Wales and West Utilities - SAP S/4HANA Programme Recovery & Deployment

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What did we help solve?

The Challenge

Wales & West Utilities was midway through one of the most complex SAP programmes a UK utility had attempted in a single push — a full move from ECC6 to S/4HANA covering finance, a SuccessFactors and payroll rollout, and an integrated works management and field services platform underpinning emergency gas repair.

The programme had stalled. Ownership was fragmented across too many teams, a significant offshore component was undermining delivery, and the programme was assessed at only thirty percent complete with no single line of sight on integration, architecture, or cutover. In a regulated utility where emergency repair cannot stop, drift was not an option.

What we acheived

Solution

Limelight was brought in to take client-side programme leadership — working alongside WWU's senior team to stabilise and re-energise delivery.

The structure was stripped back. The offshore model was stood down and replaced with a small, senior, UK-based team aligned to the business capability areas. Limelight provided the spine of delivery: programme management, cutover and assurance leadership, build and test management, roles and authorisations, Fiori, and the data and reporting disciplines. Work outside Limelight's direct ownership — ABAP and BASIS — was consolidated and transitioned to the SI under a single accountable model.

Alongside the delivery reset, the programme was re-baselined with clear ownership and a staged release plan. The regulated-critical Emergency and Repair function was sequenced first — protecting it throughout the transition — with finance, HR, and works management deployment sequenced behind it.

What were the benefits?

Results

The Link Programme went live. WWU's finance function moved onto S/4HANA. SuccessFactors and payroll replaced a legacy ECC6 HR stack. Works management and field services were built for the business.
Critically, Emergency and Repair was protected throughout — a regulated, operationally critical capability maintained without disruption across the entire transition period.
A programme that had been assessed at thirty percent complete with no clear path to delivery was recovered, re-structured, and taken forward.

What Wales and West Utilities had to say

When we needed to reset the structure, the Limelight team came in and took the leadership and delivery spine off our plate. They stripped out what wasn't working, and built a smaller senior team that actually delivered

Craig Armstrong
CIO - Wales and West Utilities