Program delivery paves a safe road to SAP S/4 HANA for Honda Australia
- Industry Automotive
- Capability Program Delivery
- Customer Honda Australia
Honda is a Japanese multinational car, motorcycle and power equipment corporation that has been in operation in Australia since 1969. Today, Honda continues to be a motorcycle sales leader in Australia and is also one of the leading suppliers of Lawn & Garden equipment, generators and a variety of other engine powered products, both through its own distribution channels and through many other Australian Original Equipment manufacturers.
Opportunity
Honda Australia was running its vehicle, motorcycle, and power equipment divisions separately – both from an operational and IT perspective. Whilst the challenge of running two IT teams and two systems was becoming a concern, Honda Australia was experiencing other problems with its legacy IT that was leading to increased operational and cost inefficiencies.
Honda Australia began its IT transformation with the objective to run with only one system for its separate entities. This would mean replacing its bespoke built legacy operational applications with SAP Parts, Finance, Warranty, Vehicle Distribution and Manufacturing modules.
Honda saw the replacement of its legacy IT as an opportunity to:
- Provide a seamless user interface for its Dealer Network responsible for retailing vehicle, motorcycle, power equipment, marine and replacement parts product.
- Introduce a level of automation when reporting financial data to Honda headquarters, replacing the complex and highly manual process that existed.
- Create a single view of customer data to improve overall customer experience, marketing and analytics.
In order to achieve this, Honda decided it would implement SAP S/4 HANA – the next generation ERP system, along with SAP’s Automotive Enterprise Management applications.
Solution
Due to the highly complex nature of the solution, its newness to market, and the challenged environment where it was to be implemented, Honda identified the need for support beyond the system integration services offered by SAP, and so enlisted our help to provide program delivery support.
With proven experience working with SAP solutions, along with a wealth of experience managing large-scale projects, we were able to review and recommend a strategy and series of processes following proven frameworks and pragmatic practices aligned to Honda’s unique stakeholder requirements.
Throughout the journey, we played a significant and critical role in the progression and program delivery of key project milestones for Honda, working in collaboration to provide advisory, project management, testing, and change management services. We also assisted in coordinating processes, tasks and resources between the two stakeholders, helping to achieve and maintain efficiency goals, minimise delays and ensure the success of the project.
Throughout the engagement, we ensured decisions were made in the best interests of Honda and that implementation dates were achieved with detailed, timely, and transparent information delivered to Honda throughout.
Project governance, required to coordinate resources and tasks across multiple stakeholders, gave Honda Management access to the information, data and advice needed to steer the project through unforeseen risks and challenges during implementation. We further helped minimise risk and ensure the integrity of the solution through specialist support to help Honda plan and manage quality and solution testing by pragmatically managing scope and monitoring, and reporting progress daily.
In order to ensure successful adoption of new processes and solutions, we also worked hand in hand with Honda’s change management team to facilitate the organisational change management required by the technology change.
Outcomes
The implementation of SAP S/4 HANA with SAP Automotive Enterprise Management applications into Honda Australia was the first of its kind in the automotive industry, and through an ongoing partnership, Honda Australia we’re able to realise continued operational benefits and deploy additional SAP capabilities to further improve the way they engage and serve their customers.
NRI provided a pragmatic level of support across all aspects of their service; from program delivery to program review and recommendations. They very quickly grew to be a trusted business advisor to Honda both during and post SAP implementation.”
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