Zelestra: Enabling a carbon-free tomorrow with a scalable ERP solution
Explore Zelestra’s journey with SAP
Zelestra is a global, multi-technology, customer-focused renewable energy company specializing in the development, commercialization, construction, operation, and management of utility-scale renewable energy projects. To help power rapid enterprise growth and support its unique operational requirements, the company needed to implement a more modern and scalable ERP solution. Zelestra chose SAP Cloud ERP and integrated SAP SuccessFactors solutions to support its expanding workforce.
| Industry | Region | Company Size | Partner |
| Renewable energy | Getxo, Spain | >900 employees | Avvale and NUVA |
sales operating plants harmonized on one global system.
for the first SAP Cloud ERP solution to go live.
Chief Digital Officer, Zelestra
Managing the complexities of high-growth mode
Zelestra collaborates with its clients to make their decarbonization goals a reality. Recognizing that each customer is unique, the company develops tailor-made solutions, combining different technologies for renewable resources such as solar, wind, batteries, and green hydrogen.
Founded originally in Spain in 2005, the company has experienced exponential growth in recent years. In 2024 alone, the company recruited around 500 people to grow the total headcount close to 1,000, with operations in five core business units covering southern Europe, the United States, Latin America, India, and Germany. Because the company is vertically integrated, managing the development, commercialization, construction, and operations and maintenance of assets, it operates with multiple business areas that have challenges to overcome in operations, data management, and reporting.
A key consideration for Zelestra as it grew globally was to ensure it had the best solutions for managing differing tax taxonomies, global financial accounting, and regulations that vary by country. The company also looked to optimize the management of enterprise data so leadership would have enhanced visibility and reporting for faster and more-accurate decision-making. Lastly, Zelestra wanted to improve how it measured the success of its sustainability efforts through KPIs that are easy to track.
Zelestra knew that a lack of scalability in its enterprise technology allow it to overcome any roadblocks to growth, so it searched for a single ERP solution that could serve its business units in every country in which it operates.
Chief Digital Officer, Zelestra
Creating an enterprise technology core in the cloud
To maximize efficiency, Zelestra sought a business-ready ERP solution. After a lengthy analysis of the ERP market, it chose SAP Cloud ERP solutions and the GROW with SAP for scaleups program to help accelerate its move to the cloud. A subscription-based program, GROW with SAP for scaleups supports companies like Zelestra that are entering a hypergrowth phase. Through the program, Zelestra can take advantage of a cloud solution package to help manage its core business needs. This enabled the automation and operational scalability it needed for faster time to value.
With solution support and regular updates from SAP, the company also benefits from the latest technologies such as AI. Zelestra engaged SAP partner Avvale to assist with solution implementation and integration.
To meet Zelestra’s ambitious talent recruiting needs, the company implemented the SAP SuccessFactors HCM suite to support its HR operations, including core HR and time management, talent management, and workforce planning. For this part of the project, Zelestra worked with SAP partner NUVA, which has extensive experience in implementing SAP SuccessFactors solutions in the HR sector.
The SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting solution enables the company to simplify global recruiting and attract the best available talent. To help onboard its new talent and enhance and accelerate the onboarding process, it added the SAP SuccessFactors Onboarding solution.
“Talent is everything in our business,” explains Zelestra’s Chief Digital Officer Borja Guerrero. “SAP SuccessFactors HCM allows us to scale our business faster by streamlining our recruiting and onboarding processes while also improving the candidate experience.”
Integration of additional SAP solutions gives Zelestra even more capabilities and helps prevent data silos. For example, the company is integrating the SAP Sustainability Control Tower solution to help measure and manage sustainability performance. Additionally, SAP Ariba solutions offer spend management capabilities and better visibility into its procurement processes, while SAP Concur solutions support travel and expense management.
Chief Digital Officer, Zelestra
Delivering better outcomes with a sustainable and scalable organization
SAP Cloud ERP and integrated SAP solutions are supporting Zelestra’s goal to have the best systems in place to help ensure benefit to their customers.
One benefit has been supporting the company’s compliance procedures. Zelestra has many legal entities that it was able to set up in SAP Cloud ERP, each with its own accounting, purchasing, and sales functions, along with unique tax and compliance rules and signature duties. This helps the company manage its legal compliance requirements for each country efficiently. Additionally, the cloud security features help ensure data is protected according to regulatory compliance standards. Backup and disaster recovery features also help improve Zelestra’s business continuity plans.
With a cloud technology infrastructure that’s deployable in nearly any region, the company has already migrated 300 sales operating plants on it. Integration with SAP SuccessFactors solutions automates and streamlines HR processes as the company continues to grow its headcount. Zelestra also implemented SAP Sustainability Control Tower to enhance its sustainability KPI measurement, helping ensure the company is on track to meet its sustainability goals.
But perhaps the most important result is helping ensure that there are no data silos. With a single source of truth, the company now has improved data accuracy and greater visibility of data across its business functions and entities, including employee, financial, and plant production data.
With its commitment to be an industry leader in digitalization, Zelestra is helping ensure it has created a scalable business that can support its future growth.
Chief Digital Officer, Zelestra
Investing in growth through technology innovation
Zelestra remains focused on innovation and collaboration as it eyes substantial growth ahead. The company has implemented SAP Sustainability Control Tower and is now working on business adoption of the solution to ensure it adds value for the company’s sustainability reporting and environmental, social, and governance commitment. It’s also adopting the Joule coplilot to enable AI-assisted user experiences across the SAP portfolio, beginning with SAP SuccessFactors HCM and then SAP Cloud ERP.
Zelestra is also working to harmonize its enterprise footprint with ready-to-run services on SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), including the standard edition of SAP Build Work Zone, which will enable access to SAP Fiori apps. It’s also implementing the SAP Task Center app to provide a single entry point for users to access assigned workflow items, to-do lists, and approvals. And the SAP Mobile Start app will help aggregate data from SAP mobile apps into one dashboard view.
Featured partners
Zelestra searched for an experienced implementation partner that understood its start-up and high-growth mindset. The company found the expertise and out-of-the-box thinking it was looking for in Avvale. An SAP partner for more than 20 years, Avvale was able to recommend the right SAP solutions and foster a team atmosphere where all parties worked together as one unit to implement best practices.
SAP gold partner NUVA brought its more than 50 years of experience in technology and HR processes to help guide Zelestra’s SAP SuccessFactors HCM implementation. NUVA is known for its quick implementations, cost optimization, and focus on SAP best practices. The company worked to implement SAP SuccessFactors HCM in the most standard way possible to give Zelestra the flexibility and scalability it needs moving forward.