Sony Pictures Networks India: Remastering operations for the future through enterprise automation and next-generation ERP
See how SPNI embarked on enterprise future-proofing
When Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) set out its digital transformation agenda, the heart of its strategy focused on maximizing enterprise automation and future-proofing its operations. It brought the strategy to life with SAP S/4HANA and SAP Business Technology Platform, providing the engine for continued innovation, scalability, and success.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Media, sports, and entertainment | Mumbai, India | >1,200 employees |
automated process mining, reducing effort from weeks to days.
of interfaces managed through SAP Integration Suite.
faster mobile app creation, reducing effort from four weeks to three days.
SVP and Head of IT – Infrastructure, Integration, and Data Lake, Sony Pictures Networks India
Building a scalable business foundation for the future
Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) is the consumer-facing brand of Culver Max Entertainment Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation and a leading Indian media conglomerate.
The company manages a diverse media portfolio spanning TV broadcasting, over-the-top (OTT) streaming services, and content production. Its operations include 26 broadcast TV channels with a market-leading presence in Hindi entertainment and sports, one of the most watched OTT video streaming services in India, and two film and content production units. SPNI’s programming is available in 167 countries and reaches more than 700 million viewers in India.
Over the course of 10 years, SPNI had met business needs by developing various customizations in siloed systems, creating complexity in its IT landscape that was built on the SAP ERP application. This led to challenges in maintaining integrated business processes and consolidating business reporting, which required significant manual effort to prepare channel- and show-based revenue streams and profitability analyses.
Seeking to better manage its exponential growth, SPNI set out its digital transformation agenda centered on enterprise automation. The company wanted to overhaul finance operations and build a scalable business foundation to better support any future mergers and acquisitions. SPNI also wanted to establish the basis for best practices in business processes and maximize ongoing innovation potential by adopting a clean core strategy.
Unlocking efficiencies by integrating systems and automating processes
In terms of readying its operations for the future, SPNI rated the rich features and functionalities offered by SAP S/4HANA as an ideal fit for its finance transformation, enterprise automation, and future-proofing goals. So, the company made the decision to transition to next-generation ERP and adopt SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) to unlock intelligent technologies and cloud solutions for database and data management, analytics, application development, and integration.
To manage the migration to SAP S/4HANA, SPNI enlisted critical support from SAP MaxAttention services to orchestrate stabilization and go-live processes. The company also worked with experts from SAP to create a maturity assessment and road map for SAP BTP.
With enterprise automation a key tenet of SPNI’s digital transformation goals, the company set the stage for future-ready operations by selecting the SAP Signavio portfolio and SAP Build solutions combined with SAP Integration Suite. SAP Signavio radically accelerates business process transformation, and SAP Build offers a comprehensive suite of low-code and pro-code tools designed to accelerate application development and automation with the power of generative AI. SAP Integration Suite provides an integration platform as a service with thousands of prebuilt integrations, APIs, and connectors to SAP and third-party software applications.
SPNI also opted for the SAP Analytics Cloud and SAP BW/4HANA solutions. As an enterprise data warehouse, SAP BW/4HANA can be integrated across various source systems, allowing SPNI to automate planned versus actual reporting. And using SAP Analytics Cloud for other strategic reporting purposes, the company can sync data with SAP BTP, enabling operational reporting as well as analytical dashboarding reporting.
SVP and Head of IT – Infrastructure, Integration, and Data Lake, Sony Pictures Networks India
Recalibrating business operations for the next phase of automation
Mahesh Patil, SVP and head of IT – infrastructure, integration, and data lake at Sony Pictures Networks India, reflects on the company’s decision to adopt next-generation ERP and SAP BTP as part of its enterprise automation journey: “When we decided to move to SAP S/4HANA, we adopted SAP BTP since it can help us keep the core clean. By doing so, we can maximize the value we get from the advanced ERP as it evolves.”
SAP BTP now serves as the basis for real-time data and analytics, process automation, and integration at SPNI. The company’s large ecosystem of SAP solutions has more than 300 interfaces, 50% of which are now managed through SAP Integration Suite.
What’s more, using SAP Build, the company can create extensions in SAP BTP while keeping the core clean, allowing it to create mobile applications in a matter of days. Previously, it would take the organization four to five weeks to build a native Apple iOS or Google Android app.
And thanks to the integrated set of tools for process mining, automation, integration, monitoring, and optimization of its workflows and processes offered by SAP Signavio, SPNI is well placed to make continuous business process enhancements. Before rolling out SAP Signavio, it would take the organization two weeks to perform standard process mining tasks with a process data model. This exercise can now be undertaken in just days, allowing the company to rapidly execute continuous targeted improvements to improve experiences for its customers and employees.
Exploring AI-powered automations
Looking ahead, SPNI wants to adopt artificial intelligence capabilities as part of SAP BTP and is actively exploring a number of supplier lifecycle management models with the Joule copilot.