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SAP Upgrade Success Story
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GRUPPO TOSINVEST
Multifaceted Company Upgrades to the SAP® ERP
Application and Slashes IT Costs
In times like these, when IT spending is increasingly subject to
cutbacks but demand for growth and innovation is high, finding
out how to get “more for less” is as crucial a task to a company’s
IT department as making sure that applications run smoothly. In
Rome, Gruppo Tosinvest managed to prove that this challenge,
which can keep some IT managers awake at night, is very easy to
solve. By upgrading its existing SAP® software to the latest release
of the SAP ERP application, the company lowered its IT maintenance
costs by up to 22%. CIO Fabio Fricano and IT manager
Mario Buttá were also particularly pleased to inform the board
of directors that they now had state-of-the-art software for
running the company’s current as well as its future processes.
Gruppo Tosinvest is hardly what you would call a single-process
company. One-half of its core business is in healthcare. Its
subsidiary Tosinvest Sanitá manages 11 healthcare facilities, each
accredited by Italy’s National Public Health Service. In addition,
the group operates a scientific institute for research, hospitalization,
and healthcare (the IRCCS San Raffaele Pisana); a diagnostic
center; and 13 nursing homes in Lazio and in Puglia. The diverse
group with revenues between €300 million and €400 million also
runs businesses throughout Italy in the media, real estate, financial
services, and engineering and construction sectors. In a company
of this size, and with such a wide array of processes, keeping IT
costs in check is obviously of utmost importance. To ensure stable
and cost-effective operations, the group relies on a subdivision
devoted solely to IT activities: Tosinvest Information Technologies,
or T.I.T. It was in this subdivision that the decision was made to
upgrade the existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) software
that Gruppo Tosinvest had been running since 2001.
Major Business Challenges
When Gruppo Tosinvest first implemented SAP software, including
functionality for financial accounting, controlling, materials
management, and asset accounting, the group had all the right
tools to manage its internal processes. However, over the years, as
the group grew, so too did its demands on the IT infrastructure.
In addition to needing more robust functionality forhuman capital management (HCM) and financials, it needed software
that would provide detailed analyses to help top management
make informed decisions. As Fricano says, “We needed a sophisticated
business intelligence tool that would support analyses by
enabling cross-company communication and by providing a
better overview of the group’s financial situation.”
A New Foundation
T.I.T. initially took the need for more features as a cue to implement
new functionality in the existing software system. This
would have meant making additional modifications to the
existing IT landscape to accommodate new requirements as and
when they arose. However, after talking to SAP, the T.I.T. team
selected a different option – one that would benefit the group
in the long term. By upgrading to SAP ERP, T.I.T. would have in
place the latest information technology and an entirely new
foundation for both its current and future needs. “Gruppo
Tosinvest needed software that would allow it to flexibly disseminate
information, according to whichever department or business
was asking,” Fricano explains. “SAP convinced T.I.T. that an
upgrade to SAP ERP was the right choice to achieve these goals.
By upgrading, we’d be able to streamline our processes and add a
whole new array of self-service functionality.” However, considering
the magnitude of the group’s national IT and telecommunications
operations, T.I.T. had to convince not only the users of
the benefits of upgrading – but, more importantly, the board.
A 22% Reduction in Maintenance Costs
As it turned out, Fricano and his team didn’t need to do much
persuading. “Gruppo Tosinvest is a private group,” Fricano says.
“For this reason, the board is very keen on keeping investment
costs down. T.I.T. convinced the executives that by upgrading to
SAP ERP, IT maintenance costs would decrease by up to 22% over
the next three years, leading to a fast return on investment.”
Because T.I.T. took a departure from its original plan of adding
more features to its software, it was also able to leverage new
functionality delivered by SAP ERP – and do so economically. “The IT and business reasons came together,” says Fricano. “We
were looking for a cost-effective way of enabling HCM functionality
for new users. With SAP ERP, you get a whole range of selfservice
functionality, including the SAP Employee Self-Service
and SAP Manager Self-Service applications.” On top of that, T.I.T.
leveraged the SAP NetWeaver® platform (a part of the SAP ERP
license) to redesign HCM features. This included realization of
a new people-centric user interface. “For better usability and
productiveness,” Buttá confirms.
“We followed SAP’s recommendations
step-by-step and took advantage of
Realtech’s technical expertise, enabling
T.I.T. to complete the entire upgrade
project on time and within budget.”
Mario Buttá, IT Manager, Tosinvest Information Technologies
Smooth Upgrade Based on Efficient Collaboration
Before users could make use of the new software, T.I.T. had to
ensure that there would be no disruption to daily operations
during the upgrade. To do this, Fricano and his team chose a twofold approach. First, they used the SAP upgrade methodology
– an approach that was completely new to the T.I.T. employees.
However, with the help of support tickets sent to SAP, the T.I.T.
staff members had answers to queries and issues almost in real
time and were able to continue with the project by themselves
without delay. Second, they engaged the services of implementation
partner, REALTECH. It was this combination that ultimately
made the project such a success. “Collaboration between T.I.T.,
SAP, and REALTECH was excellent and key to the success of the
upgrade project,” says Buttá. “We followed SAP’s recommendations
step-by-step and took advantage of Realtech’s technical
expertise, enabling T.I.T. to complete the entire upgrade project
on time and within budget.”
“With the upgrade to SAP ERP, Gruppo
Tosinvest now has an open gate to the
future.”
Fabio Fricano, CIO, Tosinvest Information Technologies
Minimum Downtime and Seamless Switch for Users
With a downtime of a mere six hours for the actual technical
upgrade, users managed to resume work without any interruptions.
“Since users were properly informed before the upgrade,
they had no problems accepting the new look and feel of SAP
ERP,” says Buttá. “And the new HCM functionality was up and
running with 30 new users immediately after the upgrade. We
also plan to increase the numbers of users throughout 2007.” Besides improving speed, performance, and usability of its
software, the group has realized a greater level of scalability for
further rollouts. T.I.T.’s road map for 2007 is on track for implementing
the SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence component
and additional financial and self-service functionality. Fricano
puts it nicely when he says, “With the upgrade to SAP ERP,
Gruppo Tosinvest now has an open gate to the future.”
AT A GLANCE
Company
- Name: Gruppo Tosinvest
- Location: Rome
- ndustries: Healthcare; engineering
and construction; media;
financial services; real estate
- Revenue: Between €300 million
and €400 million
- Employees: 2,500
- Web site: www.gruppotosinvest.it
- Partner: REALTECH
Challenges and Opportunities
- Current software requiring new
licences for new functionality
- Rapid growth – need for more
comprehensive, robust IT
- Support for top-level analytics
with state-of-the-art business
intelligence tool
Objectives
- Ensure cost-effective upgrade of
existing SAP® enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to the
newer SAP ERP application
- Streamline decision-making
process
- Decrease IT maintenance costs
- Implement new functionality
without impacting daily
operations
- Improve productivity with better
communication and distribution of
information throughout the group
SAP Solution and Services
SAP ERP
Implementation Highlights
- Length of upgrade project:
3 months
- Duration of technical upgrade:
3 days, with only 6 hours of
downtime
- SAP ERP enabled for 200+ users
Why SAP
- Fast ROI through savings on
maintenance costs
- New functionality delivered
cost-effectively
- Proven upgrade methodology
Benefits
- 22% reduction in maintenance
costs
- Better software performance and
usability
- Streamlined business processes
- Stable IT platform, enabling future
evolutions
- Improved productivity with new
self-services functionality
Existing Environment
SAP R/3® software
Third-Party Integration
- Database: Oracle
- Hardware: IBM
- Operating system: Microsoft
Windows