ERP & Business Transformation at Scale

SAP NOW AI Conference 2025

ERP modernisation is accelerating as organisations face the pressure of transforming at speed and scale, while laying the groundwork for future innovation.

At the SAP NOW AI Conference in Melbourne, ERP transformations took centre stage, demonstrating how organisations are reshaping their core systems with an eye to future innovation.

Businesses showed how they’re moving beyond back-office upgrades to build agile, data-driven SAP platforms that can power finance, supply chains and customer operations.

Real-world transformation lessons

Participants heard real-world transformation stories such as GM3, a newly formed mining company that was carved out of a larger global resources organisation.

As part of that separation, it had to stand up its own ERP and corporate systems under a tight transitional services agreement (TSA), effectively building an entirely new technology and business backbone from scratch. This meant delivering a full ERP environment at speed, which typically takes years, in just eight months.

“A transaction like that is much more than just technology. We’re talking about separating all the functions of a global mining giant,” said Stuart Choi from PwC.

Working with PwC, GM3 deployed S/4HANA Private Cloud, along with SuccessFactors for HR and Concur for expenses, while simultaneously launching a new corporate identity across its operating mines.

Having a partner helped with the initial scoping, the actual SAP implementation and stabilising processes on the new platform.

“Having a partner also allowed our team to connect across the transformation,” said Amanda Crehan, Transition Director, GM3.

The lesson is that rapid transformation is possible with careful prioritisation and disciplined scope.

Strategic transition, not lift-and-shift

While some organisations are modernising ERP under tight deadlines, others are taking a more measured approach, prioritising selectivity and governance over wholesale migration.

For many, the challenge isn’t the new system, but the decades of legacy data embedded in existing ECC environments. A full lift-and-shift may seem straightforward, but it risks transferring years of data, adding unnecessary cost, complexity and performance issues.

Consultants from cbs Consulting and Libertas outlined a methodology designed to avoid that trap. Rather than treating migration as a single, sweeping event, both firms focus on selective data transition. This involves analysing historical data, determining what is essential for the new S/4HANA system, and classifying the rest for archiving or deletion.

Many of the sessions we’re having with clients are around data migrations and data management getting ready for the S/4 migration. You don’t want to end up in the same position with a lot of obsolete or redundant data, explained Justin Bullock from cbs Consulting.

Some ECC systems can hold 15 to 20 years of data. If organisations take all of that across, it’s just moving the problem. Selective transition is about deciding what data is needed in the new system.

“I’ve seen systems that haven’t had any form of housekeeping or archiving for 15 years… moving to a cloud environment, there are many ways you need to address [legacy data] before even worrying about the cloud migration component,” said Ivan de Oliva, independent advisor.

ERP as a platform for innovation

UGL is a large service delivery company, which includes construction and services in many market segments such as defence, communications and utilities.

Participants heard how UGL has modernised its field operations by implementing SAP Field Service Management (FSM) to support its field crews and job scheduling.

UGL needed a system to manage crews across WA, working in remote areas with poor network coverage. It designed an end-to-end digital solution with FSM that starts with job creation in ECC and includes planning, dispatch boards and real-time crew tracking.

It includes smart forms and SharePoint integration with data sent straight to the back office.

“We’re also seeing data sheet submission… usually this was done in paper format, where you have four administrators processing all this stuff,” said Dean Engelbrecht, Quality & Systems Manager, UGL.

It has replaced paper workflows that previously required four administrators to process data and provides clients with read-only visibility into dashboards for transparency. UGL is now piloting AI-driven inspection tools, using FSM as the foundation for smarter asset management and predictive maintenance.

Final thoughts

The business examples showed the importance of planned, staged transformations over big bang migrations and that data governance is critical to S/4HANA success.

Selective data transition is emerging as the dominant strategy for avoiding legacy bloat that can result when years of old, unstructured and poorly governed data is shifted into the new system.

Finally, ERP is evolving into an innovation platform, underpinning AI, analytics and sustainability initiatives.

It’s more than just moving to S/4HANA. It’s about preparing your business for the next decade, building a core that’s clean, agile and ready for whatever comes next.

A clean, modernised ERP and data core is the foundation for AI, analytics and everything that comes next.