2 Sisters Food Group

Opal Wave delivers a successful project without disruption

After assessing its options, 2 Sisters chose SAP BPC, version 10.1, then picked Opal Wave as its implementation partner, following a selection process involving two other potential providers.

David Wick, 2 Sisters’ IT project manager, says: “We appointed Opal Wave partly because we obtained some detailed references for them and spoke to several of their clients, getting good stories back.”

2 Sisters concurred with the consultancy’s proposal that the solution adopted should be the version for NetWeaver on SAP HANA. It also agreed that Opal Wave should build a temporary hosting environment immediately, pending final client decisions on project detail, to save significant time overall. The consultancy has provided this service to the benefit of other clients in similar circumstances.

Opal Wave began the build phase in May 2016, in its temporary hosting environment. It then transferred the solution to 2 Sisters’ own environment 10 weeks later.

The system, incorporating a data warehousing facility, went live in November 2016, a three-month parallel running phase preceding production deployment. Opal Wave then provided its Hyper Care on-site support on one day a week for six weeks from the go-live date and now supplies help under the extended support contract 2 Sisters awarded it.

A team of 10 Opal Wave staff did the work leading to full implementation, ensuring the right skilled individuals were deployed for each task, in a project completed successfully, without disrupting client activities.

David says: “In addition to facing the challenge of consolidating information from the eight enterprise resource planning systems we operate – after a double-figure number of strategic acquisitions this century – into one solution, Opal Wave had their patience tested. We have to be a fast-moving and responsive business and they’d be working with someone one day and then wouldn’t see them for two or three days, for example.

“A reason for appointing Opal Wave was we believed they’d be flexible enough to cope with this disruption. Sure enough, they just kept quietly re-cutting the project plan, sometimes having to work hard to keep things on track.

“I’ve worked with many other firms in their sector and they can be rigid and dogmatic but Opal Wave are different – they operate a genuine partnership with you and are prepared to be flexible.”

Part of Opal Wave’s work was training 2 Sisters’ staff in using the new solution.

David says: “The training Opal Wave delivered was first-class. They’re experts on the subject matter and brought impressive materials. They also delivered the training in a friendly and relaxed way and we were therefore able to make a good start on the parallel running phase.

“Opal Wave tutored about 50 people, over several days, in various locations. Overall, these staff said the training was well-delivered and made them confident about using the SAP solution.”

SAP BPC “has a very good name in the financial world”

SAP BPC, version 10.1, enables organisations to enhance the speed, efficiency, relevance, consistency and accuracy of their reporting, leading to better and more timely decisions. Facilitating the production of reliable, detailed breakdowns, it is powerful and scalable enough to handle high demand.

With its automated data checking, collection and control, it minimises manual input and therefore errors and redundancy. Its flexibility means it can be extended easily to new sites, acquisitions and countries.

David Wick says: “SAP BPC has a very good name in the financial world and the cost of the HANA platform has reduced hugely recently, which was one of its attractions for us. SAP BPC is a leading-edge solution with a full development cycle ahead of it, whose provider has a clear idea where it wants to take it and is fully committed to this journey. Unlike some alternatives, it’s not a dying product at the end of its life that’s no longer supported.”