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August 16, 2022

GWC changes the game by migrating to RISE with SAP on Azure

GWC is a powerhouse name in Qatar, with good reason. The company maintains a sweeping infrastructure that includes more than 3.84 million square meters of logistics infrastructure, nearly 1 million square meters of warehouses and distribution centers, and one of the largest transport fleets in the State of Qatar. Its rapid rise since its 2004 inception to being named one of the 30 most valuable companies in Qatar by Forbes Middle East was fueled by an innovative spirit and the drive to be first and most reliable. So although most people in Qatar know the company by the fresh greens and blues of the GWC logo on its trucks and buildings, GWC knows that the leverage to build a thriving business lies in the resilience and agility of its information technology.

GWC

“The cloud was the best option to support the strategic goals of the company. Using RISE with SAP on Azure for our deployment, we get instant access to the latest patches, innovations, and updates from SAP.”

Hamdan Merchant, Senior Director for Business Process Improvement, Innovations and Corporate IT, GWC

Its latest achievement: selection as logistics provider for the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup in Qatar in November 2022. GWC prepared its IT landscape as carefully as it plans goalpost camera placement—for the greatest possible agility, speed, and resilience from its SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. That’s why it migrated its ERP functionality to the Microsoft cloud, choosing Microsoft Azure for its RISE with SAP on Azure deployment. 

Kicking off the migration

The company well knows the limitations of on-premises hardware. “Adding memory capacity and additional compute for physical servers historically has been a complicated and slow process,” says Adeel Akhtar, Manager, Information Systems at GWC. “And when you’re restricted to only hardware approved by the software vendor, that can inflate the procurement timeline.” He winces at the impact that supply chain issues related to COVID-19 could have had if GWC had instead gone the on-premises route. “We’re seeing six-month delivery times for components that used to arrive in four to six weeks.” 

It was a decision that needed to align with long-term ambitions, too. “The cloud was the best option to support the strategic goals of the company,” says Hamdan Merchant, Senior Director for Business Process Improvement, Innovations and Corporate IT at GWC. “Using RISE with SAP for our Azure deployment, we get instant access to the latest patches, innovations, and updates from SAP.” 

With the on-premises hardware for its SAP ERP system reaching end of support in 2023—and its cloud aspirations in anticipation of the extra load incurred by growing activity—GWC decided to adopt the new RISE with SAP solution. Introduced by SAP in January 2021, the cloud-based subscription isn’t a new set of SAP functionalities, but a collection of existing SAP modules offered as a business transformation service model. This means that SAP customers who are seeking the flexibility of hosted software can make the transition without paying for two separate licenses over the course of their migration, because as modules move from on-premises to the cloud, those licensing costs shift with them. 

Choosing Azure for easy, highly secure management

The company evaluated several cloud providers, but quickly chose Microsoft because of GWC’s cybersecurity focus. “Microsoft is continuously adding new security features,” says Akhtar. “Azure offers us not only cost savings over on-premises security solutions, it also includes many highly effective baseline security services.” He particularly lauds the management ease of Azure Arc. “Azure Arc is a fantastic management tool,” he says. “We use it for security insights across all of our systems, whether on-premises or in the cloud. This is exactly the kind of benefit that attracted us to Azure.” 

Merchant adds a global perspective. “We’re a growth-oriented company, always determined to be first and most reliable,” he says. “We’re not an IT company. We’d much rather leave cybersecurity and compliance to the experts so that we can focus on innovating how we deliver the best logistics services possible.” 

GWC uses Power BI to draw insights from its SAP and non-SAP systems in support of those goals. “We’re supporting our expansion ambitions by using Power BI and AI to extract the potency of data,” says Merchant. “We strongly believe that using data to guide our decisions on where to grow and where our strategic focus should be is the next big innovation for our company.” GWC is applying that intelligence to increase its sustainability—for example, by optimizing truck deployments to avoid putting many half-full vehicles on the road when a few full ones will lessen fuel consumption and pollution. The company can now also correlate data on packing materials and the condition of delivered goods to minimize materials consumption.

Bringing the transition home

GWC engaged with Kaar Tech, an SAP Gold Partner in SAP digital transformation and consulting services. “Kaar Tech had earned our confidence supporting our initial SAP deployment,” says Akhtar. “They had the resources and expertise to prepare and deploy using RISE with SAP on Azure deployment in an impressive three months.”

Adds Merchant, “We couldn’t afford less-than-excellent results for this project, especially with FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022TM around the corner.” He’s talking about the enormous commitment GWC has made to support the largest global sporting event and a much-loved sport. “GWC is the first regional supporter and the official logistics provider for the Qatar 2022 FIFA World CupTM,” explains Mohammad Daoud, Senior Manager, Corporate Communications at GWC. The company’s enormous undertaking includes ensuring streamlined freight management, customs clearance, warehousing, and distribution of goods, plus a host of other services to help deliver enjoyment to millions of fans. Its commitment also includes overarching tasks, from delivering the uniforms for 20,000 volunteers down to ensuring precision camera placement for instant replays. “Logistics is in our heart,” Daoud explains. “Even though we’re busy with intense preparations for the FIFA World CupTM, we’re confident because recent world events have taught us to be agile, adaptable, and proactive. Microsoft’s track record and growing presence in Qatar is invaluable to our IT prowess.”

Even as the company gears up for this massive event, it anticipates the return to quieter times. “If we still had on-premises infrastructure, we’d have had to ramp up our infrastructure investments, possibly with protracted wait times related to COVID-19,” says Merchant. “But because we’re running our RISE with SAP deployment on Azure, it’s easy and cost-effective to scale up and then scale back down.”

As GWC puts all of its talents into preparing for the big event, it can cross IT infrastructure worries off its list. “I’m excited for the possibilities before us with Azure,” concludes Akhtar. “And we’re all looking forward to the excitement of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022TM.”

Find out more about GWC on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

“Azure Arc is a fantastic management tool. We use it for security insights across all of our systems, whether on-premises or in the cloud. This is exactly the kind of benefit that attracted us to Azure.”

Adeel Akhtar, Manager of Information Systems, GWC

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