Bajel Projects: Redefining engineering excellence globally on an advanced business foundation in the cloud
Positioned to achieve new milestones with cloud ERP
To set up business operations following a carve-out, Bajel Projects Limited migrated to SAP Cloud ERP Private capabilities through the RISE with SAP journey. Now operating as an independent entity, Bajel Projects has a scalable, flexible IT architecture to support power infrastructure transformations at home and abroad.
| Industry | Region | Company Size | Partner |
| Construction and real estate | Mumbai, India | 755 employees | Highbar Technocrat Limited |
cost reduction in the IT maintenance of SAP software.
expected increase in turnover.
of system downtime during the three-month migration.
IT Leader, Bajel Projects Limited
Strengthening IT stability, availability, and governance in the cloud
Bajel Projects Limited is a leader in the business of power infrastructure, operating through four business verticals: power transmission, power distribution, monopoles, and international engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC). Part of its operations include a world-class manufacturing facility near Pune in India that is equipped to manufacture transmission line towers, monopoles, high masts, octagonal poles, conical poles, and other fabricated structures.
Formerly, as the EPC division of consumer brands powerhouse Bajaj Electricals Ltd., Bajel Projects acquired over two decades of experience in power infrastructure. Its expertise covers design and testing as well as procurement, manufacturing, installation, and commissioning. Through its key projects, the company has electrified more than 50,000 villages and installed more than 2.6 million service connections in rural and urban electrification projects, providing electricity to millions across the country.
From day one of its existence as an independent company, Bajel Projects needed an advanced digital foundation with maximum availability to support its complex international EPC operations. This included a strategic move into Africa to meet the continent’s growing demand for power infrastructure. Because the company had limited capacity for capital expenditure and only a small internal IT team to maintain its new IT infrastructure, Bajel Projects chose to migrate to the cloud.
IT Leader, Bajel Projects Limited
Providing maximum availability, scalability, and headroom for growth
Needing to meet the substantial IT infrastructure and compliance demands of a listed company, Bajel Projects opted to set up a new instance of its legacy ERP infrastructure that was hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS). The company utilized a brownfield approach to convert to SAP Cloud ERP Private through the RISE with SAP journey while continuing with hosting arrangements from AWS that served its remote project sites. Not only was this the best fit for its needs and limited internal resources, but it also provided the scalability for future growth. The company also transitioned data from a shared instance of SAP S/4HANA used by Bajaj Electricals and Bajel Projects prior to the carve-out.
Nandan Khadatkar, IT leader at Bajel Projects, reflects, “As a listed company, we needed to strengthen IT general controls in line with the considerable compliance requirements. Previously, there were gaps with trace logs and properly maintained backups. By moving to SAP Cloud ERP Private through RISE with SAP, all the infrastructure audit information and compliance for the traceability and availability of the logs would be completed by SAP.”
With the new architecture, a project system feature for project planning, execution, and control is connected to core functionality for materials management, finance and controlling, and production planning. This allows for greater efficiency and manufacturing control through an automated flow from project approval to supplying the finished goods to the customer.
To configure the new architecture, complete with project data, purchase orders, and sales orders from the legacy environment, Bajel Projects joined forces with SAP gold partner Highbar Technocrat Limited. The partner’s experience and expertise with cloud ERP and the EPC sector proved instrumental in completing the migration in just three months within minimal downtime and no major functional issues.
IT Leader, Bajel Projects Limited
Accelerating innovation for infrastructure transformations
By migrating to SAP Cloud ERP Private through RISE with SAP, Bajel Projects transformed its operations, significantly improving overall business performance. For example, upgrades are handled proactively, combining SAP-led automation with customer validation and allowing the company to stay current with innovation while minimizing manual intervention and disruption.
The company realized an immediate gain by avoiding the need to invest in new server infrastructure, reducing the total cost of IT ownership by between 70% and 80%. The move to a managed environment also allowed Bajel Projects to get up and running on the very first day as an independent company, rather than having to set up its new technology environment.
Operating in the private cloud also provides maximum availability for the company’s projects that run concurrently across international markets, improving system availability and performance for remote project teams. And in terms of IT general controls compliance, the segregation of duties and policies and procedures for the security, integrity, and availability of IT systems and data are handled by SAP. This has allowed the company to redeploy internal resources from monitoring IT systems and compliance, with the company’s lean IT team now able to manage over 400 users across more than 50 project sites.
From an operational efficiency perspective, once a subcontractor invoice is uploaded and approved in SAP Cloud ERP Private, direct integrations with banks smooth payments, allowing the company to fulfill strict service-level agreements.
IT Leader, Bajel Projects Limited
Realizing new milestones in power infrastructure
With Bajel Projects’ operations in full swing on SAP Cloud ERP Private, a planned upgrade will enable the company to adopt AI innovations and advanced integration features to help support new levels of efficiency and productivity.
The company is intent on experimenting with SAP Business AI to optimize project planning, with the aim of helping it meet more demanding customer expectations more efficiently. Bajel Projects is also looking to introduce AI-assisted user experiences. The plan is to use the Joule copilot to help its project team quickly find the information it needs for everything from subcontractor payment statuses to project timelines.
The planned upgrade will also test custom code within its private cloud environment, with the testing and retrofitting of customizations part of the project scope. The immediate goal is to safeguard functionality before moving to production, with a longer-term objective of limiting future customizations and moving to a clean core approach.
Want to know more about Bajel Projects?
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Featured partner
Highbar Technocrat Limited is an SAP gold partner with deep knowledge in the EPC business environment from decades of experience handling the complexities of large-scale construction projects. The partner expertly mapped and fine-tuned the configuration of SAP Cloud ERP Private for Bajel Projects’ EPC requirements, supporting the company’s international operations and improving overall business performance.