A world leader in household products was rolling out SAP across global organisations. Their incumbent SI partner had designed global templates to standardise implementations worldwide. On paper, everything looked comprehensive and well-planned.
Australia needed an immediate Demand Planning solution. The global template was ready. The timeline was tight. Management should have been confident.
But they were savvy enough to smell trouble.
Management realized the SI had designed the template on paper. But had never tested it against real-world business operations. The SI claimed it would fit Australian operations without adjustment.
The timeline was tight. There was no room for dialogue between central design and local business operations. They couldn’t afford lengthy back-and-forth discussions about what worked and what didn’t.
Worse still, they couldn’t accept extensive custom code and workarounds on the ground. That would destroy the ‘global’ template concept. And disrupt their existing global SCM solution.
They needed the template to work in standard SAP. First time. In Australia’s real business environment.
Management chose Pivot to build the solution and train Australian operators. They needed real-world business experience to connect with line management and users. Plus deep SAP knowledge to keep modifications in standard configuration.
Pivot consultants flew to Australia for a week of workshops. The reality check was brutal.
Forty percent redesign required. Nearly half the template was wrong.
The template hadn’t taken practical realities into account at all. What looked logical on paper broke down when confronted with actual business operations.
The Australian operation used legacy systems including J.D.Edwards. It had been partitioned to provide both global and local functionality. The paper template had ignored this complexity.
Interfaces had to be built from scratch. Information flows needed to move from legacy systems into SAP BODS, then into APO, then into the existing global SCM solution. The SI had not considered this in the original design.
Pivot’s experience from similar projects and grasp of best practice made the difference.
The redesign was substantial but stayed within standard SAP. No custom code. No workarounds that would compromise the global template. The solution had to work for Australia while remaining usable for other countries.
Despite all the unanticipated work, the project delivered in full and on time. The only compromise was delayed training materials, which didn’t impact project success.
Pivot ensured complete skill transfer to the internal team. The client wasn’t left dependent on external support to move forward. Pivot involved local teams in all design decisions.
The demand planning solution worked in Australia’s real business environment. Other countries and regions are now lining up for the next phase of rollout.
The best global solutions aren’t designed in isolation. They’re forged in the fire of real-world operations.
For a household products leader where demand planning drives global supply chains, learning that paper-perfect templates can be 40% wrong was an expensive but valuable lesson.
Pivot turned that lesson into a template that actually worked.
