Georgian Railway Finalize First New Project Implementation
SAP - one of the leading companies in corporate programs on the market and Georgian Railway finished the implementation of the SAP S/4HANA project for the first time in a post-soviet area.
The new system will enable the Georgian Railway Company to make strategic decisions faster and will ensure the flexible management of the organization process. At this stage, there are already 500 individuals using the system.
The Georgian Railway Company decided to switch to the SAP S/4HANA in 2015, as an audit showed that insufficient automation prevented the development of the company, at the same time making it difficult for the company management to see the full picture, and to make the right decisions accordingly.
The main goal from the beginning of the project was to modernize key business processes prior to carrying out finance, acquisition and repair works. The decision to choose SAP came due to the experience of the vendor with leading railway operators in CIS, European countries and the US. Italian Trenitalia, Dutch ProRail and Canadian Pacific from Canada were among them.
S/4HANA itself is used by the world’s top companies, including Bosch, Fitbit, and Horizon Pharma.
In order to create a unified system at the Georgian Railways, a solution was implemented on the base of SAP S/4HANA, a new generation of in-memory ERP system.
The automation optimizes the business process of management registration, along with the repair, maintenance, technical assistance and personnel management processes. The main focus was made is on solving budgeting, planning and consolidation issues.
SAP MaxAttention, an International Premium Support Group, participated in the realization of the project, controlling the implemented solutions. The group retrained the company staff and helped the Georgian Railway Company to finish the project on time.
For the future, the Georgian Railway plans to:
- Increase the automation of business processes.
- Create a localization system for Georgia, with a Georgian interface, adjusted to Georgian legislation.
- To realize innovation projects and
- To certify its own center for expertise, enabling implementation of the service in companies interested.
“The tasks that the group implemented were quite ambitious. Largely due to the SAP Premium Group support it turned out successful, that was the main component of the success," said Mamuka Bakhtadze, General Director of Georgian Railway Company. "Thanks to SAP, we have access to the company's global expertise. The assistance of qualified staff at every stage of the project was also very important. Implementation of the SAP S/4HANA system will give us a chance to monitor business processes, which in its turn will allow managerial decisions to be made faster’’.
“SAP and the Georgian Railway joint project is an important stage of the SAP development in the region, because it’s the first transition to the productive stage of operation," said Alexander Arnold, Sap SE Director for strategic directions in Central and Eastern Europe. "Integrated decisions will increase the business transparency and the management of assets to achieve set goals. We’re sure that the Georgian Railway transformation experience will be in demand among various sectors not only in Europe but throughout the world".
Georgian Railway is one of the leading companies in the country. Established in 1872, today it’s an important part of the Euro-Asian transportation corridor that links Europe with Central Asia.
SAP is one of the world’s leading companies in corporate programming on the market. It assists organizations of any scale and specialization with effective management, be it the board of directors, help with storage, shop, desktop or mobile programs.
SAP solutions and services are being used by more then 345,000 clients including Success Factor clients. The top technologies of the company ensure the uninterrupted adaptation of sustainable growth.
By Nino Gugunishvili