Toll Government and Defence is entering the final phase of its IT modernization efforts, a project aimed at bolstering and securing its IT environment. Notably, it has become one of the first local adopters of a sovereign cloud capability developed by SAP.
The company’s transition to the SAP sovereign cloud, a more robust version of its enterprise resource planning (ERP), HR, and cloud services, was unveiled recently. This move is part of Toll’s broader IT strategy, which was shared during presentations at both the IBM Think on Tour and SAP NOW ANZ summits.
Toll Government and Defence operates in sectors such as medical air evacuations, remote airport management, vaccine distribution, and technology provision to government entities including Defence and Australian Border Force.
Perry Singh, President of Toll Government and Defence, discussed the organization’s strategy at the IBM summit. He highlighted Toll’s two-pronged approach to modernize and fortify operations, partly in response to heightened security requirements from government and regulated customers.
Dominic Vigar, General Manager of Finance and Commercial, presented the strategy at the SAP summit, revealing that the modernization and fortification strategy was formulated around two and a half years ago. The objective was to enhance security across the entire environment, particularly focusing on the financial transactional system. It became evident that implementing an ERP was crucial, and SAP, especially in its sovereign cloud iteration, was identified as the optimal choice.
Running its SAP S/4 HANA ERP on the sovereign cloud allowed Toll to delegate the development of controls necessary to comply with Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF) requirements for government clients and emerging mandates under the Security of Critical Infrastructure (SoCI) laws.
Ran Bhaskar, Head of IT, highlighted that the vision from the outset was to leverage more cloud services during the modernization process. The SAP sovereign cloud aligned well with this vision, allowing Toll to focus more on functional aspects of the solution while SAP handles a majority of the security controls.
The project’s deployment phase is divided into two parts. Phase one covers core financial ERP functionality, while phase two entails operating modules like warehouse management, transport, and extended asset management systems.
Toll engaged IBM Consulting for the project, leveraging their platinum-level SAP partnership to adhere to the schedule and budget constraints. The implementation stayed “on time and on budget,” completing phase one in around eight months. Toll attributed this success to factors like following SAP processes rather than heavy customization and adopting standard processes to minimize risk.
The project’s positive impact was emphasized, boosting confidence in Toll’s digital journey. Bhaskar indicated that more of SAP’s offerings could be integrated into the sovereign cloud in the future, based on Toll’s evolving needs as one of the early customers.
As the deployment progresses, Toll sees opportunities in SAP’s Business Technology Platform (BTP) and is keen to explore SAP AI for back-office administration efficiency. This proactive approach is seen as instrumental in differentiating Toll as a cost-effective service provider for its customers.