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idoshamgar
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How does a corporate giant handle the complex task of migrating a massive amount of data to a new environment without interrupting vital business processes? Through partnership with SAP, Kellogg Company discovered a ground-breaking solution for enterprise information management, which allowed them to speed up data integration, facilitate adoption by users, reduce project risk, and design true functionality for the future.

With a presence in 180 countries, annual revenues of approximately US$14 billion, and a workforce of approximately 30,000 people worldwide, Kellogg is one of the world’s most influential and iconic brands, with over a century’s legacy of providing healthy, delicious, and innovative foods to customers across the globe.

In service to its corporate vision – "enrich and delight the world through foods and brands that matter" – Kellogg continues its strategic growth through selective acquisitions. In 2001, the company acquired Keebler, which was using a heavily customized SAP software system, including the SAP ERP application, which Kellogg chose to make the central landscape for all Kellogg operations. By 2009, in order to reduce maintenance requirements and take advantage of new SAP software functionality, Kellogg launched a project to create a brand new, standardized IT environment based on this previous instance of SAP ERP that would support its North American enterprise operations.

Starting from scratch

Kellogg’s “greenfield approach” to the reimplementation project gave SAP the flexibility and freedom to design a solution which would transform the efficiency of operations and provide clear, streamlined sources of information throughout the company. The project covers several SAP Business Suite applications such as SAP ERP and the SAP Customer Relationship Management, SAP Supply Chain Management, and SAP Business Warehouse applications.

To specifically address the extensive data migration and conversion requirements of the reimplementation, Kellogg chose a rapid data migration solution from SAP based on SAP Data Services software. The scope of the project affects all system functionality and impacts every Kellogg employee, customer, and vendor, so a smooth deployment was absolutely vital. Kellogg relied on services from the SAP Consulting organization to set up a comprehensive information management strategy and employ state-of-the-art best practices for data migration.

Dealing with data quality

In the past, Kellogg devoted massive resources to dealing with data integration after each acquisition, and faced serious issues with duplicated data entry which obscured the view of Kellogg’s customer base, degraded the quality of information, and prevented the company from obtaining valuable key metrics and insights. On a new project of this scale, these issues would be multiplied exponentially. Clearly, a new approach was needed.

With the introduction of the rapid data migration solution based on SAP Data Services, Kellogg was able to utilize a standardized methodology using the right software solutions and revolutionizing the process. Prebuilt migration content saved time and effort, thanks to automated functionality for validating, cleansing, and integrating the data, and embedded reports and dashboards which helped to monitor all migration activities.

According to Emil Beloglavec, the senior solution architect for data at Kellogg Company, the change was profound. "We had to move 200 million sales records from the old environment to the new one, including several transformation and recalculation activities. The data extraction served as the basis for the transformational phase, based on SAP Data Services. The transformation phase took only two hours."

Expert support every step of the way

SAP needed to work closely with Kellogg to build a detailed plan which would carefully align all data migration activities with the overall initiative. Using a phased approach, Kellogg was able to ensure the support of specific business functions as data was migrated to the new SAP software systems, minimizing risk and ensuring the continuity of operations before and after the complete reimplementation.

The effects of these new data solutions reach far beyond this one significant and sizeable reimplementation project. Kellogg seized the opportunity to work with SAP to build a consistent strategy and infrastructure for all future data integration requirements. Expert coaching from SAP solution consultants has allowed Kellogg to train their own team of data stewards who will be able to implement the final phases of data migration independently. Together, SAP and Kellogg have built a solid foundation for ongoing data management and governance, turning data into a strategic company asset and leaving Kellogg ready for future growth.

Get more information on how SAP Services Supported Kellogg’s Growth Objectives

Read more about SAP Services for Big Data to learn how you can take your company to the next level with advanced business analytics.

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