IBM launches new services to advance enterprise transformations with SAP S/4HANA

IBM introduced IBM Rapid Move for SAP S/4HANA, a new approach designed to provide a smarter and faster way to digital transformations. Businesses across industries can look to accelerate the process of migrating existing SAP systems to SAP S/4HANA, enabling them to speed up the reinvention of core business processes and integration of new technology.

Arauco, a manufacturer of sustainable forest product solutions in Chile, is one of the first companies to benefit from the new capabilities. IBM Services is working to upgrade and transform Arauco's existing SAP systems across the company's financial, procurement and production activities. By deploying IBM Rapid Move for SAP S/4HANA, Arauco anticipates achieving a reduction in time of up to 50% for certain activities during the project based on their specific environment and configurations, such as unicode conversion, generating significant time savings for the overall project.

"As we prepare for future growth, we needed to implement a digital platform that will streamline our processes through business transformation, including converting our existing SAP systems to SAP S/4HANA. Speed of deployment has been key to ensuring we experience the benefits of digital technology faster," said Leandro San Miguel, CIO Arauco. "The IBM Rapid Move for SAP S/4HANA approach can help accelerate our modernization of processes, allowing us to deploy an integrated and consolidated financial reporting system across the business with SAP S/4HANA."

Companies in every industry are reinventing their processes and operations with digital strategies enabled by new technologies, such as AI, automation and blockchain. SAP S/4HANA allows companies to simplify complex business processes while upgrading their technology infrastructure and enterprise systems resulting in greater efficiency and improved business outcomes.

"Businesses working to transform themselves amid ongoing market disruption must consider how to convert and extend their existing investments, while at the same time capitalizing on the digital reinvention imperative," said Mark Foster, Senior Vice President, IBM Global Business Services and IBM Services. "With IBM Rapid Move for SAP S/4HANA, we've introduced an approach that helps simplify migration, enabling our clients to safely and securely move to the future at pace."

Since forming the Digital Transformation partnership three years ago, IBM Services and SAP have worked together to provide services and capabilities that help accelerate how customers around the world modernize their systems and processes on their path to becoming an intelligent enterprise. The two companies continue to deliver new solutions that address rapidly changing market needs, including SAP Model Company services combined with enhanced industry specific pre-configured IBM Impact accelerators, which are designed to simplify the change process, speed-up innovation enabled by SAP S/4HANA and unlock business benefits faster. As announced late last year, IBM Services completed more than 100 SAP S/4HANA implementations.