Guiding cloud ERP migration to support growth and scale for a major food and beverage retailer

ERP Solutions in Azure Cloud | Case Study | Codec UK

Project at a glance

Challenge

To continue supporting its operations and customer experience at scale, a leading food and beverage retailer needed to migrate its existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution into a resilient Azure environment.

Solution we designed

As an Azure Expert MSP, Codec utilised the Cloud Adoption Framework standards for Azure in this implementation, adhering to a tried-and-tested blueprint for cloud migration planning designed to ensure successful migration at scale.

Impact we delivered

  • Reduced ERP maintenance overheads, allowing IT to prioritise core process, management and innovation projects.
  • The ability to increase or decrease the platform's operations and related expenditures over time.
  • Better management of rapidly expanding business data, benefitting analytics and other data-driven processes.
  • Improved stability of the cloud environment, including uninterrupted processing and no downtime.
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Problem

Planning an overdue ERP migration to Azure

As one of Europe’s leading food and beverage retailers continued to grow its business footprint across new systems and locations, the organisation found its ability to scale limited by its existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.

The company knew it needed a fully resilient solution based in Azure to support its operations and customer experience at scale. Like many organisations, though, the client also needed a migration that could be executed smoothly, with minimal disruption to its existing business operations.

With more than 100 years of experience supporting operations across Europe, and with more than 40,000 employees working under its brand, the company was facing a cloud migration project that was as complex as it was overdue.

“No two Azure migration projects are identical. Businesses need to work with trusted Azure consultants who can understand and account for their organisation’s specific needs, challenges, and architectural complexity to ensure a successful transition.”

Brian Smyth
Project Lead, Codec
Solution

A comprehensive approach to cloud migration planning

As an Azure Expert MSP, Codec had the expertise and proven methodologies needed to plan and execute a successful migration at scale. This migration began with discovery, analysis and design phases to fully understand the project’s resource requirements, and to ensure projected costs were in line with the clients’ expectation.

Our consultants followed the Cloud Adoption Framework standards for Azure in this implementation, a step-step process providing the following blueprint:

  • Defining the Strategy: Understanding the motivations, business outcomes, business justification and project prioritisation.
  • Planning the Migration: Review digital estate, initial organisational alignment, skills readiness plan and cloud adoption plans agreed and documented.
  • Readiness: Providing an Azure readiness guide, setting up the first landing zone, expanding the blueprint, and validating best practices.
  • Adoption: Workload migration, expanded scenario exercises, best practices validation, and process improvements.
  • Governance: Methodology, benchmarking, initial best practices and governance maturity.
  • Management: Reviewing against business commitments, establishing an operations baseline.

As part of this process, database servers were migrated to the Azure SQL PaaS platform for better integration with the Azure ecosystem.

Results

Scalable, flexible ERP built for the future

Other highlights of this transformation include:

  • Reduced ERP maintenance overheads, allowing IT to prioritise core process management and innovation projects.
  • The ability to increase or decrease the platform's operations and related expenditures over time.
  • Better management of rapidly expanding business data, benefitting analytics and other data-driven processes.
  • Improved stability of the cloud environment, including uninterrupted processing and no downtime.

“For a large, established organisation like ours, the potential benefits of cloud migration were always weighed against the potential risks of such a project going wrong. With Codec, the success of this transition was never in doubt.”

IT Manager

Major Food & Beverage Retailer

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ERP Solutions in Azure Cloud | Case Study | Codec UK