Zespri selects SAP cloud solutions in multi-year deal

The world’s largest marketer of kiwifruit adopts the SAP S/4HANA private cloud edition to standardise and automate processes, increase efficiency, and provide a platform for growth and innovation

SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced that Zespri International, the world’s largest marketer of kiwifruit, will become one of the first SAP customers globally to utilise the SAP S/4HANA private cloud edition. The new solution forms a key part of the recently announced ‘RISE with SAP’ offer that delivers business transformation as a service. This will help Zespri standardise and automate processes across the organisation, creating efficiencies and providing a platform for growth and innovation to support the fast-growing company.

The grower-owned marketer, based in Mount Maunganui, New Zealand, has signed a multi-year deal to support Zespri’s global supply chain process transformation, including a move to SAP S/4HANA, private cloud edition and the implementation of several SAP Digital Supply Chain applications including SAP Global Trade Services, SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP) and the SAP Logistics Business Network.

Zespri will also take advantage of SAP Business Technology Platform capabilities, including SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Integration Suite the SAP Extension Suit^[1], and SAP endorsed partner solutions from OpenText, Tricentis, and Celonis.

The technology will underpin Zespri’s ambitious four-year Horizon transformation programme to digitise its operations, become more efficient, and increase sales.

Strong demand for its premium-quality fruit has seen the industry grow strongly, recording global sales of NZD$3.14 billion in 2019/20^[2]. Longer-term, the industry is forecast to increase global supply of kiwifruit from 164.4 million trays in 2019/20 to around 280 million trays by 2030 ^[3].

Commenting on the announcement, Dave Scullin, Zespri’s Chief Digital Officer, said: “Zespri’s Horizon programme will transform the way our company operates, replacing legacy systems and processes that were designed 20 years ago, before the significant growth we’ve experienced in recent years. Our new SAP environment will transform the systems and processes across our business, from finance and supply chain to grower enablement and engagement, sales, and business planning. This will strengthen our ability to grow and sustain returns for the industry for decades to come.”

Global demand for kiwifruit is currently outstripping supply, buoyed by the increasing trend of more health-conscious consumers looking for products that taste good and are nutritious.

“Zespri is a large and fast-growing business and we need mature processes and systems to fuel our next stage of growth. Adopting SAP’s standardised core platforms will be transformational in itself, while also letting us leverage SAP’s cloud roadmap to adopt innovation at speed,” said Mr Scullin.

Zespri currently runs its SAP environment on Microsoft Azure public cloud, which will be migrated to the SAP S/4HANA private cloud edition. Zespri will continue to use Azure for its enterprise infrastructure, bringing the best of Microsoft and SAP.

Zespri’s move to SAP S/4HANA, private cloud edition follows the announcement of SAP’s new concierge service to the Intelligent Enterprise, RISE with SAP, which offers software, infrastructure, and technical operations all under one contract. SAP S/4HANA private cloud edition will form a key component of the new Rise with SAP offer.

Designed to deliver business transformation as a service and tailored to each customer’s specific needs, Rise with SAP will include business process redesign, technical migration support, SAP’s Business Technology Platform, the SAP Business Network, SAP S/4HANA Cloud deployment model of choice, and Hyperscaler of choice.

“Moving to the cloud has been a key strategic decision for us, providing greater flexibility, scalability, and faster innovation cycles. We know SAP’s private cloud capabilities have matured significantly in recent years, particularly in the form of customer flexibility, service level security and automation, which makes the new SAP S/4HANA private cloud edition best for our business long-term. This will allow us to focus on our process and systems transformation, knowing that our underlying infrastructure and computing platforms are secure, stable, and available,” continued Mr Scullin.

“Not only will our transformation help us to reduce business risks by moving to standard systems, it will also enable us to collect and analyse more data, helping us to plan our supply chain more accurately and improve our decision making around shipping and market allocation,” said Mr Scullin. 

Phil Cameron, Managing Director, SAP New Zealand, said: “As a business, we have been clear that our future is in the cloud, so it’s fantastic to see a long-time customer like Zespri make the move with us to become an intelligent enterprise. The new SAP S/4HANA private cloud edition will deliver fast time to value, enabling Zespri to seize new business opportunities and respond to changes with speed and agility. It will also provide a platform for innovation, utilising the latest intelligent technologies from the internet of things to predictive analytics.”

“The events of the last year have underlined the importance of resiliency and the ability to rapidly adapt, which are key benefits of moving to the cloud. By moving to SAP S/4HANA PCE, Zespri will also be able to capitalise quickly on emerging technologies that are embedded into platform, to help drive automation, increased profitability, and enable further growth,” continued Mr Cameron. 

The implementation will be conducted by a consortium of partners, including Deloitte NZ in partnership with ZAG, part of Accenture. The project will be split into several phases, with the first Digital Core build phase due to begin in February 2021, focused on finance and supply chain processes, before progressing to integrated business planning and sales enablement.

Click here to view a video of Zespri CTO, Dave Scullin, discussing Zespri’s transformation program, and here for images of Dave and Zespri’s kiwi orchards.

Zespri is available in the Philippines. (Website | Facebook)

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