The transition of major petrol station and convenience retailer EG Group to RISE with SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud establishes a unified SAP digital core platform that will help scale its dynamic business operations and empower the company to stay agile and responsive to the needs of consumers today.
SAP’s third-quarter financial results revealed that an increasing number of organisations around the world recognise its technologies and capabilities as critical in their digital transformation journeys. RISE with SAP, the company’s Business Transformation as a Service (BTaaS) offering, has been attracting subscriptions from customers across various sectors, including those in the large segment, this year. Large enterprises that have already embraced the solution include UK-based global automotive distribution business Inchcape plc and more recently, EG Group — a world leader in fuel forecourt convenience retailing with more than 6,000 locations in countries including the UK, US, the Netherlands, France, Italy, and Australia.
Backed by private equity firm TDR Capital and billionaire brothers Zuber and Mohsin Issa, the company has grown steadily through partnerships with a diversified portfolio of international brand partners and a series of strategic acquisitions. In 2018, EG Group spent A$1.725 billion (USD 1.2 billion) to acquire Woolworths Group Ltd’s 540-site network of fuel and convenience stores in Australia, marking the company’s first expansion outside of Europe and the US.
Following a massive growth in recent years, the British retailer accumulated multiple disparate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems across several countries, each with its own version and template. To help overcome the difficulties in obtaining real-time data and visibility that are crucial in the organisation’s decision-making, EG Group turned to SAP to improve its technical and operational management processes.
Pleased to collaborate with the SAP customer in its next stage of growth and transformation, Rohit Nagarajan, President EMEA North at SAP, noted that EG Group’s transition to the cloud with RISE with SAP and S/4HANA will lay the groundwork for the company’s rapid expansion. He further added:
“We believe that with SAP’s technology and experience and EG Group’s commitment to continuous innovation, together we are creating an organisation which fulfils the needs of customers and teams today, whilst setting the foundations for even greater success in the future.”
RISE with SAP Provides EG Group with Unified SAP Digital Core Platform
Leveraging RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, a new SAP digital core platform will help EG Group achieve valuable financial reporting insights into all its processes utilising SAP Group Reporting and SAP Analytics Cloud. The company’s founders and co-CEOs, Zuber and Mohsin Issa, said in a joint statement that they tapped SAP to create “a powerful, cloud-based platform” that will help accelerate transformation, automate business processes, enhance decision-making, and empower teams to succeed.
Meanwhile, according to EG Group CIO Graham Billsborough, the organisation has already reaped benefits from its SAP partnership in various areas including finance, IT, HR, and learning and development. The company uses SAP SuccessFactors to operate its core HR, Workforce Management, and Talent Management functions for around 27,000 staff across Europe, the UK, and Australia.
“By extending the strategic partnership and working even more closely with SAP, the intent is to design and build a more comprehensive technology solution that will be used as a unified global platform. Our ambition is to simplify the current SAP system landscape, through RISE, realising new business capabilities through digital innovation,” Billsborough explained.
Also commenting on the latest collaboration with EG Group, Scott Russell, Member of the Executive Board and Head of the global Customer Success organisation at SAP, shared in an interview with Computer Weekly:
“They are transforming with RISE, but also supported with SuccessFactors in supporting their forecourt sites around the world. It has been about transforming siloed finance and HR systems with a global platform that is then able to give them reach, efficiency, and agility. There is a lot of emphasis on the data that enables them to make fast decisions.”
Aside from implementing RISE with SAP, EG Group will also leverage other offerings such as SAP solutions for the Oil and Gas sector, SAP Retail, SAP Work Zone, SAP Solution Extensions’ capabilities, and SAP best practices to further drive business transformation. Additionally, the two companies will also be teaming up for the establishment of a Center of Excellence that will look to recruit and train talents from local communities and certify them with SAP accreditation at the end of the training.
