Case Study
Large Grocery Retailer Achieves Digital Transformation with
SAP S/4HANA® Retail
For over 90 years, this Midwest-based grocery retailer has been a household name. With over 290 locations and a growing workforce of 80,000 employees, the company has grown exponentially and expanded beyond traditional grocery stores to include a diverse portfolio of convenience stores and pharmacies.
Yet, as the business grew, its technology infrastructure struggled to keep up. Disconnected systems, manual workarounds, and limited real-time data visibility made it increasingly difficult to optimize operations, predict demand, and scale efficiently.
To continue its growth trajectory, the company needed a modern retail cloud ERP that would:
- Automate Processes: Eliminate inefficiencies by automating key financial and operational workflows.
- Enhance Data Visibility: Gain real-time insights into inventory levels, gross margins, and demand forecasts.
- Deliver Scalability: Support the addition of new stores, subsidiaries, and business models seamlessly.
- Drive Omnichannel Enablement: Integrate e-commerce, mobile, and in-store transactions for a unified customer experience.
The Challenge:
Disconnected Systems
and Inefficiencies
The current IT landscape consists of multiple standalone homegrown systems – which increased costs and reduced operational agility.
Key financial and operational processes—such as accounts payable and month-end closing were manual, time-consuming and inconsistent.
Scalability Issues
Despite a robust expansion strategy in place, the existing setup lacked flexibility to support the creation of new stores, distribution centers, and retail locations.
This called for an integrated platform that could seamlessly accommodate addition of new business entities without disrupting operations.
Limited Data Visibility
A lack of real-time insights into gross margin, inventory, and sales trends affected strategic decision-making.
This made it difficult to optimize demand planning, promotions, and inventory management, as well as to collaborate effectively across distribution centers and retail operations.
The Business Case for Moving to SAP S/4HANA
The retailer built a strong business case for SAP S/4HANA Retail based on:
Scalability &
Future-Readiness
Supports creation and management of new subsidiaries, business units, and retail locations, while integrating with other applications.
Process
Automation
Standardizes and automates finance, procurement, inventory, and retail operations.
Revenue Growth
& Profitability
Enhances data analytics for pricing, promotions, and demand forecasting.
Operational Efficiency
& Productivity
Reduces manual tasks, improves employee productivity, and enhances system usability with a single data model.
Real-Time Gross
Margin Analysis
Tracks profitability in real time by enterprise, division, region, district, store group, store, department, item level.
Mobile Accessibility & Digital Enablement
Ensures employees can access data and perform tasks efficiently using mobile devices.
Cloud-Based,
Integrated Solution
Reduces technical debt with a modern cloud infrastructure that seamlessly connects best-of-breed applications.
The Solution: SAP S/4HANA Retail Accelerator
To address its operational challenges and support future growth, the retailer sought a long-term partner capable of delivering continuous support and improvement to ensure the solution evolves with the company’s needs.
Rizing was chosen for its deep industry expertise and the ability to deliver a solution that addresses the retailer’s most critical challenges while laying the foundation for long-term growth and scalability.
Rizing’s expertise in retail and its preconfigured SAP S/4HANA Retail solution provided:
Standardized End-to-End
Business Processes
Standardized workflows across finance, merchandising, order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, supply chain, pricing, promotions and retail operations to streamline activities and reduce implementation complexity.
Comprehensive Toolset
Ready-to-use templates, documentation, and prebuilt solutions provide a significant head start, reducing time to value and minimizing effort.
Phased Implementation Strategy
A structured five-phase approach, detailing project timelines and milestones to ensure seamless deployment. This covered data migration, project management, organizational change management, and training for smoother adoption and integration.
Gap Identification
Early assessments enabled Rizing to provide solutions across merchandising, planning, procurement, reporting, and retail operations, including third-party integrations to address operational challenges.
Key Business Outcomes
- Smarter Decision-Making with Real-Time Insights
Real-time analytics improved pricing and promotion strategies, enhanced inventory tracking to reduce stockouts, and optimized demand forecasting to ensure product availability. - Increased Efficiency Through Automation
Automating key processes, such as accounts payable and financial close, reduced manual workloads, minimized errors, and allowed employees to focus on strategic initiatives. - Scalable Growth with Seamless Expansion
The solution supported regional and multi-state operations without disruptions and enabled the rapid deployment of digital offerings and new business models.
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