Relying on SAP software for production since the late 1990s, Spaipa S.A., a leading distributor of Coca-Cola products, is the first Brazilian company to deploy SAP software for sales and distribution. To ensure a successful implementation, Spaipa drew on consulting and education services from SAP.

Spaipa represents 11% of Coca-Cola product sales in Brazil and is one of the largest beverage bottlers in South America. Founded in 1995, Spaipa performs its own manufacturing and bottling, in addition to sales and distribution of beverage products in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, as well as its suburbs and the entire state of Paraná. The 2,300-person firm generates over $300 million in revenues annually.

Move to Use SAP Software Exclusively

Spaipa has run its business using the mySAP™ Business Suite family of business solutions, including the mySAP Supply Chain Management solution with demand-planning functionality, since the late 1990s when the first phase of its planned SAP software deployment went live. By 2004, SAP solutions supported production processes, but software for sales and distribution processes – core to Spaipa’s business – remained to be implemented.

Instead, Spaipa managed sales and distribution processes using an internally developed application that ran on old computer hardware.

	The knowledge transfer that resulted from working so closely with SAP Consulting and SAP Education was a critical factor in our success.
Claudio Fontes, Information Technology Division Manager, Spaipa S.A.

Spaipa wanted to migrate away from this application for many reasons:

• Parts for the obsolete hardware were hard to find and maintenance was expensive.
• The application employed multiple disconnected databases that took days to deal with, so reports were always out of date.
• Exchanging data with mySAP Business Suite solutions required the use of several cumbersome interfaces.

Before deciding on these solutions, Spaipa performed due diligence by researching the other products available. “We needed a database architecture we could trust to manage all the transactions we conduct with our 100,000 customers. It was also essential that we have better access to information for all our sales personnel,” reports Claudio Fontes, information technology division manager at Spaipa. “After evaluating the alternatives, our engineers found that SAP software met these criteria best. Besides, by choosing SAP software again we knew we would have complete integration with the SAP solutions that run our overall business.”

Quality of Project Management Distinguishes SAP Consulting

According to Fontes, the project management team from SAP Consulting was the obvious choice for implementation. “SAP Consulting has a well-deserved reputation for quality in project management and in everything they do,” he says. “We have had many experiences with the consultants in Brazil, and they are always available to provide competent support. Besides, no one knows SAP solutions like SAP Consulting.”

SAP Beverage had never been deployed in Brazil, nor had the sales and distribution software in SAP Business Suite been implemented anywhere in Brazil’s beverage industry. Therefore, the project team proceeded cautiously, using SAP Ramp-Up and specialists from SAP Consulting, who provided proactive monitoring, support, and knowledge transfer from start to finish. “By pioneering the use of these solutions, we expected to achieve a competitive advantage, but at the cost of having to face many unknowns,” says Fontes. “By removing our concern about these unknowns, SAP Ramp-Up solved the dilemma for us.”

Another way that SAP Consulting ensured the project’s success was by appointing not only a project manager to lead the team of 20 consultants, but also a customer engagement manager to manage the relationship with Spaipa. Spaipa appointed a project team of its own, and the two groups enjoyed an extremely close partnership throughout the project. “The SAP consultants and our experts acted as a single integrated team, with a joint commitment to the project’s success,” says Fontes, who served as project manager for Spaipa. “The close relationship that I shared with the project managers from SAP Consulting was a critical accelerator.”

	We’ve already begun to experience substantial benefits. We now have vital information in real time, not two or three days later, allowing us better control of our operations.
Claudio Fontes, Information Technology Division Manager, Spaipa S.A.

Spaipa also engaged the SAP Project Management service from SAP Consulting, which began with a risk analysis to carefully consider all possible threats to the project’s success. The project managers researched the unique legal requirements that apply to the Brazilian beverage industry to make sure the solutions addressed them fully, and then verified that the solutions would deliver the performance needed for Spaipa’s demanding processes. They proceeded only after ensuring that these risk areas were addressed. For even further risk mitigation, SAP Project Management used a phased implementation approach in which the results of each phase were verified against expectations before proceeding to the next step.

ASAP Methodology Gets Complete Approval from Spaipa’s Board of Directors

SAP Consulting followed the five-phase ASAP implementation management approach, which includes project preparation, blueprint, realization, final preparation, and go-live and support. ASAP supports project teams with a combination of best practices from SAP solutions and SAP Project Management.

“An important key to the project’s success was the way the SAP Project Management team members followed their methodology, especially during the first two steps,” says Fontes. “They spent many days with our project team, understanding our requirements, forming a plan to meet them, and explaining the best practices entailed in bringing the plan to fruition. Then they presented the plan they developed to our board of directors, who approved it 100%. Next, they visited each of our plants and solution centers to present the plan and attain buy in from our people. Because this planning and blueprinting was done so well, the project stayed on schedule throughout and culminated in complete success.”

Another reason for the project’s success was the set of tools that the SAP consultants employed, especially SAP Solution Manager. Used for all phases of the project, this tool provided a single location for all project documentation. SAP Consulting also used SAP Solution Manager to maintain an issue database, to define the testing to be performed, to generate test cases, and to provide test results for verification that performance objectives had been met.

SAP Consulting Teams with SAP Education for Customer Self-Sufficiency

Toward the end of the project, SAP Consulting brought in SAP Education to conduct training for headquarters-based users and to train Spaipa’s project team to be self-sufficient in rolling out the solutions to the field, where 94% of the 400 solution users reside.

SAP Consulting and SAP Education worked closely to make sure the training was optimal and met the exact needs of the customer. The SAP Consulting project managers began by explaining the scope of the deployment to consultants from SAP Education, who recommended workshops on SAP Beverage and courses covering the sales and distribution software in mySAP Business Suite. After validating this training plan with Spaipa, the project managers and consultants jointly prepared a detailed training agenda. This formal training augmented the informal education that SAP Consulting had taken care to conduct all along. “The knowledge transfer that resulted from working so closely with SAP Consulting and SAP Education was a critical factor in our success,” comments Fontes.

Complete Success, on Time and Within Budget

SAP Consulting brought the new solutions into production within budget and right on time in January 2005. Spaipa began production use at its headquarters, and then proceeded to roll out the solutions throughout the rest of the organization. Spaipa expects the entire company to be on board by July 2005.

To use the new solutions, Spaipa sales personnel connect with the central system three times a day by cell phone. The key in sales and delivery information is to update the single, central database that is managed through SAP solutions. Sales management has immediate visibility into this data and any problems that may arise. Executive management has complete, up-to-date information for managing the company’s operations.

“We’ve already begun to experience substantial benefits,” says Fontes. “We now have vital information in real time, not two or three days later, allowing us better control of our operations. In addition, productivity is up for everyone involved, because of the automation the solutions introduced. Once we complete the rollout, we’ll experience even more benefits by retiring the old application and the hardware it runs on. In addition, we’ll enjoy a single integrated SAP solution instead of a system held together by a loose collection of interfaces,” he adds.

Since the installation, Spaipa has already started to experience many benefits in sales and distribution. Now that management has a complete, up-to-date picture of operations at all times, the company has an improved ability to identify problems and control operations. Sales and distribution data is centralized into a single database. And optimized business processes have led to improved productivity throughout the sales and distribution network and have reduced total cost of ownership. The benefits continue to grow as Spaipa rolls out the software to additional business units.

Flawless Execution by SAP Project Management

After the rollout is complete, Spaipa plans to continue its deployment of mySAP Business Suite by implementing more software capabilities. The company is also looking at implementing the SAP NetWeaver platform during 2006.

“SAP Consulting did an outstanding job for us,” concludes Fontes. “SAP Project Management displayed all the qualities that make for success – they were always in control, showed strong leadership skills, and commanded all the resources required to stay on plan at all times. They communicated well with us, with the Brazilian SAP team, and with SAP headquarters. I cannot think of any way they might have done a more perfect job. The excellence of SAP Project Management is a big reason why I recommend SAP Consulting so highly.”

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