Brewing giant SAB Limited is set to save more than EUR8.24 million (R75 million) by 2009 - and vastly improve its ability to use its people as a source of competitive advantage - as a result of the human resources (HR) solution installed in its South African operations.
According to an independent study by IT research house Gartner Consulting, the mySAP ERP Human Capital Management (HCM) solution will allow SAB Limited to benefit from a more strategic HR function, improved people decision-making through access to real-time information, a reduction in payroll systems from 49 to 1 and an improved ability to track training and skills within the organisation, as required by the government Skills Development Act.
Gartner's findings indicate that SAB Limited has achieved a 24% return on investment with a payback period of 6.4 years on its mySAP HR implementation, which went live in 1999. Ten-year annualised savings will total more than 8 million euros, mostly through massively decreased IT costs and improved HR business processes.
SAB Limited is the South African beer operation of global brewing giant SABMiller, which operates in more than 40 countries worldwide. SAB Limited employs approximately 5 000 people.
"SAP has helped us tightly integrate our widespread operations and align these operations with core corporate objectives, providing a strong return on our investment," said George Murgatroyd, HR systems manager at SAB Limited.
"You cannot manage human capital competitiveness as a key strategic priority if you do not treat information about people with the same rigor, importance and respect as sales or financial information."
SAB Limited implemented mySAP ERP HCM in 1999 and since then has eliminated numerous organisational and technological redundancies, streamlined HR-related business processes and IT legacy systems, provided management with greater visibility into the organisation, and enabled HR to support strategic business objectives more fully.
In the past, HR representatives would have to physically travel to 14 regions across the country to gather personnel information for planning and decision-making processes. This paper-based process was inefficient and outdated, resulting in information that was months old, in some cases. Time management was similarly inefficient, leading to inconsistent and cumbersome payroll processes.
"SAP has helped us bring down costs in many areas, including reducing HR administration business processes cycle time to a matter of days, in some cases," said Steve Bluen, director of HR at SAB Limited.
"Thanks to mySAP ERP HCM, the executive management team can now pull up metrics during a board meeting and make high-level strategic people decisions in real-time - there is no next day."
This real-time ability has reduced the amount of time HR people spent collecting information and performing administrative tasks, allowing them to focus instead on strategic values like attracting, developing and retaining high-calibre, motivated people that can provide SAB with a competitive-edge.
"By leveraging the capabilities of mySAP ERP HCM, we have reduced operational costs without sacrificing flexibility. As a result, we have become even more competitive in the beverage industry and have come a long way in decreasing redundant activities and personnel, and reducing cycle time for key business processes," said Bluen.
The success of the implementation, says Adam Sentonaris, mySAP HR solution manager at SAP Africa, demonstrates how modern HR solutions can help customers meet business objectives through improved operational speed, streamlined enterprise-wide collaboration and people management, and higher employee efficiency and productivity.
SAB Limited is now better able to meet its strategic objective of operational excellence through its people by streamlining HR-related business processes across the organisation, providing management visibility into the entire organisation, and better enabling the HR department to support the firm's strategic business objectives.
"SAB's use of mySAP ERP HCM has enabled the company to become a tightly integrated organisation," said Sentonaris. "SAP technology has assisted SAB Limited with one of its core strategic objectives: operational excellence by reducing organisational barriers, decreasing redundant activities and reducing the cycle time for key business processes."
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