Oxygen fast-tracks Getronics SAP system

UXC integrator wins new business from within the group.

Getronics Australia used the services of a systems integrator within new owner UXC's stable to bed down a SAP business all-in-one system late last year.

The IT services provider, acquired by UXC [PDF] in February 2008 and rebranded as UXC Getronics Australia, was forced to disconnect from its previous Dutch parent's global SAP system as part of the acquisition.

"Under the terms of the sale of the Australian business by Getronics NV to UXC, Getronics Australia was required to disconnect from the Getronics NV template and build its own system," its finance director and implementation executive Paul Crilly said.

"It was a complete replacement - an upgrade [of the old SAP system] was not possible."

Crilly said the SAP system Getronics Australia was forced to give up "was a highly customised template owned by Getronics NV."

The company effectively had to reconfigure a new blank SAP template to replicate some of those customisations, he said.

According to Crilly, the company joined the SAP business all-in-one fast-start program through integrator Oxygen, also owned by UXC.

The program provided Getronics a set of tools and methodologies to configure an industry-specific implementation of the SAP software within a very short timeframe, according to an SAP brochure [PDF].

Crilly said the program enabled re-implementation of SAP in a 13-week period. The 170-seat deployment was completed in October last year.

"We had the perception that SAP is a very large and complex company that took
too long to move and make things happen. However our perception was wrong," Crilly said in a statement.

Oxygen held ongoing maintenance and support contracts for the deal. They were also helping Getronics "fine-tune" the system, the statement said.