Positioned for the future: The SAP S/4HANA transformation at Sanitas
With the migration to SAP S/4HANA and the systematic switch to the cloud, Sanitas has to the cloud, Sanitas has fundamentally modernized its SAP landscape. The Swiss health insurer is relying on a clear IT strategystrategy, proven partners and a pragmatic transformation transformation approach – creating the basis for greater efficiency, stability and future innovations.
With a comprehensive range of basic and supplementary insurance products, Sanitas is one of the leading health insurers in Switzerland. Around 980 employees look after more than 850,000 insured persons across all parts of the country. Like many companies, Sanitas was faced with the challenge of migrating its SAP environment to S/4HANA. The aim of this transformation was to optimize performance and processes, ensure technological future-proofing and at the same time reduce complexity and operating costs.
Thanks to in-memory technology, SAP S/4HANA offers significantly faster data processing, enabling real-time analyses and more informed decisions. In addition, this modern platform creates the basis for future innovations – for example through the integration of new technologies, simplified architectures and greater automation. For Sanitas, the transformation was therefore not just a mandatory technical project, but rather a strategic step towards achieving future viability as part of the company’s digital development.
Clear IT strategy as a foundation
Sanitas approached the transformation project proactively and with a clearly defined vision. Two central pillars of the company’s IT strategy were decisive for this: “Cloud First” and “Best of Breed”. Sanitas had already decided around four years ago to gradually migrate its business-critical applications to the Google Cloud platform. By using a hyperscaler, the health insurer primarily hoped to achieve greater efficiency, higher scalability and lower infrastructure and operating costs. Once several key applications had been successfully migrated to the cloud, the decision was made to also operate the entire SAP landscape on the Google Cloud Platform.
At the same time, Sanitas is pursuing the “Best of Breed” strategy with the aim of working with specialized and experienced partners in every specialist area. For example, the health insurer has been successfully using the asem solution from emineo for its collection processes in SAP since 2018. Accordingly, the decision was made to also rely on the expertise of the Swiss software engineering company emineo in the SAP area of Finance and Controlling (FI/CO). The Swiss IT service provider itesys was chosen as the basic operator of the SAP environment.
Transformation included cloud migration and system conversion
The transformation project comprised two content blocks: The migration of the existing SAP environment to the Google Cloud platform and the actual system conversion from SAP R/3 to SAP S/4HANA. A particular challenge arose from the fact that the two blocks had to be processed in parallel in some cases due to time constraints. Various adjustments to the code therefore had to be carried out for a certain period of time both on the platform of the existing operating partner and in parallel on the Google Cloud platform.
During the migration to the Google Cloud Platform, the entire SAP application landscape was rebuilt in the cloud. Database migration posed a challenge during this phase, as the switch to the SAP HANA in-memory database took place at the same time. Converting the SAP R/3 system to SAP S/4HANA is technically demanding, as numerous system settings, interfaces, in-house developments and business processes need to be reviewed and adapted. Sanitas deliberately opted for a system conversion. This involves largely adopting existing processes, master data, customizing settings and in-house developments. In contrast to a new implementation, in which the system is completely rebuilt, the chosen brownfield variant allows a significantly faster implementation with less risk. As Sanitas has a comparatively lean SAP environment with few in-house developments, the health insurer was able to make optimum use of the advantages of the brownfield approach. At the same time, the effort required for change management and subsequent employee training could be optimally scaled.
Partnership and one-team approach as success factors
The S/4HANA transformation was successfully completed after just a few months. A consistently practiced one-team approach was particularly decisive for this. Efficient project and program management made it possible to bring together all the partners involved to form a powerful team. The collaboration was characterized by transparency, flexibility, agility and a clear focus on solutions. With emineo, Sanitas also relied on a partner with whom it has a long-standing relationship of trust. This proved to be a decisive advantage, especially in critical project phases.
Technological basis for future innovations
With the migration to the Google Cloud Platform and the completed S/4HANA transformation, Sanitas is excellently equipped for the future in terms of technology. The modern cloud infrastructure offers a highly available, scalable and modern technological basis. At the same time, SAP S/4HANA creates the basis for further innovations in the SAP environment – from process automation and advanced analytics to the integration of new digital services. With the S/4HANA transformation, Sanitas has not only successfully mastered a mandatory task, but has also made a targeted investment in the company’s digital future.
Martin Sanjic, Head of IT Cloud & Applications Sanitas
“The most important success factor in successfully completing this project within the tight time frame was the collaboration within the One team. Experts from various IT suppliers came together to form a powerful team – and the collaboration was always solution-oriented, professional and based on trust.”
Thomas Günther, Project Lead SAP Transformation emineo
“We have maintained a partnership with Sanitas since 2018. We got to know each other during the introduction of asem Inkasso and have built up trust ever since. After initially advising Sanitas on the S/4HANA transformation, we were able to contribute to the success of the project with our expertise and experience.”
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