As an integral part of its PeoplePlus programme, Britannia decided to bring in-house the implementation of a new SAP HR and payroll system. It selected Attenda, a specialist SAP hosting service provider, for a managed services contract, to deliver operational management and support for the new system.

Britannia places a high priority on its people, policies and processes which helped to secure 2nd place on the UK Sunday Times Best Companies to Work for List (2007). It has also been recognised by Opportunities Now, a UK based employee organisation dedicated to empowering women in the workplace. Britannia’s PeoplePlus program is a concrete expression of how serious the company is about giving its people every reason to excel and supports its corporate ethos to be ‘A great place to work, grow and develop.’

Britannia took the decision to replace its HR system and outsourced payroll system and bring in-house the implementation of the new solution, to provide a single view of employees, thereby creating the infrastructure to deliver a great people experience through manager and employee self-service.

The aim was to focus on improving service levels by streamlining administrative routines and to reduce paper-based processes in support of the company’s mission to be environmentally responsible. Further phases of the project would see self-service deliver the tools, consistent practices and technology to support Britannia people through the employment lifecycle.

Finally, the project would deliver easy access to comprehensive management information, to assist managers in understanding what influences peoples’ performance, to help them capitalise on their investment in people to meet future business challenges.

Britannia chose to work with Accenture Capital Management (formerly Pecaso) for this complex project. Accenture implemented the SAP Human Capital Management (HCM) HR and payroll solution, integrated with Britannia’s Oracle Financials software, and provided a range of services during the implementation.

Attenda was selected as a specialist SAP Hosting and Managed Services Provider, hosting the solution on a Sun Microsystems platform. Working closely with Accenture and Britannia, Attenda set out to design the best solution to suit the Society’s needs, drawing upon both companies alliance relationship with SAP.

The Attenda SAP Managed Service solution is providing industry-leading high service levels, to give Britannia’s HR Department the availability, performance and security that it requires for these business critical applications. The solution design also essentially provides data protection in the event of a disaster, to enable Britannia to recover at their BCP site.

Using their experience as a trusted Sun and SAP partner, Attenda designed a complete solution that delivers Britannia three SAP environments, Dev, QAS and Production, all based on Sun SPARC Enterprise Servers.

Claire Broughton, Head of ERP, SAP UK & Ireland comments, “The partnership of SAP, Accenture and Attenda is committed to delivering systems and services that are tailored to fit Britannia’s requirements.”

Broughton continues, “As the trend towards outsourcing continues, SAP users are increasingly looking for trusted partners to host and support their business critical SAP systems and Attenda has a proven capability and track record of managing such systems and delivering Software as a Service.”

Attenda provided the ideal partnership to host the new SAP HCM solution, with a track record of many years of experience in operating web-based technologies, enterprise applications and the management of complex operational systems.

As a certified SAP Adaptive IT Provider, at Advanced level, Attenda has a team of highly skilled and fully certified SAP engineers to complement Britannia’s in-house resources, taking care of the SAP applications and maintaining 24x7 operational support at a fixed price.

Attenda’s ISO 20000 accredited, process driven approach, based on ITIL best practice IT Service Management, with its specific focus on critical application management, matched Britannia’s strategic goal for consistent practices and technology, delivering IT certainty and managing the risk.

Attenda’s proven expertise and operational delivery excellence, coupled with Sun’s platform scalability will enable Britannia to accelerate the pace of development of their SAP systems and grow
seamlessly, adding users, applications and hardware, whilst protecting investment and lowering risk.”

Helen Bates, Strategy Manager-HR, Britannia, adds, “The SAP HCM managed solution will help to streamline our HR process, enabling us to be more effective in providing HR solutions for all of our people.”

Bates concludes, “The new system will also provide us with the right management information, at the right time, helping us to make more informed decisions about our people, enabling us to react more quickly to the changing needs of our people and supporting our long term people strategies.”