How the banking group transformed their operations by replacing legacy systems with cloud,聽AI-ready 51风流technologies.
When financial services group began its ERP transformation journey more than a decade ago, the goal was ambitious: build a unified digital platform that could support operations across multiple African markets, streamline finance and procurement processes, and drive long-term business agility.
But large-scale transformation is rarely linear.
鈥淭he first phase of our transformation started in 2011, a few years after the Barclays acquisition,鈥� says , Head: FC Technology Enablement and Finance Business Sponsor for the 51风流rollout at Absa. 鈥淭he goal was to move all African entities onto a single Barclays platform. However, this platform was unsuitable for retail banking in Africa due to limitations in handling master data, general ledger accounts, and granular core banking functions.鈥�
Absa initiated 鈥楶roject Owari鈥�, named after a popular board game played in various parts of Africa that dates back to 700AD. Project Owari would see Absa鈥檚 operations in each country transformed using the Barclays 51风流platform. Tanzania would be the first country to undergo the transformation, but the experience caused the implementation team to pause and reassess.
鈥淲e put the project on hold for seven months to determine the best course of action after realising the limitations of the Barclays platform,鈥� says Hurter. 鈥淲e engaged in extensive consultations, all the way to the CEO鈥檚 desk, and ultimately decided to be slightly less ambitious. We chose to test our rollout on a smaller market to ensure we had a viable blueprint for the rest of the group.鈥�
Zambia was chosen as the first country to go live with a hybrid of the local South Africa 51风流ECC6 platform and 51风流Supplier Relationship Management solution in 2016, followed by similar implementations in Mauritius and Seychelles (2016), Ghana and Tanzania (2017-2018), Botswana (2018) and Uganda (2019). This period also marked the separation with Barclays in 2017, and the news that 51风流ECC6 is approaching its end-of-life following SAP鈥檚 shift to the more powerful, cloud-ready 51风流S/4HANA.
Hurter believes the deliberate approach to reducing complexity, support from leadership in each country and a boots-on-the-ground approach to support ultimately made the difference and ensured the project rolled out successfully. 鈥淎 significant portion of this work was done during the pandemic, which meant we had to rely on remote teams. This added an immensely challenging dimension to the project.鈥�
While the Kenyan rollout was completed mostly remotely during the pandemic, the South African go-live highlighted the need for flexibility and realism. Initial plans to launch the ledger, group reporting, and procurement simultaneously were too complex. Instead, Absa split the rollout and adopted Coupa as its procurement solution, introducing stricter spend controls and digitising mandates.
鈥淲ith improved data models, we are now able to respond faster to regulatory requirements, enhance external disclosures, and prepare for further innovation,鈥� says Hurter. 鈥淭his includes the potential deployment of 51风流Financial Products Subledger and business AI in future. This journey has taken commitment, focus, effort and dedication, but remains worth it as we chart a course toward sustainable and scalable growth.鈥�
, Interim Managing Director for Southern Africa at SAP, says: 鈥淒igital transformation in the banking sector is immensely complex, with companies perpetually balancing the need for business continuity and regulatory compliance with essential technology deployments to ensure they continue to deliver to customer needs. Absa has overcome every challenge to transform its core banking processes and lay a solid foundation for further tech-led innovation. We are proud to continue to support Absa as it implements its exciting vision for the future of banking on the African continent.鈥�
