Staffing case study ยท Energy and Utilities
A Dedicated Team That Scaled with the SAP Landscape
How a dedicated SAP application management team gave an internal IT organization steady coverage without the overhead of building the capability in house.
- Industry
- Energy and Utilities
- Solutions
- Technology Staffing, SAP Application Management
- Engagement
- Dedicated Team
The Challenge
The internal IT team was stretched thin covering SAP application management alongside new project work, and the same three people who handled day to day incidents were also the people the business wanted leading the next round of enhancements. Every new initiative competed directly with keeping the lights on, and neither got the attention it needed.
Open requisitions for specialist SAP skills, particularly in the finance and materials management modules the business depended on most, sat unfilled for months at a time. The local labor market for that specific skill combination was thin, and the internal team could not responsibly wait six to nine months for a hire while incidents and enhancement requests kept arriving.
Leadership had considered a large outsourced managed services contract as an alternative, but was wary of losing visibility into the work and ending up with a generic support desk that did not understand the specifics of their landscape. What they actually needed was capacity that behaved like an extension of their own team, not a detached third party queue.
Our Approach
Zealit stood up a dedicated application management team embedded directly in the client's existing processes and ticketing system, rather than routing work through a separate external queue. The team used the client's own incident categorization and escalation paths from day one, so from the business's perspective the support experience did not change, only the capacity behind it did.
Team composition was matched specifically to the modules the client's landscape actually depended on, finance and materials management first, with the mix adjusted as the client's own roadmap shifted. This was possible because the team was purpose built for this engagement rather than assembled from whoever happened to be on the bench, which is the tradeoff a large generic managed services contract usually cannot offer.
Capacity flexed around the client's actual demand curve instead of staying fixed. During major release windows the team scaled up with additional specialists brought in for the specific push, then scaled back down once the release stabilized, so the client was not carrying peak season headcount as a permanent fixed cost for the rest of the year.
Key decisions
- Embedded the team in the client's own ticketing system and processes rather than standing up a separate support queue.
- Matched team composition to the client's specific module mix instead of assigning generalist SAP support resources.
- Built in the ability to scale the team up for major releases and back down afterward, rather than sizing for peak demand year round.
- Kept the client's own leads as the accountable owners of priority calls, with the dedicated team executing against that direction.
Results
Coverage
SAP application management had consistent coverage instead of competing with project work for the same people.
Ramp time
Specialist SAP skills were in place in weeks rather than the months open requisitions had been sitting unfilled.
Flexibility
Team size flexed around major releases instead of the client carrying fixed headcount year round.
Focus areas
- Consistent AMS coverage
- Faster ramp than hiring
- Direct access to specialists
- Flexed with landscape changes
Want a Similar Outcome?
Tell us about your landscape and goals. A specialist will reply with a practical first step.
Discuss a Similar ChallengeFacing a Similar Challenge?
Tell us about your landscape and goals. We will help you find a practical path forward.
- Ideas
- Expertise
- Solutions
- Real Impact