For over 20 years, Insulet has helped to simplify the lives of people with diabetes, providing them with innovative insulin delivery devices. What began as a father’s vision to make insulin delivery easier for his young son living with diabetes has evolved into an organization with over 5,000 employees that reported $1.7 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2023.
In 2021, Insulet began a multi-year SAP S/4HANA digital transformation journey. Utilizing RISE with SAP, the company migrated to a private cloud instance; this was a significant undertaking, with approximately 1,500 end users impacted. The enterprise landed on RISE with SAP for a variety of reasons. First, the solution aligned closely with Insulet’s specific needs and was well-suited to support its operational demands. RISE with SAP also enabled Insulet to embrace a private cloud instance, which allowed the organization to stay current with innovation at its own pace.
To help manage this large-scale transformation, Insulet turned to PwC as its system integration partner. ASUG sat down with Santhosh Nair, Senior IT Leader at Insulet, and Gerald Metzger, Principal at PwC, to discuss—among other topics—how the two organizations collaborated to enable a successful digital transformation project, hurdles the team needed to overcome, and how Insulet approached rolling the new solution out to its end-users.
“The project was delivered on time and within budget, allowing us to maintain seamless operations across the company with minimal business disruptions," Nair said.
Setting a Solid Foundation for Change
Before embarking on its digital transformation project, Insulet took concrete steps to make sure the organization's leaders and internal stakeholders were prepared for the coming shift.
First, they established a dedicated project governance team, which included full-time global process owners and IT subject matter experts from across all workstreams, including technical tracks. Additionally, Nair noted that Insulet identified key stakeholders and established a steering committee charged with overseeing the project. The organization built a program governance and communication structure to help facilitate project delivery. And before the project kicked off, Insulet developed a high-level scope and timeline, supported by clear roadmaps and objectives.
Insulet took great pains to establish cross-organizational buy-in for the project that included obtaining both board and executive-level support. “The project was endorsed at the highest levels in the organization, with the board of directors and executive leadership providing strong support,” Nair said, noting this step ensured “the project had the necessary resources and authority to move forward.”
The organization also adopted a combined “top-down” and “bottom-up” approach where leadership direction, combined with a “bottom-up” approach to stakeholder buy-in and change management, made sure all employees at all levels were adequately engaged with the project.
“This dual strategy made sure that the initiative was aligned with the company goals while also addressing the concerns and input of staff across the organization,” Nair said. Leadership developed clear guiding principles to help steer the project and provide a framework for decision-making. In addition, Insulet developed company-wide communications that Nair described as “a cornerstone" to the project’s success.
“By keeping everyone informed about the project's goals, progress, and benefits, we fostered a sense of ownership and commitment across the organization,” Nair said. “This open communication helped to build trust and made sure that all employees felt involved and supported in the transition.”
Before selecting PwC, Insulet went through a thorough system integrator selection process, making sure it chose the right partner to help the company meet its goals. With PwC, Nair said Insulet found a partner that “fit our culture and possessed deep industry and business expertise,” combined with a strong track record of helping to facilitate successful SAP S/4HANA transformation projects.
Overcoming Project Hurdles
Like any enterprise working on a large-scale IT digital transformation project, Insulet experienced its share of challenges over the two years it took to migrate to SAP S/4HANA. One of the key hurdles stemmed from the organization’s growth throughout that time. Over the last eight years, Insulet grew its revenue over 20% year-over-year. While this was positive for the enterprise’s overall business health, growth came with its own set of challenges during the project.
“This rapid growth created challenges in the availability of business resources, as key personnel were already heavily engaged in ongoing operations,” Nair said. “To mitigate this issue, we developed a detailed resource plan and secured commitments from key resources with the support of Insulet leadership. We established a structured monitoring process to help track the progress of the project and manage any resource constraints effectively.”
He further noted that regular reviews and updates allowed the enterprise to proactively address issues and reallocate resources as needed to make sure project milestones were met.
Additionally, as part of Insulet’s global expansion, the company opened a 400,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Malaysia. According to Nair, this “required a rapid implementation of SAP to support business operations.” To address the “significant planning and resources challenges” posed by this expansion, the organization instituted a phased SAP rollout approach for the facility.
“This involved incrementally enabling business capabilities through three rollouts while the facility was being built,” Nair said. “To manage this expanded scope, we onboarded additional staff, from both Insulet and PwC, making sure that we had the necessary knowledge and resources to handle the increased scope.”
Engaging End Users
One of the most critical functions of any IT migration project is an effective change management strategy, enabling a new solution to be effectively rolled out to end-users. During Insulet’s SAP S/4HANA transformation project, PwC was critical to this process.
“Engaging our end-users throughout the rollouts was crucial for adoption and successful implementation,” Metzger said.
To enable end-user cohesion, the project team established a global template based on industry leading practices. By adopting this strategy, the team was able to standardize business processes while also providing flexibility for regional and local variations. The team opted for a regional rollout strategy, beginning with EMEA and followed by North America.
PwC contributed to the effort with what Metzger describes as “a holistic engagement approach”. This included identifying key end-users early in the project, assessing how changes would impact the Insulet organization based on the future design, involving end-users during testing phases, providing multiple feedback channels, and offering strong support during the “hypercare” period.
Keys to Success
Metzger and Nair attribute the success of the two-year digital transformation project to several factors, including strong leadership support, a collaborative team culture, and effective partner collaboration.
Nair also highlighted the RISE with SAP infrastructure, stating that it provided a “solid foundation for the ERP system, enabling scalability, security, and performance.”
In terms of advice for other enterprises undertaking their own SAP S/4HANA digital transformation projects, Nair recommended adopting a methodical program approach and strong governance. He emphasized that the “rigorous” program implemented by Insulet was characterized by “detailed planning, transparency, and a strong governance structure.”
Finally, the two IT leaders also encouraged enterprises—especially other life sciences companies—to help secure strong support from top leadership, actively involve stakeholders throughout the project, and foster a unified team focused on a common goal.