Bajaj Electricals: Transforming IT teams from software developers to business enablers after a swift transition to cloud ERP
Embracing a proactive approach to IT
Bajaj Electricals aims to “make homes brighter, kitchens smarter, and days more efficient.” It’s helping its own IT teams work more efficiently thanks to a speedy migration to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition with the RISE with SAP journey, enhancing software infrastructure, reducing costs, and streamlining operations.
| Industry | Region | Company Size | Partner |
| Consumer products | Mumbai, India | >2,500 employees | Protiviti Inc. |
days to move to the cloud.
of applications hosted in the cloud.
reduction in IT costs.
CIO and Chief Digital Officer, Bajaj Electricals Ltd.
Pivoting from system upkeep to digital transformation
Bajaj Electricals Ltd. touches consumers’ lives at every moment with quality products from home appliances and fans to cookware and lighting solutions. Part of multinational conglomerate Bajaj Group, the company takes pride in delivering world-class, value-driven solutions to millions of people across the globe.
Its IT team, too, takes pride in delivering world-class services that support around 5,000 transactions each day across sales, purchase, and production operations. However, this was a challenge in a complex and on-premises IT landscape comprising many vendors and multiple customized solutions. Scaling these systems could disrupt everyday business, and maintenance was costly and time consuming. The company dedicated significant ongoing effort to manage updates and maintain server performance. On top of all that, it was difficult to track and safeguard security compliance.
Bajaj Electricals set out to migrate from this complicated, outdated IT environment to a simplified, integrated, and data-driven software-as-a-service approach. This would help it automate business processes and streamline operations, harness intelligent technologies, enhance customer experience, and foster a digital mindset of continuous learning and adaptability in its workforce.
Having decided to move to the cloud, Bajaj Electricals set itself an ambitious deadline. With 40% of its sales occurring in the third quarter of each year, the company needed to complete this crucial transition in 45 days to maintain business continuity before the start of the holiday season.
CIO and Chief Digital Officer, Bajaj Electricals Ltd.
Harnessing leading solutions in a cloud-first approach
Bajaj Electricals embarked on the RISE with SAP journey to enable its migration to the cloud within its tight time frame. It chose SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition because of its future-oriented ERP capabilities and ability to smoothly connect with both third-party offerings and a range of SAP software. The latter includes SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Ariba, SAP Concur, and SAP Sales Cloud solutions as well as SAP governance, risk, and compliance solutions.
Using SAP Integration Suite, the company smoothly connected SAP software and complex third-party systems from procure to pay to warehouse and transportation management.
Bajaj Electricals worked with SAP Enterprise Support services to help meet its integration and scalability needs. Its application management services partner, Protiviti Inc., also provided invaluable assistance including solution walk-throughs for relevant stakeholders, best practices, and mapping of process owners, applications, and business processes.
Enhancing agility, scalability, and innovation while reducing costs
After a smooth and timely migration, Bajaj Electricals’s IT infrastructure and applications are now 100% cloud based with 90% of these applications running as software as a service. IT teams are no longer responsible for managing IT infrastructure and operating systems or providing application support, freeing them to focus on value-added work.
A single-vendor subscription model has reduced IT operational and capital expenditure costs and streamlined management effort. Bajaj Electricals has also cut internal audit and security management overheads while benefiting from advanced security and compliance features, improved data protection, and faster disaster recovery capabilities.
The business is now more responsive, with the ability to scale up and develop new initiatives more quickly and use AI and advanced analytics. Centralized data has significantly improved executive decision-making, process control, and collaboration across teams.
The transformative effects of the project are evident across diverse lines of business. In terms of customer care, real-time data from SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition and the SAP Sales Cloud solution streamlines response times, greatly enhancing service and experience. On the supply chain side, faster processing speeds enable efficient order handling during peak times, smoother logistics, and speedy order processing. Manufacturing downtime is reduced and production planning improved thanks to better data visibility and faster processing. And Bajaj Electricals has transformed its budgeting and forecasting processes with real-time financial insights and accurate reporting.
Exploring intelligent technologies in an optimized landscape
Having speedily implemented SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, Bajaj Electricals continues to integrate and optimize its IT infrastructure. For instance, the company plans to use the SAP Data Intelligence solution to help it streamline data and manage it more effectively. The business also wants to deploy the predictive analytics and data visualization capabilities of the SAP Analytics Cloud solution to integrate data from various sources and gain deeper insights.
Using the SAP Integrated Business Planning solution, Bajaj Electricals intends to optimize its supply chain and enhance forecasting, inventory management, and demand planning. And on the shop floor, it wants to use the SAP Digital Manufacturing solution to provide real-time insights, improve manufacturing processes, and boost both efficiency and quality control.
In migrating to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, Bajaj Electricals wanted to build a basis for using intelligent technology to automate tasks and support smart, data-driven decisions. Current projects include using AI and generative AI to enhance demand forecasting and sales processes and analyze customer sentiment from service calls. The company wants to integrate AI with SAP software to help it extract clauses from legal contracts and support legal reviews. On the HR side, it’s also looking at how it can use a generative AI bot to assist employees with their queries.
Wherever these explorations take Bajaj Electricals, its IT experts are now even better placed to build on the company’s legacy of trust, innovation, and a relentless commitment to excellence.
Featured partner
With its deep expertise, objective insights, tailored approach, and unparalleled collaboration, Protiviti helps businesses address critical business problems spanning topics from process and risk management to analytics, compliance, and internal audits. Protiviti’s experts helped Bajaj Electricals transition smoothly to the cloud in the shortest time and without business disruption.