RAK Ceramics Selects SAP Cloud ERP Private and Clean Core Strategy for AI-Ready ERP

Ceramics and porcelain manufacturer RAK Ceramics has selected SAP Cloud ERP Private (formerly RISE with SAP) for a comprehensive, cloud-based digital overhaul designed to unify global operations and lay the groundwork for enterprise AI adoption.

The move, which will involve transitioning the company’s existing systems to SAP Cloud ERP Private, aims to consolidate end-to-end business processes across the company’s 55 legal entities into a single cloud platform supporting operations in more than 150 countries.

The rollout also includes SAP Integrated Business Planning (SAP IBP), and SAP SuccessFactors, underpinned by SAP Business AI capabilities.

In the ceramics and building materials sector, the operational challenge isn’t just “making product”- it’s synchronizing capacity-constrained production with volatile, project-driven demand, while managing inventory across formats, finishes, and regional markets.

Small forecasting and inventory inaccuracies can quickly turn into missed customer delivery windows, excess stock, and margin leakage, especially when the business spans many plants, warehouses, and sales channels. In sectors such as building materials, a unified digital core combined with integrated planning can deliver significant operational value.

According to SAP, the transformation is designed to simplify legacy systems and disconnected processes. By moving to a single cloud core, RAK Ceramics expects better visibility, faster decision-making, and a more flexible foundation for future growth.

Project Scope and Digital Priorities

Over the next five years, RAK Ceramics will roll out a suite of SAP solutions to modernize resource management, enhance planning capabilities, and support resilient global supply chains.

Abdallah Massaad, CEO, RAK Ceramics, said, “Selecting SAP solutions reflects our focus on strengthening how we operate and ensuring technology supports long-term growth. Consolidating global operations across RAK Ceramics onto a unified cloud platform will deliver greater transparency and control across the business.”

Key components of the program include:

• Deployment of SAP Integrated Business Planning across sales and operations planning, demand planning, and response and supply planning.
• Implementation of SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and cloud payroll to standardize human capital management processes across regions.
• Adoption of a clean core, decustomized ERP strategy to reduce technical debt and enable more sustainable innovation.

“By adopting Clean Core principles and decustomization, we will create an agile infrastructure that can adapt to change over time. This foundation will enable us to introduce advanced capabilities, including AI, and empower our 12,000 employees with real-time data and integrated processes to better serve our customers,” Massaad added.

The emphasis on clean core and decustomization signals a deliberate architectural choice. RAK Ceramics is prioritizing an ERP environment that can evolve over time without accumulating the layers of customization that often complicate multi-entity landscapes.

Marwan Zeineddine, Managing Director, SAP UAE, said RAK Ceramics’ transformation reflects a broader shift among global manufacturers toward simplification and standardization. By applying Clean Core principles, he said, the company will reduce technical debt and establish a platform capable of evolving alongside changing business and market requirements.

AI Enablement and Future-Ready ERP

A central objective of the program is preparing RAK Ceramics’ technology landscape for advanced AI capabilities, SAP said.

Zeineddine said the company is evaluating SAP’s Business AI portfolio, including Joule, SAP’s generative AI copilot, along with a broad and expanding set of embedded AI features across the SAP application suite.

SAP currently offers more than 350 AI-enabled capabilities within its solutions and intends to increase that figure to more than 1,000. Additionally, it offers over 40 AI agents designed to assist with task execution and decision support across finance, supply chain, human resources, and other key business areas.

Zeineddine noted that this architecture will give RAK Ceramics the ability to layer in AI-powered insights and automation gradually and at scale as its transformation progresses.

By prioritizing a clean core and standardized processes, RAK Ceramics is positioning itself to introduce role-based decision support, intelligent automation, and predictive insights without adding complexity to its ERP environment.

What This Means for SAPinsiders

Cloud consolidation is accelerating in global manufacturing. Large, multi-entity manufacturers are increasingly moving from fragmented legacy estates to unified cloud ERP platforms that support global standardization and local agility.

AI readiness now starts with core modernization. Organizations are pairing ERP transformation with explicit AI enablement strategies, recognizing that data integrity and process harmonization are prerequisites for meaningful AI adoption.

Clean core is central to long-term innovation. Decustomization and standardization are emerging as foundational principles for sustainable extensibility and future innovation in SAP environments.