IBM Services transforming Vivo Energy with SAP S/4HANA®

Fueling future growth by boosting efficiency and unlocking operational insight

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Feb 14, 2019, 12:00 ET

ARMONK, N.Y., Feb. 14, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Vivo Energy, a market-leading company that distributes and markets Shell branded fuels and lubricants in Africa, has selected IBM Services for its digital transformation journey based on SAP S/4HANA®. A rapid start to the relationship using agile methods has already led to the completion of a major project milestone with two out of fifteen of Vivo Energy's country locations transferred to SAP S/4HANA to help boost efficiency and unlock operational insights.

Vivo Energy, a market-leading company that distributes and markets Shell branded fuels and lubricants in Africa, has selected IBM Services for its digital transformation journey based on SAP S/4HANA® Credit: Vivo Energy

Since its establishment in 2011, Vivo Energy has rapidly grown, adding more than 500 service stations to its retail network between 2012 and 2017, while opening more than 450 convenience retail and quick service restaurants between 2014 and 2017. In 2018 the company operated over 1,800 service stations and employed around 2,360 people. It's because of this rapid growth that Vivo Energy needed to make changes to its existing IT environment and improve its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems.

IBM solutions have started to transform Vivo Energy's operations, enabling it to streamline processes, enhance employee productivity and improve data visibility. Using the embedded analytics engine of SAP S/4HANA, Vivo Energy will be able to track the performance of each of its locations to help drive decision-making and help create an intelligent enterprise that responds actively to customer demand. As the deployment expands to more locations the organization will be able to conduct more detailed analytics, empowering employees to make fact-based decisions.

Vivo Energy's retailers will also feel the benefits from the company's new solution. SAP S/4HANA will predict demand for particular products and automate replenishment at the service stations, which will also allow the company to reduce its fuel distribution costs.

Mike McCormick, CIO, Vivo Energy, said, "We are focused on continuing our remarkable growth story, and to achieve this, we decided to transform our approach to business management and look for ways to enable the comprehensive operational insight that we desired. IBM was the best partner to support the implementation, taking the time to get to know our business needs in depth."

Keith Costello, Global Vice President and General Manager, SAP Global Business Services Leader, IBM, said, "Vivo Energy was one of the first oil and gas companies of its size to deploy the full suite of SAP S/4HANA applications alongside SAP SuccessFactors solutions, SAP Cloud for Customer and SAP Integrated Business Planning in one integrated, end-to-end platform. IBM Services and Vivo Energy took an agile approach to the implementation, with a focus on fast decision-making. This approach on implementation can help ensure that the business transformation program has a global template for the solution, with minimal local customization in each business unit."

Using the SAP Activate implementation methodology, Vivo Energy and IBM chose a 'Big Bang' approach, with multiple application components enabled simultaneously. With the SAP S/4HANA solutions currently active in two countries, Vivo Energy has plans to roll out the solutions across other locations by the fourth quarter of 2019.

IBM Services implemented SAP S/4HANA, powered by IBM Power Systems servers and IBM Storwize V7000 storage systems, with SAP SuccessFactors solutions, SAP Cloud for Customer and SAP Integrated Business Planning, helping to create an intelligent enterprise.

About Vivo Energy

Vivo Energy is a market-leading pan-African fuel retailer, operating and marketing its products under the Shell brand in countries across North, West, East and Southern Africa. In 2018 the company had a network of more than 1,800 service stations in 15 countries and exported lubricants to other African countries.

About IBM Services

To learn more about SAP S/4HANA, please visit: ibm.com/services/sap

SAP, SAP S/4HANA and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE (or an SAP affiliate company) in Germany and other countries. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Please see http://www.sap.com/trademark for additional trademark information and notices.

Media Contacts

Ken Saunders
External Relations, IBM Global Business Services
[email protected]
+447887830036

SOURCE IBM