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Hortifrut successfully migrates its SAP ERP to AWS with Novis

Last updated : September 25, 2018
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Hortifrut successfully migrates its SAP ERP to AWS with Novis

In order to cope with the new market demands, the world’s leading berries company carried out a migration project of its SAP system to AWS.

Hortifrut S.A. is a Chilean capital company which for 35 years has been producing and commercializing fresh berries, leading the industry’s development in the world.

Its successful business model is based on strategic global partnerships that bring together the best producers of the Southern and Northern Hemispheres under its own brand trading platforms.

As a result of its vertical integration model, covering from genetics to the end customer, it is able to reach markets such as North America, Europe, South America, the Middle East and Asia with its full range of products, 52 weeks per year.

Migrating SAP ERP to AWS

Due to the continuous growth of the berries market, Corporate IT Management had to respond to different technological demands that the SAP architecture available at the time could not meet. It became therefore necessary to migrate SAP to AWS, for which it was vital to rely on a partner who could carry out this initiative successfully. The search proved arduous, as the provider had to be an expert both in SAP HANA and AWS IaaS technologies. After three months we chose Novis as our partner, based on their experience in this area, as well as for the excellent references from other customers”, says Javier Mardones, Corporate Assistant Manager for IT Operational Continuity at Hortifrut Chile.

Once the commercial agreement was in place and the project began, important challenges appeared, such as integration with the existing legacy systems, available resources, defining work teams, implementation deadlines, unavailability windows of time, and the senior management’s expectations. “At first sight, all of this pointed to a scenario with little chance of success and a high probability of impacting the fruit operation in a single migration attempt,” he adds.

The results, however, were quite different. Going live was scheduled for a Sunday in July. All the necessary activities to perform user tests were programmed for that day once the new SAP was migrated and integrated with its legacies. “All of this was perfectly accomplished according to the project’s the Gantt chart and thanks to the joint effort between Hortifrut and Novis. The next day we were able to resume business activities as usual, without any critical project-related incidents”, he confirms.

What would you recommend to others who are evaluating similar projects?

“First, it was key to spend a quite some time choosing the right provider (in this case, the project considered partner replacement).

Second, communication must be the most frequent activity during the project’s life cycle. Finally, the involvement of the business area in the final stages is mandatory since, while this was a technological project, representatives of the business team must participate to give the final approval of tests.

Novis has so far proven to be a partner of excellence in terms of their experience in SAP and cloud technologies, allowing us as Hortifrut to have the peace of mind of being able to rely on a strategic provider who will continue to support us in our future endeavors,” says Javier Mardones.

Victor Madariga, Business Manager at Novis, concludes that “We were very satisfied with the migration and deployment of the IaaS service on AWS, where our team worked primarily in remote mode.

We are now delivering the AWS infrastructure and SAP management services, allowing Hortifrut to rest upon us for operational continuity.”

 

Javier Mardones, Corporate Assistant Manager for IT Operational Continuity at Hortifrut Chile
Javier Mardones, Corporate Assistant Manager for IT Operational Continuity at Hortifrut Chile

 

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