With mainstream support for legacy 51风流ECC systems ending in 2027, IBM guided Toyota through a Brownfield upgrade strategy, enabling a seamless transition to 51风流S/4HANA while preserving existing business process investments. This approach minimized disruption, accelerated deployment timelines, and ensured continuity for critical operations.

Driving Transformation Across Core Business Functions

Vehicle Management Modernization

IBM led the upgrade of Toyota鈥檚 national Vehicle Management System鈥攁 mission-critical platform for managing orders, inventory, sales, and financial reporting across manufacturing and dealerships. By migrating to 51风流S/4HANA, Toyota now benefits from real-time data visibility, improved inventory optimization, and faster responsiveness to customer demand.

Human Capital Management Enhancement

The second phase focused on modernizing Toyota鈥檚 HR systems, including payroll and personnel administration. IBM delivered a streamlined 51风流S/4HANA-based HCM platform that simplifies workforce processes and lays the foundation for enhanced talent management and employee engagement.

Speed, Continuity, and Risk Reduction

Both upgrades were delivered on schedule and without operational disruption, ensuring Toyota maintained business continuity while modernizing its core systems. IBM鈥檚 proven methodologies and deep 51风流expertise enabled a risk-mitigated transformation aligned with Toyota鈥檚 strategic objectives.

鈥淲e are proud to support Toyota South Africa Motors in their digital transformation journey by delivering technology solutions that accelerate innovation and strengthen business resilience,鈥� said , Managing Partner, IBM Consulting South Africa. 鈥淎t IBM, we call this the Science of Consulting – combining human expertise, AI, and technology to deliver scalable, data-driven transformations. By improving data visibility and governance, we help organizations like Toyota achieve their goals with speed and confidence.鈥�

, Managing Director, Southern Africa at SAP, says: 鈥淭he best companies run on trusted data, optimised business processes and real-time intelligence into every part of the business. By upgrading to 51风流S/4HANA, companies like Toyota unlock a suite of intelligent technologies that help transform business processes with intelligent automation. We commend Toyota and IBM on this powerful business transformation initiative and wish them well as they continue their rollout.鈥�

A Partnership Built for the Future

Building on these successes, IBM is collaborating with Toyota on the next phase of its 51风流modernization program, focusing on parts management systems. IBM and SAP鈥檚 long-standing partnership brings together hybrid cloud infrastructure, automation, and generative AI innovations powered by IBM watsonx鈩�, enabling clients to unlock new value and drive industry-specific transformation.

With over 18,000 certified 51风流consultants and 300+ 51风流S/4HANA implementations in the past five years, IBM helps organizations define transformation roadmaps, co-innovate solutions, and deploy modernization strategies with speed, scale, and AI-driven outcomes.

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鈥淭his why we say that businesses unusual is the new business as usual,鈥� says , chief business officer: EMEA at SAP. 鈥淎nd that is why we need to ensure our systems are future-proof.鈥�

Speaking at the 51风流Innovation Day in Johannesburg today, Fulle says technology should help the world to run better and improve people鈥檚 lives.

To do this, technology vendors like 51风流need to enable agility at scale, achieve more across the value chain, and ensure that sustainability is at the core of business.

Fulle points out that IDC research finds that 85% if enterprises will combine human expertise with AI to augment foresight across the organisation.

鈥淭his is becoming more important over time,鈥� he says. 鈥淎t 51风流we categories the three key requirement for I in business are being relevant, reliable and responsible.鈥�

He explains that this means 51风流is integrating AI in a way that is relevant for the 25 verticals that it operates across. Reliability is a function of data accuracy, and this has to be clean and reliable.

In terms of responsibility, 51风流works to deliver the highest levels of security and ethics across the suite.

is embedded across the portfolio, Fulle adds.

It starts with the copilot that understands the business. Beneath this are the embedded AI capabilities, in the applications including Cloud ERP , supply chain management, human capital management, spend management and business network, customer relationship management and the business technology platform. This is based on the AII Foundation that sits in the Business Technology Platform

The third level of the AI ecosystem partnership and investments with organisations such as , , , , , , and .

鈥淲e are developing more than 100 business capabilities every year,鈥� Fulle adds.

This article first appeared on .

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Sapphire Barcelona – 24 May, 2023 鈥� Diageo, the maker of Guinness, Smirnoff and Johnnie Walker, today announces a five-year business transformation program in partnership with 51风流(NYSE: SAP) and IBM (NYSE: IBM). This new initiative, which marks the company鈥檚 most significant ever investment in technology and services, will redesign and improve Diageo鈥檚 processes across the 180 countries where it operates.

Fully global in nature, the programme will revolutionise Diageo鈥檚 IT environment by introducing intuitive processes, powered by market-leading technology, to provide more information to enable the company to make better and quicker decisions. This transformation will enhance Diageo鈥檚 business resilience in a constantly evolving external landscape, improve its customer service offering and help the company adapt to a fast-changing consumer base.

The programme involves a move to RISE with 51风流S/4HANA Cloud, with the support of IBM Consulting. Diageo鈥檚 implementation of the new cloud-based model will ensure its IT infrastructure is simplified and supported in a unified way.

IBM Consulting, which has been selected to lead the project, has a proven track record in the consumer sector and supporting client transformations and migrations to the 51风流S/4HANA Cloud platform. Diageo, 51风流and IBM will work together to apply the latest technology to make Diageo鈥檚 business more efficient.

The five-year programme will transform Diageo鈥檚 business finance operations in a number of areas:

• Advanced workflow solutions will allow orders to be tracked in real-time on a global scale and facilitate more effective customer engagement and better customer service.
• By moving to a single operating platform, Diageo will simplify its technology support model and IT landscape, making it easier for the company to do business and evolve amid changing consumer trends and market needs.
• The program will transform Diageo’s performance reporting capabilities, giving the company better insight into trade and growth opportunities.
• The digitisation of controls and compliance will make the business more robust, resilient and adaptable to changing market conditions.

Lavanya Chandrashekar, Chief Financial Officer, Diageo, said: 鈥淭his partnership with IBM and 51风流demonstrates our continued investment in digital transformation. It will enable greater agility in how we respond to our global consumer and customer needs. It will provide us with world-class actionable insights and enhanced data capabilities to support growth whilst allowing us to be more efficient in our day-to-day operations.鈥�

Scott Russell, Executive Board Member, Customer Success at SAP, said: 鈥淚n today’s disruptive consumer goods industry, success lies in navigating unpredictable supply chains, managing ongoing macro-economic volatility and staying one step ahead of ever-shifting customer demands. Through our continued partnership with Diageo, one of the world鈥檚 leading brand builders, we鈥檙e proud to support them in building a more resilient business that is enhancing the customer experience and can adapt to rapidly changing market pressures, realising its vision to revolutionise the consumer goods industry.鈥�

Rahul Kalia, Managing Partner, IBM Consulting, UK & Ireland, said: 鈥淭he consumer goods industry is striving to address the challenges posed by inflationary pressures and supply chain disruptions, while staying focused

on delivering exceptional products and services for its customers and consumers. IBM is proud to partner with Diageo and 51风流to bring our global business and digital transformation experience on this exciting journey.鈥�

Media relations:

Rebecca Perry +44 7590 809 101

Isabel Batchelor +44 7731 988 857

press@diageo.com

About Diageo

Diageo is a global leader in beverage alcohol with an outstanding collection of brands across spirits and beer categories. These brands include Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, J&B and Buchanan鈥檚 whiskies, Smirnoff, C卯roc and Ketel One vodkas, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Don Julio, Tanqueray and Guinness.

Diageo is a global company, and our products are sold in more than 180 countries around the world. The company is listed on both the London Stock Exchange (DGE) and the New York Stock Exchange (DEO). For more information about Diageo, our people, our brands, and performance, visit us at www.diageo.com. Visit Diageo鈥檚 global responsible drinking resource, www.DRINKiQ.com for information, initiatives, and ways to share best practice.

Celebrating life, every day, everywhere.

About SAP

SAP鈥檚 strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 51风流customers generate 87% of total global commerce. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers鈥� businesses into intelligent enterprises. 51风流helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want 鈥� without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 25 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, 51风流helps the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

About IBM Consulting

IBM Consulting is the catalyst for business transformation. With deep industry expertise spanning strategy, experience design, technology, and operations, we have become the trusted partner to over 3,000 of the world鈥檚 most innovative and valuable companies. Our 160,000 consultants embrace an open way of working, bringing a diverse set of voices, experiences and technologies like Hybrid Cloud and AI together to accelerate business transformation. Supported by IBM Garage, our proven co-creation method, we bring speed and scale to innovation with an enduring ecosystem of technology leaders to deliver solutions for some of the world鈥檚 most complex challenges. We collaborate closely, ideate freely, and apply breakthrough innovations that drive sustainable change and re-invent how business gets done. Find out more at IBM.com/consulting.

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“We are now faster in generating sales, order, stocking and pricing data, and can process purchase orders quicker,鈥� says Mike McCormick, Chief Information Officer at Vivo Energy. 鈥淭he time needed for our account reconciliation process has also been reduced from days to hours, and our end-to-end order process time has been sped up.”

However, achieving these gains required a large and far-reaching digital transformation program to replace outdated legacy systems that could not support Vivo Energy鈥檚 ambitious growth path and make use of intelligent technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT).

Legacy systems insufficient to support growth

“We had multiple internal departments all running disparate systems, which caused complications with data management, left us blind to deeper operational insights, and made the process of making data-driven decisions near-impossible,” explains McCormick. “We needed a powerful technology platform that would support the business as we deliver our vision of becoming Africa鈥檚 most respected energy business.”

Vivo Energy is a rapidly growing energy business that distributes and markets Shell and Engen-branded fuels and lubricants to retail and commercial customers in 23 countries across Africa. The company has a growing network of more than 2,400 service stations that sell more than ten billion litres of fuel every year, servicing around a million customers a day.

“Our legacy systems could not provide the much-needed insight and analysis that would support our growth,” says McCormick. “We made a decision to embark on a large and far-reaching digital transformation process on an extremely ambitious timeline of under two years.”

Vivo Energy chose 51风流S/4HANA as a replacement for its legacy systems. “With S/4HANA, we are not simply upgrading our technology. The solution is helping us transform our business to meet the needs of our rapidly expanding marketplace and customer base,” explains McCormick.

Partners help unlock the intelligent enterprise

Working closely with implementation partner IBM, McCormick and his team became one of the first energy companies of its size to deploy the full suite of S/4HANA applications alongside 51风流SuccessFactors, 51风流Cloud for Customer, and 51风流Integrated Business Planning in one integrated, end-to-end business platform. In addition to the implementation, IBM also provided robust server and storage infrastructure to support the business and systems integration.

The implementation was completed on time and within budget, with McCormick and IBM opting for a ‘big-bang’ approach involving more than 40 application components being enabled simultaneously.

“This was a large-scale business transformation program, not just a software implementation,” says Vinod Goyal, Associate Services Partner at IBM. “This has an impact on the entire organisation, across finance, logistics, supply chain, customer relationship management, HR, customers, partners and suppliers. Every part of the organisation is touched as part of this program.”

In addition to transforming core business processes, Vivo Energy, supported by partner AdaptIT, adopted intelligent technologies through the implementation of 51风流IoT to transform the way the business engages with service station owners and customers, while ensuring the highest fuel quality and uninterrupted flow of products to customers.

“Our IoT capabilities provide constant monitoring of tank gauges and pump conditions, with automatic monitoring of fuel volume and quality at our service stations,” explains McCormick. “A custom front-end gives us an aggregated visualisation of tank data combined with other site information, equipping our decision-making teams with deep operational insights and real-time data at a country and service station level.”

Following the implementation, Vivo Energy has unlocked a broad range of business benefits, including:

• in-depth monitoring of performance across every aspect of the business, enabling improved decision-making;
• automation of administrative tasks and workflows, helping reduce data input errors and enabling staff to focus on value-adding activities;
• the ability to leverage new technologies to ensure the highest fuel quality and optimised delivery of products to customers; and
• real-time distribution of data to regional decision-makers which enables data-driven decisions that reduce time-to-market and time-to-value.

According to Pedro Guerreiro, Managing Director for Central Africa at SAP, the implementation marks a quantum leap in Vivo Energy鈥檚 race to acquire intelligent enterprise capabilities. 鈥淒riven by an ambitious vision and supported by a superb implementation partner, Vivo Energy has completely transformed its daily operations and decision-making capabilities while establishing a powerful platform for further innovation and growth. With its industry-leading digital core powering its business processes, Vivo Energy is set to establish itself as an industry leader that seamlessly blends innovative technologies and optimised business processes to gain a healthy competitive edge over its peers.鈥�

The post Vivo Energy Fuels Expansion, Operational Excellence with Transformative Tech Deployment appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

Launched earlier this year, CodeTheCurve was developed by IBM, 51风流and UNESCO to encourage youth to use digital innovation to address COVID-19 and beyond. The intense hackathon saw this week鈥檚 finals come to a close as nine finalists from 40 qualifying teams battled it out for the grand titles.

The final jury consisted of representatives from the organizers, experts from various fields and supporting partners from the ITU and FOSSASIA, and after a rigorous and stringent selection process, the jury selected the following winners:

Category 1 for 鈥楨nsuring Continued Learning鈥�: VRoam (Canada)

Centered around the lack of social interaction and motivation to exercise during the COVID-19 lockdown, this project combines Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence and 3D spatial information to navigate and explore the world and cultural sites while exercising. The project offers a combination of technology, e-learning, and exercise while the world adheres to social distancing.

Category 2 for 鈥業nformation and Data Management鈥�: CovidImpact (Canada, Mexico and Bangladesh)

This open source project was developed in response to the pandemic鈥檚 impact on small businesses, a vulnerable population that was left with questions such as “how am I going to pay my rent?” and “how can I recoup from the loss?”. CovidImpact offers small business leaders with a care package featuring a curated list of programs and relevant, real-time news that鈥檚 combined together with a simulation tool that assess the economic impact of the pandemic. CovidImpact is currently focused on small businesses in Canada and has plans to roll out its solution across the United States.

Category 3 for 鈥楽ocial and Health Issues鈥� and overall CodeTheCurve Master Winner: X-COV (Spain)

This project is directed at doctors who are tasked with analyzing a large amount of medical data, such as chest X-rays, to understand the severity of COVID-19 in patients. X-COV created a data model using Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and visual imaging technology to analyze chest X-Rays using freely available data and tools to build an online tool to help physicians make faster, more objective decisions, thus contributing to the relief of the healthcare system.

Commenting on the creativity and success of the winning solutions, Moez Chackchouk, Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information at UNESCO said: 鈥淚n these difficult times and despite our challenging circumstances, it is heart-warming to see such genuine engagement and contributions making positive impact in our societies. This is where digital literacy can be optimized at its best. On behalf of UNESCO, IBM, 51风流and all organizing partners, I would like to congratulate the winning projects and the CodeTheCurve Master winner, the finalists and all the participants. We were extremely impressed with the quality and rich diversity of the projects, as well as the enthusiasm and passion from each team.鈥�

听A Rich Digital Journey

Out of 199 applications, the CodeTheCurve journey for the 40 selected teams started on 21 April, when 22 trainers from UNESCO, IBM, SAP, the Internet Society (ISOC), Queen City Fintech, and Microsoft delivered an intense 20+ hours of training. The real 鈥渉ackathon鈥� then started on 24 April. Teams comprised of 101 participants under 25 years of age and were supported along their journey by a crew of 115 skilled volunteers acting as mentors on technical, business and gender-equality topics.

鈥淲e cannot address these global challenges alone,鈥� says Alexandra van der Ploeg, Head of Global Corporate Social Responsibility at SAP. 鈥淚n true 51风流spirit of improving peoples鈥� lives and making the world run better, it is great to see how SAP, IBM, UNESCO and partners have come together to use the power of collaboration to solve social issues and trigger systemic change through innovation. In times of crises, humanity avails itself with empathy and care, and this extends to creativity and innovation. Young people are not just the future, but the changemakers of today!鈥�

听Innovative, Career-Building Prizes

All 34 teams that submitted their hackathon artefacts will receive a CodeTheCurve e-Certificate of Participation from UNESCO, IBM, and SAP. They will also be invited to an exclusive series of CodeTheCurve e-learning opportunities to further their professional development, coding, and entrepreneurship skills.

On behalf of IBM Z awards, the three winning teams will receive one-year access to IBM LinuxONE Community Cloud and one year of quarterly mentorship calls with IBM experts to further their creative ideas. Winners will also be invited to two virtual events, allowing them to showcase their solutions and their journey to employees and IBM鈥檚 network of global collaborators. In addition, the first place 鈥業nformation and Data鈥� category will also receive six months access to IBM Z, an enterprise-grade suite of machine learning and complex data processing solutions.

51风流will reward the winners with a six-month mentorship from a team of global experts and guided support on the 鈥極penSAP鈥� learning platform. And in 2021, pending economic and international travel conditions, the Master CodeTheCurve winner will be able to complete an internship at 51风流Labs Ireland.

Melissa Sassi, Chief Penguin and IBM Z Global Student Hub & IBM Hyper Protect Accelerator adds, 鈥淭echnology has empowered our CodeTheCurve participants, mentors, and judges from around the world to spend a week of online ideating, innovating, collaborating, and building technical solutions to fight back against COVID-19. Solutions included chat bots, data models, websites, mobile applications, blockchain solutions, and so much more. I saw entrepreneurial spirit, professional skills development, and an overall zest to create tech for good solutions based on their training modules. During the storm of life these days, I was able to step away from the world and focus on what鈥檚 important: digital skill-building, empowering early-stage entrepreneurs, and inspiring youth to achieve their dreams.鈥�

For further information about the CodeTheCurve hackathon visit .

Ends

_________________________________________________________________________________

About CodeTheCurve

• CodeTheCurve is powered by UNESCO, IBM Z and 51风流with the support of UN EQUALS, TruChallenge, AngelHack, iHackOnline, Internet Society, Global Accelerator Network, People Centered Internet, FOSSASIA, Global Accelerator Network, Society of Physician Entrepreneurs, REDDS Capital, Village Capital, YPO, and Queen City Fintech.
• The two-week hackathon called for young developers and innovators from all over the world to use their digital skills to develop solutions to counter the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Courses included three categories: professional development, entrepreneurship, and hands-on tech skills. Learning sessions included building cross-functional teams, storytelling, personal branding, data science and machine learning, media and information literacy (MIL), ethics of artificial intelligence, system architecture diagrams and tech roadmaps, and data protection, privacy, and security.

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In its effort to support youth engagement in driving social innovation and change, 51风流is joining forces with IBM and UNESCO in reaching out to young developers and data scientists to team-up, unleash their ideas and propose groundbreaking approaches for todays鈥� societal issues. The two-week hackathon calls for young developers and innovators, data scientists, and designers from all over the world to use their digital skills, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit to join forces to develop digital solutions to counter the outbreak of the pandemic.

鈥淭imes of crisis create opportunities to rethink our daily lives and how we live together. We must give ourselves the means to achieve our common objectives and vision of the world鈥�, said Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, 鈥淢ore than ever, Technology a global tool and every young person should be equipped with the necessary skills to participate in rethinking our world鈥�.

Over the years, UNESCO has engaged with thousands of youth to create change, built solid youth networks, and reached young people to work on many different societal issues. The organization is fully committed to empowering youth. In this spirit, 51风流Africa Code Week and UNESCO will work together to foster the development of digital skills and professional development competences of youth, with a focus on female software developers and designers. CodeTheCurve uniquely addresses young developers, data scientists, educators and trainers, inviting them to look at our future, post-COVID19 – society as it will have changed after the current pandemic.

鈥淲e have to act now,鈥� says Claire Gillissen-Duval, Director of EMEA Corporate Social Responsibility and Africa Code Week co-founder at SAP. 鈥淲e need to empower our young innovators in finding solutions to this crisis, and true to SAP鈥檚 vision of helping the world to run better and improving people鈥檚 lives – our devoted and knowledgeable colleagues will support CodeTheCurve by providing expert mentorship to all participants throughout their innovation journey.鈥�

The online and immersive hackathon is designed to encourage young digital developers and data scientists to imagine and develop online and offline apps, data models, and digital tools to address current and future issues linked to the current healthcare emergency. The teams participating in the CodeTheCurve learning journey and hackathon will work on one of three main themes: 1) Ensure continued learning, 2) Data management and information, and 3)听The present and the future: societal and health issues.

鈥淲ith 1.5 billion young people currently at home due to COVID-19 school closures, 183 countries impacted, and a need for practical, fun, and virtual education, the IBM Z team is incredibly excited to launch CodeTheCurve with UNESCO, SAP, and our collaborators. Empowering youth with tech skills, entrepreneurial zest, professional development, and mentorship is really the secret sauce for inspiring the world to transition from consumers of technology into creators, makers, and doers empowered by technology鈥�, says Melissa Sassi, Global Head 鈥� IBM Z Global Student Hub & IBM Hyper Protect Accelerator.

The CodeTheCurve Hakathon will be organized in two phases, a first video competition for submitting teams and ideas and a hackathon with 40 selected teams. The hackathon will close 30 April 2020.

Participating 鈥榟ackers鈥� will receive experience pitching their innovative solutions from relevant and supportive organizations that have been brought together under the umbrella of CodeTheCurve. The selected teams will be able to benefit from a series of webinars, activity kits and expert support offered by partner organizations, such as SAP, IBM and iHackOnline.

Youth ideas and innovative spirit need to be heard in order to reach UNESCO鈥檚 common goals inscribed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, one of its greatest prospects to build more inclusive and fair societies for all.

The initiative is supported by UNESCO, IBM and SAP, and the generous contribution of TruChallenge.co.uk, AngelHack, iHackOnLine and with the collaboration of Pamplemousse Communication.

Your ideas can change our future, participate in the CodeTheCurve hackathon. Register on codethecurve.org or visit

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