Talan: Taking a giant leap into the digital future to sustain global growth despite ever-changing client needs
Data-driven decision-making helps Talan stay ahead
At a time when the consulting landscape is more competitive than ever, Talan set ambitious growth plans and embarked on a digital transformation journey in the cloud. By implementing SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, Talan has unlocked process efficiencies and granular data for decision-making, putting it in a strong position to sustain global growth.
| Industry | Region | Company Size | Partner |
| Professional services | Paris, France | ~7,200 employees | PASàPAS |
days faster to complete monthly closing.
view of its expenses, improving expense outflow accuracy.
months to implement advanced ERP in the cloud.
CFO, Talan
Prioritizing the integration of finance and purchasing systems and data
Talan is a global technology and consulting group with a heritage spanning more than 20 years and a presence in 23 countries across Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia. On a mission to accelerate transformation for clients through innovation, technology, and data, the group is driven by a collective of committed individuals and pragmatic, ethical actions.
Known for its multidisciplinary approach, Talan has spent the last two decades successfully guiding transformation projects for large enterprises and public institutions. Over this time and in parallel with its global expansion, the group has broadened and strengthened its expertise in the delivery of increasingly diversified solutions.
With the business setting ambitious revenue goals for 2030 and triggering its own business modernization program, Talan seized the opportunity to transform its disparate finance and purchasing operations. Setting a goal to digitalize and standardize the purchasing process and automate finance operations across the group’s entities, it sought a proven scalable solution. Specifically, Talan wanted a solution that could be deployed quickly in multiple zones in several countries and languages and offered a standardized foundation, simplifying integrating the solution in most of its countries. Talan evaluated several market-leading solutions, finding nothing met its needs quite like SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.
CFO, Talan
Digitalizing with best practices using a fit-to-standard approach
Aurélien Nicoletti, CFO at Talan, played an important role in evaluating potential solutions and reflects on the decision to select a public cloud ERP to modernize its finance and purchasing processes: “SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition most suited our needs in terms of supporting our strong growth and being quick to deploy in multiple zones in several countries and languages. This made it possible to integrate most of our countries in a relatively short time frame.”
For the implementation, Talan appointed group member and SAP partner PASàPAS, whose team conducted fit-to-standard workshops to align preconfigured standard processes with the requirements of Talan’s procurement and finance and controlling departments. This helped internal stakeholders understand the changes required to maximize value from the new ERP through new processes based on best practices.
With PASàPAS leading the way, Talan successfully deployed SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition in a little less than six months. Nicoletti comments, “This was very, very, very fast. We knew that our ambitions were going to be a big challenge on our side, but the expertise and professionalism of the PASàPAS team made it happen on time.”
Through the configuration of rules and structuring clear and standardized purchasing processes, Talan gets the visibility it lacked, helping the group improve traceability and supplier monitoring. And automating time-consuming processes allows the finance team to refocus their efforts on core business activities.
Nicoletti adds, “The use of the SAP Fiori user experience gives us a simplified and intuitive way to use purchasing and controlling tools. The flexibility of the interface allowed us to quickly adapt the screens to facilitate our users’ needs.”
CFO, Talan
Maximizing data-driven decision-making and future agility in the cloud
Since implementing the solution, Talan has seen a dramatic shift in its monthly closing process. Nicoletti explains, “We close our accounting period much faster than before. Previously, we would close over a two-week period, and now we close in nine days every month. The gain is all thanks to the deployment of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.”
On the purchasing side, Talan’s procure-to-pay process is built around standard processes embedded in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. This gives the group a 360-degree view of its expenses, allowing it to anticipate expenses more accurately than before. Nicoletti comments, “Putting these elements in place upstream when making a purchase request allows us to see expenses much earlier, better anticipate our cash outflows, and better control costs.”
So far, Talan has rolled out the full-featured ERP in France and the United Kingdom. Nicoletti says that users are enjoying using the modern functionality that’s accessible on a mobile device or a computer. He comments, “It’s proving to be extremely practical. This makes it much easier to adopt, not only for the finance teams but also for our consultants and managers in our operational teams who use the processes for purchasing on a daily basis.”
He continues, “Having this solution really changes things. It simplifies access to information and allows us to correlate more data and conduct deeper analyses. For purchasing from specific suppliers, we can make more-informed decisions on group purchasing agreements. We didn’t have access to this information before, it’s a real operational gain for us.”
In terms of the work required to follow a fit-to-standard approach, Nicoletti thinks the effort is well worthwhile. He says, “Adapting to standard on our purchasing processes was beneficial, giving us an opportunity to structure our purchasing information system based on best practices. The functional coverage of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition is rich enough for optimal management.”
Thanks to the transparency and visibility of the data flows, Talan has faster access to the financial and operational data needed for nimble management control. Nicoletti adds, “The gains in readability and speed of access to the data were quickly felt. We no longer need to seek information from the various stakeholders on a case-by-case basis.”
CFO, Talan
Unlocking advanced functionality through twice-yearly upgrade releases
Another major benefit Talan has gained from adopting SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition comes in the form of the twice-yearly upgrade releases. Nicoletti comments, “We know in advance what’s coming from SAP, and it allows us to see what will change in our system and assess what we want to adopt from the new possibilities that are offered to us. Compared to previously, where we had to mobilize a team to deploy upgrades, this approach is a real gain.”
With Talan laser-focused on realizing its ambitious plans to become a €2.5 billion company by 2030, the company is in a commanding position to achieve its goals thanks to its investment in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. To get there, Talan plans to continue working with the PASàPAS team to help ensure optimal adoption of the functionality offered by the cloud ERP while exploring new capabilities in AI and machine learning offered by the solution.
Featured partner
Part of Talan Group, PASàPAS specializes in consulting and outsourcing focused on integration, maintenance and support, data and analytics, business intelligence, and customer experience. PASàPAS led the successful rollout of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition in less than six months, conducting fit-to-standard workshops to align preconfigured standard processes with Talan’s procurement, finance, and controlling departments.