Cenviro picks SAP in its digital transformation journey

Our government’s resolve in going the mile for environmental conservation goes yet another notch up, with the recent signing of the Software License and Support Agreement between Cenviro Sdn Bhd and SAP Malaysia.

Cenviro (formerly known as UEM Environment and Kualiti Alam Holdings) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of  Khazanah Nasional Berhad. Its rebranded name denotes “Clean Environment”, and the company is held out to be the flagship of Khazanah’s investment in sustainable development.

Although not widely known, Cenviro has been quietly taking steps to establish itself as a leader in integrated environmental solutions, providing innovative environmental solutions through a cradle-to-cradle philosophy. ‘Cradle-to-cradle’ effectively ends the ‘cradle-to-grave’ cycle of manufactured products, by creating products that can be fully reclaimed or re-used.

Cenviro claims expertise in all areas of waste management, from treatment to recycling, recovery to final disposal.

L-R: Pankaj Rathi (ED, Southeast Asia, Deloitte Consulting), Khalid Bahsoon (MD, Cenviro Sdn Bhd) & Terrence Yong (MD, SAP Malaysia)

l. In addition, it owns and operates Malaysia’s first state-of-the-art integrated waste management centre in Negeri Sembilan. It seeks to develop and commercialise leading edge technologies in waste management, renewable energy and human capital development for future sustainability.

Embarking on digital transformation by moving to the cloud with SAP Suite on HANA with IS-U Waste Management makes perfect sense for Cenviro.

“With 20 non-integrated and distributed systems operating across multiple industries, and with such a broad scale of responsibilities, we saw the importance of moving away from fragmented processes to automating and consolidating our systems. It is imperative to centralise out systems before we embark on further planned expansion in our business and facilities,” shared Cenviro Managing Director, Khalid Bhasoon.

As a case in point, Cenviro’s tie-up with SAP, points to it being careful in choosing an established and very entrenched global enterprise application software provider to help in its digital transformation. This will see Cenviro deploying multiple SAP solutions, to be implemented by Deloitte Consulting SEA with iTelligence Outsourcing MSC acting as hosting partner.

At the initial phase of an envisioned 3-phase process, Cenviro will focus on having IS-U, which is SAP’s industry specific solution for the utilities sector, implemented within an 18-month time frame. This includes best practices for waste management within an integrated system, which will facilitate business process simplification and real-time decision-making for optimization of operations.

Another pressing requirement, as its business grows, is reconciling financial data from different sources. SAP Suite on HANA includes capabilities to optimize activities for performance management, sales, finance, operations and human resources.  Ultimately, SAP waste and environmental services solution is intended to streamline from commerce, service, logistics, billing to customer engagement activities.

This first phase is expected to cost in the region of RM20 million.

“SAP empowers companies to reimagine their businesses using the SAP digital business framework. We’re excited to be working with Cenviro on a project of this scale and look forward to working hand-in-hand with the company as it embarks on further expansion,” said Terrence Yong, Managing Director, SAP Malaysia.

“SAP S/4HANA is the digital core that paves the way for latest technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, real-time analytics, mobile, business networks, third-party systems, and more,” added Yong.

This is but a hint of things to come. Cenviro’s Bahsoon told the media to keep their ears and eyes open for more Cenviro solutions and innovative technologies to be announced in the near future. The organisation takes it mission to be the regional champion of providing environmental solutions very seriously.

What can we say but that the responsible global citizen in us, would certainly welcome the government’s investment in “putting the bite in its bark” for environment causes.