TCS CPG SAP Innovation Hub now ready to inspire!

A Royal City

Hyderabad – a vibrant city in southern India famous for its glorious history, rich culture and excellent cuisine – is home to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)‘ SAP Competency Center. Located in Adibatla, Hyderabad, this center was built to serve their leading Consumer Packaged Goods customers worldwide.

Evening view of Hyderabad Credit: Wikipedia

The new campus has the capacity for approximately 35,000 employees and includes several SAP command-and-control centers for TCS’ global CPG customers.

View of the TCS Adibatla Campus Credit: Shapoorji Pallonji Projects 

This center now has a brand new TCS CPG Innovation Hub that was brought to life from vision to opening in just 5 months!

Baseline vision

The idea of an “SAP Innovation Hub” for CPG customers was conceived in March 2022 with a clear goal:

To address industry-specific use cases for CPG customers around Industry 4.0 and Digital Supply Chain

Working with SAP, a baseline vision was firmed up which included concepts inspired by showcase scenarios in our own Industry 4.0 Innovation Hubs.

Once finalized, TCS quickly established a dedicated task force, led by Raju Saripudi, to finalize the use cases, secure demo landscapes and design the physical space.  Strong sponsorship from Sudhakar Gudala (TCS’ Global CPG Leader) along with Harris Fogel (SAP’s Global CPG Industry Leader) and Ashish Pujari (SAP’s Global Industry 4.0 Ecosystem Leader) helped in realizing the aggressive timeline by Aug 2022. This dynamic center will continuously be enhanced with new scenarios based on customers, industries and SAP go-to-market priorities.

Part 1: The Launch

The inauguration of the TCS CPG SAP Innovation Hub on August 24th was a momentous occasion attended by Industry Analysts and leaders from both TCS and SAP.

Inauguration Ceremony Credit: TCS 

As sponsors for the center, Sudhakar, Harris and Ashish played key roles in kicking off the day and outlining its importance.

Sudhakar’s opening address underscored his vision for TCS’ CPG group and the important role SAP Digital Transformations play in realizing it. He highlighted the ground-breaking work being done by TCS in several North American, European and Asian clients. He outlined TCS’ “Three Horizon” strategy and how SAP’s S/4HANA, Digital Supply Chain and Customer Experience solutions map to each horizon.

Harris spoke about how CPG customers are embracing digital, becoming more consumer-centric, increasing agility and addressing sustainability with SAP solutions.

Ashish’s keynote focussed on the definition of Industry 4.0 in the broader sense for CPG that connects processes within the four walls of the factory with the broader supply chain processes across the enterprise.  SAP’s Industry 4.0 strategy hinges upon the power of its ecosystem partners that range from system Integration partners, industrial machinery manufacturers, network providers to the next-generation technology providers.

It was a treat to watch all the speakers engage in a lively Fireside Chat as well.

Opening Keynotes and Fireside Chat Credit: TCS

Following that, it was a privilege to participate in the Employee Townhall that brought together over 300 SAP CPG consultants working out of the center. Lively interactions with the audience about the Innovation Hub’s value, its role in delivering the CPG vision and how it personally impacts them were priceless.

Employee Townhall Credit: TCS

Part 2: TCS Innovations & Customer Stories

In this segment, TCS showcased two main categories of innovations:

• Industry-specific solutions addressing whitespaces in chocolate, beverages etc. built on S/4HANA
• Innovative solutions for the CPG industries such as:
  • RevenuePrime – an analyst-recognized Revenue Management solution
  • EnviroZone – an award-winning sustainability solution

both of which are in discussions for Industry Cloud certification and migration to the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP)

TCS also showcased a few client stories:

• Rapid S/4HANA implementation for a beverage and ready-to-eat foods manufacturer based out of Asia
• Wall-to-wall SAP implementation for a leading European consumer appliances company

Customer Stories and Solutions Showcase Credit: TCS

The event concluded with the playing of a special video message from Sujit Hemachandran (part of SAP’s Industry 4.0 Ecosystem team) recorded at our Industry 4.0 Innovation Hub highlighting the potential of this partnership between SAP and TCS.

Next Steps

I left this event feeling energized about this renewed partnership between SAP and TCS for CPG industries. There is a tremendous opportunity to inspire prospective clients together at the Innovation Hub – the journey has just begun!

Stay tuned for the following:

• Enhanced Virtual Experience at the Hub to be scaled globally using TCS PacePorts
• Client Visits at the Hub – a few are already being planned
• Future expansion and additional showcase scenarios at the Hub

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You may also be interested in the following blogs :

• Stronger together: SAP Industry 4.0 Ecosystem Summit SEA Edition
• A futuristic experience with SAP and Deloitte at the Smart Factory @ Wichita
• Supply Chain optimization is the Cornerstone of Sustainability Improvement

Read many more SAP Supply Chain Management blogs and ask questions about SAP Supply Chain Management.