Solving the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Staffing Puzzle: A Travel Retailer’s Success Story

For business technology leaders, successfully implementing a major ERP system like SAP S/4HANA Cloud is a significant undertaking. It requires deep expertise, strategic planning, and access to the right resources at the right time. Recently, a leading North American travel retailer and restauranteur navigated a complex SAP S/4HANA Cloud greenfield implementation with its partner The Baer Group, and the project highlights both the challenges and how to successfully approach such a transition.   

The company is a major player in the travel retail and restaurant sector, operating over 1,000 locations in more than 100 airports with a workforce exceeding 10,000 employees. Their business model is inherently complex, involving the operation of locations under third-party leading brand names, requiring them to maintain high service standards while managing extensive operational details. 

The Business Problem and Technology Need 

To support this complex operation and drive future growth, the company needed a modern, comprehensive technology platform. They sought an ERP system that could provide robust functionality, bolster their finance core, enable detailed insights and reporting, and modernize inventory management with an easy-to-use interface. They ultimately selected SAP S/4HANA Cloud for its comprehensive features, integrated processes, standardized reporting, and ease of deployment. This was a greenfield implementation, essentially starting from scratch with a new system. 

However, the scale and specialized nature of this project presented a significant challenge. While the company had an internal IT team, they lacked the necessary bandwidth and specialized expertise required to lead and implement a project of this magnitude. Staffing the project internally would require finding and vetting a diverse bench of specialists, from leadership and planning to tactical execution, which would be a costly, time-consuming, and burdensome effort for their in-house HR and IT teams. Furthermore, given that the required engagements were for limited durations, ranging from several months to a few years, hiring full-time employees specifically for the project did not make financial or operational sense. 

The Solution: Partnering for Specialized Staffing 

Recognizing the need for external expertise, the company sought a partner who could provide the specialized resources required. SAP, who provided high-level consultative services for the project, referred the company to Baer, a trusted SAP Gold service partner. 

Baer collaborated closely with the company to develop a strategic, long-term staffing plan designed to provide the necessary high-level and tactical resources Precisely when they were needed, ensuring the right investment. Leveraging their extensive pool of talent with proven experience in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Baer ultimately provided a total of 22 resources over the course of the approximately four-year project. These resources brought a wide range of critical skill sets, including finance leadership, project management, enterprise architecture, POS technologists, inventory management, SAP Fiori development, security testing, cutover and release, EDI management, and hard-to-find S/4 Retail CAR specialization. 

Realizing the Benefits 

This strategic partnership ultimately was a win. The greenfield implementation of SAP S/4HANA Cloud went live successfully and on schedule, and the company was able to begin leveraging the full potential of their technology investment. 

Partnering with Baer provided several key benefits: 

• Straightforward access to highly specialized SAP S/4HANA expertise from a single, reliable source, freeing up internal teams. 

• Accelerated time to value, as Baer’s experienced staff brought industry insights and SAP S/4HANA best practices. 

• Significant cost savings compared to the expense of hiring full-time employees or using a systems integrator for similar talent. 

• Staffing stability and continuity throughout the project due to Baer’s thorough talent evaluation and low attrition rates. The company also maintained institutional knowledge by converting several Baer team members to permanent employee status for ongoing support. 

Strategic staffing partnerships can be critical to overcoming the resource challenges inherent in complex SAP S/4HANA Cloud implementations, and finding the right partner can enable a business to achieve its technology goals efficiently and effectively. 

What This Means for SAPinsiders 

Strategic staffing partnerships accelerate ERP success. For complex SAP S/4HANA Cloud implementations, internal IT teams often lack the breadth and depth of expertise needed to execute effectively. Rather than stretching internal resources or hiring full-time staff for short-term needs, partnering with a specialized firm like Baer allows organizations to scale expertise on demand. Business leaders should evaluate partners with proven SAP experience and flexible staffing models to avoid delays and ensure access to niche skill sets when they are most needed. 

Phased, flexible staffing plans drive cost efficiency and continuity. Attempting to hire or contract each resource individually for a multi-year ERP initiative can overwhelm HR and procurement teams, leading to inefficiencies and talent mismatches. The success of this project was rooted in a long-term staffing strategy that aligned specific skills to each project phase. Decisionmakers should adopt this approach—mapping roles to timelines and sourcing partners that can provide continuity and adjust capacity as project needs evolve. 

Domain expertise enhances time to value and project quality. By sourcing experts with direct experience in SAP S/4HANA Cloud and industry-specific functions—such as Fiori, Retail CAR, and EDI—the company accelerated delivery while avoiding costly missteps. Leaders should prioritize partners that not only offer SAP technical skills but also bring business process knowledge and retail-specific experience. This ensures faster adoption, smoother go-lives, and improved ROI from ERP investments.