PwC becomes world's largest S/4HANA Cloud user in seven-year digital transformation

Global consulting firm completes enterprise-wide SAP migration across multiple territories, implementing digital core strategy to enable AI and automation. Company wins three consecutive SAP innovation awards for cloud-native extensions during implementation process.

PwC, a global professional services network providing audit, tax, and consulting services across 152 countries, has become the world's largest user of S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition following a seven-year digital transformation initiative. The firm was an early adopter of RISE with SAP and has now implemented the platform across multiple territories globally.

The decision to invest in enterprise-wide SAP migration was driven by business requirements to scale global delivery, manage operational costs, and provide digital experiences for employees. PwC had made investments in cloud technologies, analytics, and artificial intelligence, but recognized that modernizing the ERP core was necessary to apply these technologies to operations and achieve global objectives.

The company found that traditional ROI methods for S/4HANA migration do not always produce figures that demonstrate value relative to licensing and implementation costs when considering only conventional process improvements. However, when evaluating the technology suite centered on S/4HANA applications and extended by cloud services, the potential emerges for ERP to function as a modern core that enables automation and intelligence in business operations.

PwC identified that business systems should enable four digital pillars representing changes in how users interact with business systems and data. To support these pillars across the technological ecosystem, the ERP infrastructure needed modernization and digitization, leading the firm to develop a framework for what constitutes a modern ERP foundation for an intelligent enterprise.

The company determined that these elements are necessary for building AI applications for business processes that include ERP functionality or data. The elements combine to enable intelligence capabilities, such as predicting financial performance through reliable data at the source during transaction and classification processes. While maintaining reliable data at the source has traditionally been challenging, automations and co-pilots can provide assistance.

PwC developed business improvement targets that can be traced to new functionality and process simplifications for leadership approval and to motivate functional managers to support the program. The modernization also aimed to deliver features that establish ERP as an enabler for the four digital pillars as part of the digital core strategy.

The PwC global network now operates multiple territories on S/4HANA and continues adding sites. The firm has digitally mapped business processes, deployed global standard data models, extended the solution with cloud-native applications, and began testing SAP applications with conversational AI interfaces. The company won three consecutive SAP innovation awards for its cloud-native extensions during the implementation process.

The digital core implementation, combined with lessons from the transformation process, has become a framework through which PwC guides clients in similar initiatives. The firm states that the foundation has been established for the next generation of business applications and continued development for both internal operations and client services.