GAMBIT Consulting: Crossing into the cloud era with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition
Explore GAMBIT Consulting’s journey with SAP
GAMBIT Consulting GmbH is an IT consulting company and SAP gold partner. The company faced a crossroads when the contract for its legacy on-premise ERP solution SAP S/4HANA was up for renewal, and internal processes bogged GAMBIT down. Modernizing to the cloud would be a huge advantage for its own IT infrastructure, business strategy, and clients. For this, GAMBIT started its own road map program, supported by SAP.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Professional services | Troisdorf, Germany | 250 employees |
less time spent on system upgrades and maintenance.
reduction in time testing with tools and documentation.
more time to focus on new development and innovation.
CEO, GAMBIT Consulting GmbH
Focusing on the future with sights set on the cloud
GAMBIT is a fast-growing European IT consulting company and SAP gold partner that offers its customers SAP solution expertise and implementation services with a clear focus on the cloud. The company’s strategy is driven by the need for businesses to reduce complexity, increase flexibility, and improve agility.
GAMBIT reached its own technology turning point when its contract for SAP S/4HANA, its on-premise ERP solution adopted in 2016, was up for extension. Not only that, but GAMBIT also knew it needed to rethink processes to support its growth path. This became the moment to evaluate whether the company should move from on-premise operations and adopt the emerging public cloud as its standard. After discovering the benefits, the company explored transitioning to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.
The move to a public cloud could deliver significant technology advantages for GAMBIT, eliminating its complex IT infrastructure and one-off processes. It also offered faster implementation with standard functionalities, reducing customization time and saving extra development and maintenance costs.
But transforming to a new IT foundation would have a big operational impact on the company’s systems and teams. The most effective method to determine its viability would be to conduct rigorous viability testing on SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.
Paving a path forward, beginning with an in-depth evaluation process
SAP Enterprise Support services provided GAMBIT with the tools and expertise it needed to begin thinking big about a move to the cloud. Based on best practices for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and the SAP Activate methodology, GAMBIT’s preliminary study identified 452 processes across its strategic goals, operating model, cost and risk calculations, and other key factors. The study revealed an 88% mapping with the company’s requirements, advancing SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition to move forward as the company’s new ERP foundation.
For implementation, the company partnered with the Customer Success organization, the Mission-Critical Support team, and the Customer Interaction Center service to smooth go-live.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition uses a clean core strategy, or standardized configuration that optimizes technology infrastructures for the cloud. Enhancements and customizations were achieved through a cloud extensibility framework. This included a variety of business cloud offerings, such as SAP Concur solutions to support expense reporting, the SAP Fiori design system to design new business apps, offerings on SAP Business Technology Platform such as the SAP Market Rates Management application, and internal programs that communicate in real-time through APIs managed using SAP Integration Suite.
The company also implemented a robust change management program based on best practices with its clients. GAMBIT developed workshops and training across teams and for specific organization requirements. For instance, its finance department had many system customizations, so specific changes were implemented to increase efficient workflows and decrease the learning curve. This included automating more processes and integrating AI capabilities.
Modernizing to the cloud for big advantages to the business and clients
The company transformed its SAP architecture from the inside out. Across applications, it standardized processes, gained more efficiency, increased data quality, and streamlined to a modern UX on all devices.
Transitioning to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition as its technology foundation also supports the company’s strategic drivers for less complexity and more agility. Working with its new SAP solution on a regular basis, GAMBIT could quickly integrate knowledge and improve performance and capabilities.
This expertise and internal learnings also positioned GAMBIT as a top public cloud provider for its client base. The company could fast-track education improvements into its customer program and leverage a competitive advantage for future business development efforts.
Exploring possibilities with SAP’s AI copilot
GAMBIT is using the SAP Early Adopter Care program to implement the Joule copilot for use with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. It will be experimenting with the AI capabilities and evaluating how Joule fits into the company’s strategy.
“GAMBIT is continuously exploring new AI capabilities of SAP solutions for our clients,” explains Stefan Burghardt, head of connectivity and development at GAMBIT. “With Joule, we can now provide an AI-based user experience for our own internal SAP team.”