SAP SE has announced that the UK’s third-largest supermarket chain, Asda, has expanded its strategic partnership by choosing RISE with SAP S/4HANA on Microsoft Azure as the digital core for its future platform, supported by SAP Business Technology Platform and SAP Ariba solutions to digitalise procurement operations.
With the Covid-19 pandemic creating an exponential eCommerce growth and changing the role of the retail store as consumers shop in different ways, Asda was looking for a digital platform that would improve its understanding of changing customer behaviours, while also ensuring business continuity via improved response to rapidly fluctuating supply chain disruption.
The move to RISE with SAP will provide Asda with an agile and single Digital Core platform to deliver automation and simplification of business processes in the cloud, enhanced (consumer-grade) user experience, real-time data and insights and near real-time sales, inventory and process visibility. This will enable the business to respond more adeptly to the needs and behaviours of its customers and the wider market.
With its adoption of SAP Ariba solutions for sourcing, buying and invoicing, contracts, spend analysis, supplier lifecycle and performance, supplier risk and commerce automation over Ariba Network, Asda will standardise and streamline its procurement processes across the organisation and expects to enhance data-driven intelligence, pricing optimisation and supply chain visibility. By improving supplier relationships and spend compliance, Asda aims to mitigate risk, reduce waste and achieve long-term resiliency against supply chain disruption.
With over 600 stores and 140,000 employees serving 18 million customers every week, Asda has been the lowest cost supermarket in the UK for 24 consecutive years, according to The Grocer magazine, while its fashion arm george is the second largest fashion brand by volume in the UK.
Following its acquisition by the Issa Brothers and TDR Capital from Walmart earlier this year, Asda is transitioning from its legacy solutions and embarking on an accelerated digital transformation strategy to better manage its end-to-end business operations. This includes commercial, procurement, supply chain, logistics and retail operations.
Carl Dawson, chief information officer at Asda, said: “We are embarking on an exciting business transformation for our Future as part of our separation from Walmart. We have chosen SAP as our Digital Core partner for its market-leading real-time business platforms and proven experience in retail and delivery. Through RISE with SAP, we are looking forward to building on our strategic relationship and achieving Asda’s goals for now and the future in the dynamic retail industry.”
Rohit Nagarajan, president EMEA North SAP said, “We are incredibly proud of the long-standing partnership we have built with Asda over the years. This organisation has been at the forefront of one of the industries most prominent throughout the recent pandemic, which has highlighted how important it is that as a business it continues to evolve to put its customers and families all over the UK, at the heart of its organisation. This next phase of business innovation will undoubtedly mean Asda will be able to supercharge its operations, streamline processes and harness the power of its data for increased insight and real-time business decision making and we look forward to supporting them on this next phase of growth and into the future.”
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