Modernizing SAP at Scale: How Molson Coors Streamlined Cloud Migration with Intelligent Change Automation
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Key Takeaways
⇨ Automation of SAP change management significantly reduces operational risks and enhances agility, facilitating smoother migrations and minimizing errors associated with manual processes.
⇨ Real-time synchronization and dual maintenance are essential during hybrid landscape transitions, allowing organizations to effectively manage both on-premise and cloud systems without disrupting business operations.
⇨ Successful SAP modernization requires robust governance in addition to infrastructure changes, positioning intelligent automation as a critical component for achieving long-term digital transformation and value.
For global enterprises undertaking complex SAP transformations, business continuity is non-negotiable. Molson Coors—one of the world’s largest beverage companies with more than 16,000 employees and operations in over 100 countries—faced this reality during its ambitious migration to AWS Cloud and SAP HANA.
To modernize its infrastructure and prepare for the future, Molson Coors needed to transition from on-premise data centers to the cloud without interrupting operations. That meant running its existing SAP production landscape while building a new cloud-based environment in parallel. Keeping both systems aligned required a high level of coordination, particularly around transport synchronization and dual maintenance.
But the company’s legacy approach—managing SAP transports manually via spreadsheets—posed serious risks. This inefficient process was error-prone, difficult to audit, and vulnerable to compliance concerns such as Segregation of Duties violations. Manual errors regularly led to unplanned downtime, especially when retrofitting changes between environments, which could take days to complete.
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To address these challenges, Molson Coors implemented ActiveControl from Basis Technologies, a change automation solution designed to orchestrate and govern SAP change processes across complex landscapes. ActiveControl enabled the SAP team to automate change and release workflows end-to-end, synchronize transports in real time, and eliminate the manual coordination that had previously slowed progress.
Seamless Migration with Strategic Value
The results were transformative:
- A 40% reduction in manual effort, allowing the SAP team to focus on strategic initiatives.
- A 50% drop in transport planning time, accelerating delivery cycles.
- Retrofitting time reduced from multiple days to just one hour.
More importantly, the risk of disruption was drastically reduced.
“Since working with Basis Technologies, we have been able to significantly reduce business downtime when making changes in our SAP environment,” said Jason Wierek, SAP Environment Manager at Molson Coors Beverage Company. “Prior to ActiveControl, we were managing transports on spreadsheets, which meant mistakes were made and business downtime was the result. Today, these issues are non-existent, thanks to the capabilities of ActiveControl, and we’re now benefitting from a seamless migration from our on-premise data centre to AWS Cloud.”
This migration didn’t just deliver immediate operational improvements—it also laid the groundwork for the company’s future SAP S/4HANA transformation. By embedding automation into their core processes, Molson Coors gained agility, reduced risk, and improved the speed and reliability of SAP change delivery.
For business technology leaders, the message is clear: automation is not simply a tool for efficiency—it’s a strategic lever for unlocking transformation at scale.
What This Means for SAPinsiders
Automating SAP change management mitigates risk and improves agility. Manual processes—like using spreadsheets to manage SAP transports—introduce operational risk and limit transformation speed. By automating change workflows with tools like ActiveControl, organizations can reduce errors, ensure compliance, and maintain business continuity even during large-scale migrations.
Dual maintenance and real-time synchronization are essential for hybrid SAP landscapes. Enterprises moving from on-premise to cloud environments must operate both systems in parallel during migration. ActiveControl enabled Molson Coors to synchronize changes in real time and retrofit updates in hours instead of days—supporting a smooth and controlled transition without disrupting day-to-day operations.
Strategic SAP modernization requires more than infrastructure—it requires governance. Cloud adoption and SAP HANA or S/4HANA migrations are not just technical challenges. Success hinges on robust governance and automation of SAP change processes. Business leaders should view intelligent automation not as an IT upgrade, but as a critical enabler of digital transformation, efficiency, and long-term value realization.
