Seqirus is owned by CSL and is one of the world’s largest influenza vaccine manufacturing companies with a focus on influenza. Seqirus also manufactures other products such as anti venoms for snake and spider bites.

Seqirus had recently purchased the Flu vaccine business from Novartis, which produced flu vaccines for the northern hemisphere including Europe and North America. This decision meant that Novartis’ worldwide operations had to be moved to the new Seqirus SAP platform which was no small feat. The migration was established as three phases, the first two phases were for the northern hemisphere, followed by phase three for the southern hemisphere.

Seqirus engaged a Systems Integrator with offshore resources to migrate the northern hemisphere to SAP, however the project ran significantly over time and budget. Due to the delays, when the southern hemisphere team data team was established, the northern hemisphere project was already significantly over time and budget. Our team were called in to assist and help the northern hemisphere meet their new go-live date

The southern hemisphere could not be implemented until after the successful implementation of the northern hemisphere. 

When we began leading the Southern Hemisphere Data Migration at Seqirus in Parkville, Melbourne, we were very encouraged to learn that Project Management was open to exploring the possibility of doing things differently for the southern hemisphere implementation. We were also encouraged by their understanding of the importance of Data. They accepted that things needed to change in their implementation to achieve the expected outcomes and deliver to their timelines.

The southern hemisphere team were very experienced and although it was too late to change the approach of the northern hemisphere project, our experience helped them meet their new go-live date. This involved travel to Northern Hemisphere sites including the offshore SI team in India. 

We supported the existing team in the delivery of the data migration and took ownership of some of the tasks, ownership and management all the defects and added new processes to the existing approach that resolved issues and supported delivery. There were no further delays in the northern hemisphere project, and it went live on the planned date. While data wasn’t the only reason that timelines had slipped, it was a significant factor.

The project team was made up of the following people: 

Systems Integrators:

8 x technical resources + 1 x team lead to do the transformation

5 x technical resources + 1 team lead to do the load 

8 x data analysts

9 x resources from the southern hemisphere data migration team 

A total of approx. 30 resources!

The team consisted of ten members which were made up of data analysts and technical resources. They were hired based on the skillsets required to support the data strategy. Our data migration strategy does not allow team members to work in ‘silos’. From the time the southern hemisphere data migration team started, we all worked collaboratively and were focused on what was needed to migrate the highest quality and reliable data to the new SAP production system. 

Our original plan required eight people in total on the team although this grew by one person after our involvement in the northern hemisphere implementation and after further understanding of compliance requirements of the pharmaceutical industry. 

We had one go-live date, which was not extended, and we delivered to that date. We left a month after we completed the project and at that stage there was only one low severity data defect that had been raised on Data Migration. 

The data migration component of the southern hemisphere was successful as a result of a “fit for purpose data migration strategy” that was specific to the needs of Seqirus Project. Having the support of a management team that understood the importance of data, was critical to the success of the data migration project. Data analysts owned the data objects (customers, vendors, etc.) assigned to them and the technical resources supported the data analysts. 

For all simple and most medium complexity data objects, the data analysts supported by technical resources, performed all the technical tasks (including construction of programs). This not only minimised the number of resources required, it reduced the spread of responsibility and ownership for each of the 150+ data objects and reduced the risk of loss and misunderstanding between data analysts and technical resources.

So many projects seem to encounter the same issues that have already been encountered over and over again by previous projects. There is no reason to go through the cost and pain of rediscovering these issues again. While SAP projects are not all about data, data is a significant factor in the success of any project. 

Developing a data migration strategy at the start of the project that is ‘fit for purpose’ for your business and your project is critical to the success of data. Hiring a team at the right time with the right skill-set to support the strategy is critical to the success of your project. Hiring data migration resources that know how to engage and support your business throughout the life of the project is critical to the success of your project.

As your business and project resources evolve through the life of your project, the data strategy needs to provide flexibility to cater for challenges that all projects experience. The decisions made to provide this flexibility that will save time and money, need to be made at the start of the project. 

We like to use the analogy that in most cases, it’s too late to rebuild the ground floor when you are working on the fifth floor. 

We pride ourselves on the strength of our SAP network, our knowledge of people and their skills. We specialise in SAP Data Migration and bringing together the ideal mix of skills and personalities to create successful outcomes. Contact us today to discuss your project.