SMART2 Project

The SMART2 initiative aimed to massively save and reinvest in technology transformation by modernizing Reckitt Nutrition’s infrastructure. It focused on reducing cloud operational costs, retiring legacy systems, and transitioning to a secure, scalable, and future-ready architecture. The goal was to migrate SAP ECC and related components to RISE with SAP on Azure, implement BTP Integration Suite, and adopt a unified security and automation framework—delivering cost efficiency, resilience, and innovation.

The project delivered £450K in cloud savings over two years, retired legacy systems, and transitioned to a secure, scalable infrastructure. It enabled rapid deployment of S/4HANA, SAP Ariba, and BTP Integration Suite, improving performance, compliance, and automation. Unified SSO and encrypted traffic enhanced security, while GenAI and bots accelerated testing and data validation. The transformation laid a foundation for continuous innovation and reduced total cost of ownership.

• Cloud & Infra: Microsoft Azure, Palo Alto Firewall, Macsec Encryption
• ERP & Integration: SAP S/4HANA (RISE), SAP BTP Integration Suite, SAP GRC, SAP Ariba
• Automation & Monitoring: Power BI, Azure Site Recovery, Tricentis Tosca, SAP Signavio
• Security & Access: Okta (SSO), IAG Bridge
• Legacy Systems Retired: ECC 6.0 EHP7, SAP PO, SRM, CLM, SUS Portal
• Vendors: SAP, Cognizant (SI Partner), Gyansys (Ariba SI)

The project faced high complexity due to legacy system decommissioning, cloud cost optimization, and simultaneous ERP transformation. Challenges included encrypted VNET peering, firewall routing, multi-vendor coordination, and ensuring compliance across geographies. The team overcame these through agile execution, automation, and strong governance, completing the transformation in just over a year with minimal disruption and high stakeholder alignment.

The SMART2 Infrastructure Modernization project was launched to transform Reckitt Nutrition’s legacy ERP and cloud infrastructure into a modern, secure, and cost-efficient environment. Following the COMET cloud migration, SMART2 focused on reducing operational expenditure and preparing for future-ready architecture.

The project began with optimizing Azure cloud costs through FinOps alignment, auto-scaling, reserved instances, and replacing costly replication tools with Azure Site Recovery. These efforts yielded £250K savings in 2024 and £200K in 2025.

Building on this, another initiative was initiated to migrate SAP ECC and related components to RISE with SAP on Azure. The transformation included:

• S/4HANA conversion with Vistex on V/4HANA
• Migration of OneSource Indirect Tax to SaaS
• Embedded MDG for master data governance
• SAP Ariba greenfield implementation replacing SRM, CLM, and SUS
• BTP Integration Suite replacing SAP PO
• GRC upgrade and integration with Ariba via IAG Bridge
• Activation of International Trade in S/4HANA
• Unified SSO via Okta and SAP GUI

Innovative technologies were adopted, including GenAI for code remediation, bots for data reconciliation, Tricentis Tosca for test automation, and SAP Signavio for process mapping.

The infrastructure was secured using encrypted VNET peering and Palo Alto firewalls, ensuring compliance and resilience. The program was executed in just 11 months, with minimal business disruption and strong cross-functional collaboration.

SMART2 had a global footprint, impacting Reckitt Nutrition operations across North America, EMEA, and APAC. The infrastructure modernization spanned data centers in Europe, cloud environments on Azure, and business units using SAP globally. Unified access, centralized monitoring, and compliance frameworks ensured consistent performance and governance across all regions, supporting Reckitt’s enterprise-wide transformation goals.