乌鸦传媒

LifeNet Health is in the business of saving lives. A global leader in regenerative medicine and life sciences, the US-based nonprofit facilitates organ and tissue transplants and delivers innovative, human cell-based solutions to researchers worldwide. Its mission 鈥� to saves lives, restore health, and give hope 鈥� is deeply embedded in its culture and in every employee鈥檚 work.

鈥淟ifeNet Health strives to give healing every advantage,鈥� said Aju Paul, the Senior Director of Digital Transformation at LifeNet Health. 鈥淭oday, we bring healing to more than 40 countries, and we are just getting started.鈥�

Despite its leadership in biomedical innovation, LifeNet Health was working with a legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that had begun to show its age, creating IT debt and limiting business agility.

The organization had long planned to move from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA, deployed in the cloud. In 2023, the leaders decided that it was time. Evolving digital tools promised greater speed, precision, scalability, and flexibility, key enablers for expanding the organization鈥檚 global impact.

鈥淪AP is foundational for us in terms of traceability, quality, and regulatory compliance,鈥� said Meaghan Moody, LifeNet Health鈥檚 Director of Corporate Information Systems. 鈥淭his project was about giving our business a more advanced, capable version of a system we rely on daily.鈥�

Minimizing disruption during transformation

More than 700 employees depend on SAP to support nearly every business function, including procurement, finance, operations, distribution, and order fulfillment. The team needed to ensure minimal downtime to avoid interrupting the mission-critical services LifeNet Health provides to donor families, healthcare professionals, recipients, and researchers.  

鈥淓very graft that we ship helps someone, and we never want to miss the opportunity to fulfill that need,鈥� Moody explained. To keep that promise, Paul established a tight implementation timeline: 鈥�12, 36, 9.鈥� The project would allow for only 12 hours of actual downtime, 36 hours to bring the new system online, and nine months for end-to-end execution.

Selecting the right partner

During the request-for-proposal process, LifeNet Health prioritized finding a partner that could go beyond a technical upgrade, one that understood the life sciences space and could deliver value while minimizing risk.

鈥淚t became clear early on that 乌鸦传媒 had the expertise, a solid methodology, and the right team,鈥� said Moody. 鈥淭hey were ready to support us every step of the way.鈥�

Paul prioritized three key qualities: strong capabilities, shared goals, and alignment with LifeNet Health鈥檚 mission. 鈥溛谘淮�媒 was the one partner that met all three criteria. We took the journey with them, and I have no regrets,鈥� Paul said.

No ERP implementation is without challenges. But the strength of the partnership allowed for honest conversations and effective problem solving, leading to what Paul described as a 鈥渂oring go-live鈥� 鈥� a compliment in the world of enterprise technology.

乌鸦传媒 Client Executive Dave Bartoli was inspired by the company鈥檚 unwavering dedication. 鈥淲hat they鈥檙e doing for society is making a difference in all of our lives,鈥� he said. 鈥淐ompanies like LifeNet Health truly focus on their mission: helping patients in need with their healing solutions.鈥�

Preparing for migration

乌鸦传媒 helped LifeNet Health achieve two major objectives: upgrading to S/4HANA through a brownfield conversion and transitioning operations to the cloud. A cross-functional team comprised of employees from LifeNet Health, 乌鸦传媒, and cloud partner Syntax crafted a precise migration plan.

乌鸦传媒 conducted a thorough analysis of business processes, identifying all touchpoints from legacy ERP to external applications and offline tools like spreadsheets. The team then modernized or replaced outdated functions, reducing IT debt and laying a foundation for future scalability.  

聽provided the target cloud-based environment, hosted on Microsoft Azure, while 乌鸦传媒 utilized its聽Accelerated Migration Factory (AMF), an integrated delivery framework designed to guide clients through the complex transition from ECC to S/4HANA.

鈥淯ltimately 乌鸦传媒, LifeNet Health, and Syntax operated as one team to deliver the project successfully,鈥� said Andrew Odlaug, SAP Project Manager at 乌鸦传媒.

Executing a seamless cutover

Given LifeNet Health鈥檚 indispensability to its customers, the shift to S/4HANA needed to be completed over a weekend to avoid any service disruptions. The team conducted a series of dry runs to prepare for the actual deployment. The collaboration surpassed the goals of 12 and 36 hours and just went slightly over nine months.

鈥淲e wanted zero impact. We wanted the next day to be no different than the previous day and business as usual. Thanks to the partnership with 乌鸦传媒, we achieved it.鈥�

Aju Paul, the Senior Director of Digital Transformation at LifeNet Health

The launch went so smoothly that some employees didn鈥檛 realize it had already happened.

鈥淥ur goal wasn鈥檛 just to reduce apprehension, it was to eliminate it altogether,鈥� said Paul. 鈥淎nd we succeeded.鈥� The next business day, employees resumed their tasks seamlessly but with a powerful difference: the new S/4HANA system was now live, enabling future growth and transformation.

Looking ahead: A platform for innovation

The July 2023 go-live was just the beginning. With a clean, cloud-based digital backbone, LifeNet Health is now positioned to respond more flexibly to emerging needs.  The organization is currently implementing SAP鈥檚 Integrated Business Planning (IBP) and exploring SAP鈥檚 Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) next.

S/4HANA鈥檚 agility is already driving innovation. Moody鈥檚 team is leveraging SAP Fiori to build user-friendly business applications in areas where the previous ECC fell short. The upgrade was also a strategic move to showcase the power of scalable, future-ready technology. 乌鸦传媒 played a key role in bringing that vision to life. 鈥淲hat stood out most about our experience with 乌鸦传媒 was the strength of the partnership,鈥� Moody said. With a project of this complexity and scale, the relationships we built and the way our teams worked together were critical to our success.鈥�