A relentless focus on its patients and innovative mergers propelled Astellas Pharma to become a world-leading life sciences company. But with rapid growth often comes complex, nonstandard processes and frustrated employees. It was time to globally standardize and harmonize processes using the latest technology platforms. 聽
To tackle this challenge, the company committed to a five-year global standardization program, supported by the move to market-leading technology platforms. This included ERP consolidation from regionalized SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ECC) instances to a single global instance of SAP S/4HANA. Given the additional time pressures due to SAP support for SAP ECC nearing expiration, this program was deemed a strategic enabler and critical to be delivered on time. 聽
The company used experts across all regions to develop global templates for each process area. However, it was always understood that deployment across 28 EMEA countries, each with local fiscal requirements, would be complex. The global template would need to be adjusted in some instances. 聽
Astellas needed a guide that could act as a business integrator to bring the ERP to life for each country.