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Aberdare Cables: Transformation journey to SAP S/4HANA, and ongoing Managed Services

Aberdare Cables partnered with EPI-USE and EPI-USE Labs over more than two decades to transform their business. EPI-USE Labs’ PRISM solution facilitated a successful company code carve-out, followed by multiple steps to S/4HANA.

SAP company code carve-out

SAP upgrade to suite on HANA

Low-risk SAP S/4HANA conversion

Ongoing Cloud & Basis Managed Services

Value-adding BTP developments

About Aberdare Cables

Aberdare Cables is a leading supplier of intelligent energy inter-connection products and services in Africa, and the largest supplier in Southern Africa. Established in 1946, the company offers cable designs, product development, installation support, commissioning and diagnostic testing through their engineering service division. Aberdare Cables has over 1,000 employees and three manufacturing sites in South Africa. In 2016, the company was acquired by Hengtong as a majority shareholder.

EPI-USE Labs helped us implement our SAP roadmap, and the team is always available when we need them. We achieved upgrades into the HANA space within short timelines and at low costs; the migration was seamless with no interruptions in work. We now have efficient technical support and effective IT management tools.

Raven Mahabeer
General Manager: Information Management at Aberdare Cables

Strategic partner in transforming Aberdare’s business

Aberdare Cables has partnered with EPI-USE and EPI-USE Labs for over 20 years, from HR and Payroll, to providing support on their journey to adopt SAP S/4HANA, with ongoing technical Basis Managed Services, and SAP BTP (Business Technology Platform) developments.

In 2017, Aberdare was searching for a low-risk methodology to minimise business impact, and asked EPI-USE Labs to help them with:

  • an Aberdare Cables company code carve-out from the Powertech Group
  • migration and upgrade to the cloud
  • ongoing cloud hosting and SAP managed services.

EPI-USE Labs used our PRISM for Business solution to carve out the Aberdare company code from their previous shareholders' SAP system quickly and accurately; and a licence transfer agreement with SAP also gave Aberdare the opportunity to start the journey to transition from ECC6 to S/4HANA. Leveraging our Data Sync Manager™ (DSM) software suite and specialist services to automate the process, the footprint of the SAP landscape was reduced, and the rebuild was faster, with less resources needed.

EPI-USE Labs upgraded the SAP ECC application, completed the conversion to Unicode, and upgraded the database to HANA, all in preparation for making the entire conversion to S/4HANA as seamless as possible.

Aberdare chose EPI-USE Labs’ hosting platform to host their SAP system, with increased security and high performance at attractive rates. The hosting platform includes capacity, backup and disaster recovery functionality, bundled into one, to deploy and manage a fully virtualised SAP environment.

EPI-USE Labs has the tools that ensure that you get to S/4HANA successfully and safely. They were the foundation for the build of our S/4 environment, and they've helped us along this entire journey, all the way to S/4 where we currently run HR and Payroll services.

Raven Mahabeer
General Manager: Information Management at Aberdare Cables

A holistic cloud and managed services partner

Following their successful adoption of SAP S/4HANA, Aberdare Cables believes the platform provides them with the capability to continue innovating to support their business goals. They view EPI-USE Labs as a valued partner, supporting them in adapting their SAP landscape to meet their business needs.

You really want to minimise your risk through such a huge project. They're definitely best of breed, and there are very few that can compete with them in this space.

Raven Mahabeer
General Manager: Information Management at Aberdare Cables

Ongoing technical Basis Managed Services were used from the start of the journey, with EPI-USE Labs being Aberdare Cables’ SAP technical and advisory partner along the way.

EPI-USE Labs has implemented various innovative and modernisation solutions over the past eight years. These include:

  • Automation and monitoring tools to facilitate the smooth operations of Aberdare’s SAP system
  • Automating the entire change and SAP transport system for organised management and traceability
  • Roles and Authorisation Management, by introducing GRC solutions from their partner Soterion
  • Additional BTP developments to streamline their processes and get more from their SAP S/4HANA environment, in collaboration with their sister company G3G.

Aberdare Cables’ transformation journey with EPI-USE Labs

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EPI-USE Labs has brought us technology guidance and improved efficiencies across our business processes, as well as technical support for custom enhancements.

Raven Mahabeer
General Manager: Information Management at Aberdare Cables

Successful SAP carve-out project

Migration to EPI-USE Labs’ Cloud Hosting Platform

Unicode conversion, ECC 6 EHP upgrade and migration to Suite on HANA

Ongoing IP-leveraged Cloud and Basis Managed Services support

Optimised and de-risked move to S/4HANA

Full Brownfield conversion from ECC 6 EHP 7 to S/4HANA

Roles and Authorisation Management

SAP BTP app development

S/4 was a significant change from a business process perspective. We determined an optimum trajectory to minimise disruption to the business. We initially put out a few Fiori apps that were helpful in terms of the business objectives from an Exec and senior management level while retaining the traditional SAP GUI environment. From there, we had the platform to open up new innovations, and new opportunities to the business in different areas through the mobility side of Fiori. That model works perfectly in terms of minimising risk, minimising disruption, and seeing progress through our landscape.

Raven Mahabeer
General Manager: Information Management at Aberdare Cables

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