Holiday season is just around corner, which means it’s that time again to reflect and plan for next year. Before you do that, you might want to hear from a few of your peers how they’ve accomplished some great things this year. What are the chances that you get to listen to 3 leading giants in the retail, healthcare and pharmacy industries who are willing to share their success stories? No worries we’ve got you covered! This year, at SAP SAPPHIRE NOW 2015, the SAP Service and Support team made great strides to get McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health Inc. and Loblaw Companies Ltd. together on the stage to talk about their experiences. In this insightful, informative session, you will have an opportunity to learn how these companies have stepped up to be digital leaders in their industries by collaborating with SAP MaxAttention.
If you don't have time to watch the full-length video, below is a summary of what was discussed during this panel:
The high level synopsis is that in today’s complex and rapidly changing business environment, innovation and simplification are essential to success. Yesterday, IT and business were separate departments within an organization; now, IT and business have to work hand in hand in order to stay competitive in the market. To bridge the gap and to prevent working in silos, SAP MaxAttention encourages customers to collaborate and communicate within their organizations. In this panel, you will learn more about this collaborative partnership in detail.
McKesson, is the oldest US healthcare company and the largest pharmaceutical distributor in North America. During the panel, John Marwick, Senior Director from McKesson explains that they implemented COPA on HANA with SAP Service and Support through an SAP MaxAttention engagement. The teams helped to safeguard the project and ensure that all necessary applications were embedded. John also states that the SAP Service and Support team has become a requirement to innovate. The ROI of SAP MaxAttention is measured in more than just dollars, it is the visibility and transparency to the business. In the past, the business didn't realize the complexity of IT processes. The SAP MaxAttention team helps the business to understand and helps them to make improvement for the future. John highlights that MaxAttention is working as the bridge to close the gap between IT and the business at McKesson. “The MaxAttention team is truly part of our team, committed 100% to our success. They are not a service, they are important partnership to McKesson.”
Cardinal Health is one of the largest healthcare supply chains in North America. George Kuntz, VP of Cardinal Health, says that it originally took 20 days to complete management reporting and financial closing, but by investing in COPA, with help from the SAP MaxAttenion, it’s now down to single-digit days. CFO and sales leaders, therefore, are able to make more intelligent decisions. The MaxAttention team offers dedicated TQMs, Technical Quality Managers to ensure they deliver quality service at customer sites. Loblaw is the biggest retail company in Canada and the sixth in North America. Loblaw started their SAP journey in 2009 in a very complicated business environment. Ugo Orsi, VP of Loblaw says their focus is to improve production support and since working with MaxAttention from 2014, the cost of ownership has been reduced by 30%! More specifically, Loblaw has participated in SAP Solution Manager certification and set up an Operations Control Center integrated to the Mission Control Center at SAP. This allows Loblaw to proactively monitor their business activities and significantly reduce their cost. They are also big proponents of the Innovation Control Center methodology and utilizing it, they reduced customizations from 130-150 down to 60! The great improvement with SAP Service and Support for Loblaw is sustainable innovation.
As SAP MaxAttention community members, Cardinal Health and Loblaw were brought closer together by the SAP MaxAttention team because they have similar projects, similar experiences and similar needs. For instance both companies have a major focus on operational efficiencies and investment in SAP Solution Manager, and the Operations Control Center as critical and fundamental. The Innovation Control Center helps them drive overall solutions as well as plans for future. Through SAP MaxAttention, both have increased their business transparency.
To conclude this blog, John Marwick’s closing mark is truly on point: “Maxattention… is not a service but a partnership, make sure you understand that, then you will have a lot of success working together moving forward.” What do you think of this panel? Now it’s your turn to reflect, recharge and restart! Feel free to let us know your thoughts and questions at sap_premium_maintenance_community@sap.com, and connect with us @SAP_AGS.
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