Supermarket giant Woolworths has completed its SAP to Azure migration in less than two years after announcing its next phase of cloud transformation.
The planning stage for Woolworths’ cloud transformation project began in early 2020, with critical decisions made around which cloud provider to partner with and the best methods to take during the migration process. Given Woolworths’ massive scale across ANZ, as well as the enormous amount of sales, inventory, ordering, promotions, and financial activities that needed to be handled in a timely manner, ensuring operational resilience and scalability were key priorities for the project. Over 200 individuals along with several partners — including the Woolworths Group’s IT team, Microsoft engineers, SAP, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) — helped in the initiative.
According to an article released by Microsoft this week, a total of more than 20 SAP applications, 75 terabytes of data, 135 database servers, and 435 application servers were updated and shifted to Microsoft Azure by the program department. This featured one of the largest SAP environments in the region, which is utilised to support the business operations of the Woolworths Group throughout its retail capabilities functions as well as its financial processes, among other things.
Woolworths Group Technology Director for Enterprise Systems Laurence Bennett noted that since transferring its SAP systems to Azure, the company has experienced an unprecedented level of stability. Although Bennett acknowledged that there were problems to overcome, he said that this was typical of any project of this scope.
Nevertheless, because of strong communication and transparency among Microsoft, TCS, SAP, and the Woolworths Group teams, Bennett stated that the company became confident in the preparations and strategy implementation. He added:
“The business case for the migration was understood and supported by our Group Executive team, and we purposefully engaged senior global sponsors within TCS, Microsoft and SAP.”
SAP to Azure Migration Improves Woolworths’ Efficiency
The company’s efficiency, flexibility, and speed to market, according to Woolworths Group Chief Information Officer and Director of Group Enablement John Hunt, have all increased as a result of the cloud transformation program. This has also prepared the Aussie retailer for further ERP modernisation and its transition to SAP S/4HANA on Microsoft Azure in the future.
“As part of this cloud transformation, the SAP migration to Azure is another milestone on our roadmap in providing technology solutions for the ever-changing digital landscape. TCS, Microsoft and SAP have been long-standing partners of ours and, given their in-depth understanding of Woolworths and expertise in cloud technologies, we are pleased to have partnered with them on this strategic initiative,” Hunt further highlighted.
Meanwhile, SAP ANZ President and Managing Director Damien Bueno believes the successful migration of such a large SAP environment footprint to Microsoft Azure — one that helps Woolworths purchase items, run promotions, track inventory, and ultimately, get food to customers — required strong collaboration and a ‘one team’ mentality. He stated:
“Working together towards a common goal resulted in the project being completed on time, meaning that Woolworths’ critical business processes, which run on SAP, experienced minimal disruption.”
“By continuing to engage and share expertise in the same way moving forward, we will support Woolworths to reap the business benefits of this migration and other SAP programs in the future,” Bueno concluded.
