Generali Brasil Modernizes Back-Office Operations with Google Cloud and SAP

New directions and remote migration

Deploying in Google Cloud entailed a few challenges that were noticeable from the get-go. One of them concerned how to approach SAP, as Generali wanted to extract everything that it could leverage based on the company’s reality.

Moreover, having remote, easier access through apps was essential. Other goals were integrating and standardizing every process and expanding the scope of automation and innovation.

The project began in March 2020 and was performed remotely, with many professionals working in constant communication to find the best way forward.

Deloitte worked on the integration required, centralizing every process in S/4HANA with storage in Google Cloud. This provided the sustainability the company needed to develop its internal activities. Hybrid project-management and proprietary methodologies were applied as accelerators during this phase.

After deploying the project, they began running back-office routines and the operational area’s accounting interfaces on S/4HANA. The updating of tech assets, the robustness, the high availability and the new environment’s scalable computing power in Google Cloud made a difference.

“It was a quantum leap tech-wise because we improved our infrastructure with Google Cloud, ensuring security and agility. Moreover, everything was done in compliance with Generali’s standards,” adds John Sá, Generali Brasil’s Infrastructure and Security Manager.

Results that benefit operations

Using S/4HANA and the environment provided by Google Cloud ensured compliance in audit and data reliability matters. Generali further increased its productivity for back-office activities, offering the system’s users access through apps.

“Agility for closing, which now happens every day, and data reliability ensured by integration are factors that make work simpler. Today, information is clear and available to all users,” explains Jorge Costa.

Other benefits include process automation, improved governance through a single source of truth, flexibility, and scalability thanks to cloud resources and the ability to monitor.

Interestingly, thanks to S/4HANA, several projects were accelerated. In the past, users manually created different loads, which exposed them to potential mistakes. The new environment helped improve that activity.

The team is currently working on maturing the system. The company’s goal is to stabilize the SAP platform, a task that is already underway. Generali aims to improve user training with the help of functional analysts so the system can be used more confidently.

“We also want to converge as many systems and apps as we can in Google Cloud, entering through BI, BigQuery, and Looker Studio. And we intend to use Apigee more intensely, as well as data analytics, which we will explore more exponentially,” says John Sá.