The Client

The client is a global leader in sustainable environmental solutions, specializing in end-to-end solutions for water management, waste management and energy services across five continents. It needed to streamline its operations and was undergoing an SAP S/4HANA migration to enhance its digital backbone and operational agility

                     Need for Change

The organization was operating with highly complex and fragmented business platforms, managed by multiple service providers and internal teams across diverse geographies. This complexity resulted in escalating operational costs, low system performance, and suboptimal user satisfaction. The existing landscape included numerous critical transactions, a wide user base, and a multitude of interfaces between systems, making integration and management increasingly challenging. As part of its SAP modernization journey, the organization aimed to address these issues by streamlining systems, improving performance, and enhancing user experience across regions.

In North America, the client’s legacy business units highlighted the limitations of disparate systems and processes. There was a clear need to modernize and harmonize operations, simplify the application landscape, and drive efficiencies in shared services, while ensuring seamless data migration and process standardization across multiple legal entities and business functions.

In the other regions, outdated on-premise platforms, manual interventions, and a lack of alignment with evolving technology roadmaps further underscored the urgency for modernization. The business required a simplified, standardized, and future-ready environment to support growth, reduce customizations, and enable efficient, integrated operations across multiple entities and languages.

                      Challenges

The organization faced significant hurdles due to complex and fragmented legacy systems, rising operational costs, outdated technology, and the need to harmonize processes across regions. These challenges impacted efficiency, user satisfaction, and the organization’s ability to scale, affecting key stakeholders such as C-suite executives, operations teams, IT and application support, and quality assurance teams. To address these challenges, the organization initiated an SAP S/4HANA migration, aimed at streamlining operations, modernizing its digital infrastructure, and enabling smarter decision-making across functions.

                   LTM’s Solution

A comprehensive suite of cloud-based business solutions was deployed, including ERP, procurement, and travel management platforms. The transformation was guided by a detailed assessment using proprietary tools, resulting in a structured roadmap for implementation. As part of this initiative, an SAP S/4HANA migration was undertaken to modernize core systems and enhance integration across functions. The project followed a proven methodology and included multilingual knowledge-sharing sessions to ensure effective adoption and stakeholder engagement.

Europe

• Executed a full migration of infrastructure and applications to a public cloud environment, including comprehensive user acceptance and system integration testing for critical business platforms.
• Established end-to-end horizontal support, covering both application and infrastructure layers, with clear operational responsibility.
• Provided 24×5 application management and 24×7 infrastructure support, ensuring continuous operations.
• Delivered ongoing enhancements and ad hoc projects to address evolving business needs.

North America

• Implemented solutions on a modern ERP platform, enabling core business processes such as revenue accounting, resource billing, HR management, and financial operations—including lease contract management.
• Developed and deployed a complex timesheet process with robust validation mechanisms.
• Integrated multiple systems to streamline updates to HR master data.

Japan

• Conducted a detailed assessment of the existing technology landscape using proprietary tools to identify transformation opportunities and risks.
• Deployed a comprehensive suite of cloud-based business solutions, including ERP, procurement, and travel management platforms.
• Delivered a thorough assessment report and a structured roadmap for the ERP transformation initiative.
• Adopted a proven project implementation methodology to ensure effective and efficient delivery.
• Facilitated knowledge transfer and stakeholder engagement through interactive sessions conducted in multiple languages.

                         Tech Stack

                                     Tech Stack Details

SAP S/4HANA : North America and Japan

SAP ECC : Client’s environment

AWS & Google Cloud Platform (GCP) :  Cloud infrastructure

Fiori applications : User interface

Advanced smart forms : Sales invoicing

Automated test scripts : Regression testing

Digital training content : User enablement

Operations control center : Incident prevention and resolution

Comprehensive cloud-based business solutions : ERP, procurement, travel management

Multilingual knowledge-sharing sessions : Stakeholder engagement

                             Benefits

The client’s SAP modernization journey delivered measurable benefits across all regions, driving productivity, reducing incidents, streamlining business processes, and enhancing user experience. The organization achieved significant operational improvements and set a strong foundation for future growth.

Europe

• Achieved 7–10% year-over-year productivity improvement.
• Eliminated 10–12% of incidents through user enablement.
• Prevented 12–16% of incidents via operations control center.
• Reduced mean time to resolve issues by 25–30%.
• Lowered mean time between failures by 30–35%.

North America

• Advanced smart forms streamline and improve accuracy in sales invoicing, resulting in greater efficiency for the business.
• Advanced smart forms streamline and improve accuracy in sales invoicing.
• Automating 55+ test scripts speeds up regression testing and reduces manual effort.
• Digital training content empowers users with accessible, self-paced learning.

Japan

• Moving to a cloud-based ERP reduced costs, increased scalability, and improved system reliability.
• Deploying 250+ Fiori apps boosted user productivity and streamlined workflows.
• Integrating 25+ key business processes enhanced efficiency and enabled real-time data visibility.

                         Conclusion

This SAP modernization journey demonstrates how a global, multi-entity organization successfully modernizes and harmonizes its business operations. By migrating over 130 SAP instances to the cloud, implementing SAP S/4HANA across North America, and deploying a private cloud solution in Japan, the organization achieved significant gains in productivity, operational efficiency, and user experience. Key differentiators included seamless transitions, automation, and the use of proprietary tools for assessment and implementation. This case study illustrates how industry leaders can leverage a tailored SAP transformation can accelerate business outcomes for sustainable success.

                       Internal Quote

“Leading this multi-region SAP transformation, spanning our global operations on AWS, a North American S/4HANA deployment on AWS, and a Japanese S/4HANA RISE implementation on Google Cloud has been a defining milestone for our organization. By harmonizing processes and modernizing our platforms across these diverse environments, we have significantly improved productivity, operational efficiency, and user experience. The collaborative approach and expertise we brought to this initiative ensured seamless delivery with minimal disruption. This transformation has not only strengthened our digital foundation but also empowered us to innovate sustainably, operate smarter, and shape the future of water management with greater agility and purpose. “

    – Director Enterprise Applications, Information Systems and Technology, NA