Toll dumps Google overhaul, reviewing SAP rollout

Logistics giant Toll has put a stop to its rollout of Google for Work to 40,000 workers and is also replanning its SAP finance transformation.

This time last year Toll revealed it was planning to replace 20,000 Microsoft Office accounts by shifting the business to Gmail accounts and Google productivity apps.

It was intended to allow workers in warehouses and transports hubs to access an email account where they previously had not been able to.

The deployment was to take a staggered approach rather than a big-bang replacement, swapping end of life devices with Chrome laptops.

But iTnews can reveal the project was cancelled last month after a pilot of the solution with hundreds of workers provided only neutral results.

Sources told iTnews the offering did not provide bang for buck and Toll determined there was not significant benefit to move forward with the project.

The logistics firm still intends to transition to cloud services, according to sources, but in a more evolutionary way.

The Google project was deemed not to be a priority, the sources said, given other IT initiatives currently underway.

Reviewing the SAP rollout

Toll is also currently working through a replanning of its SAP-based finance systems transformation, iTnews can reveal.

In 2014 Toll made the decision to move to SAP's cloud-based HANA platform for its finance systems, to be entirely run and managed by SAP in a Sydney Equinix facility.

The platform would replace its core, internally-hosted Unibiz finance solution to standardise on SAP globally in a project that was at the time forecast to take 18 months or more to complete.

However, the project is now being replanned after it was found the solution did not entirely meet the business requirements.

Toll temporarily halted the rollout to address the issue and stood SAP's team down in December, the sources said.

Professional services firm EY has now been brought in to conduct a replanning exercise over the next few months.

It is understood Toll has no intention of moving away from SAP.

Toll did not respond to request for comment. 

Still hunting for CIO

The cancellation of the Google project and the review of the SAP transformation follows Toll's dumping of an IT outsourcing initiative last October.

The company told staff its global effort to outsource some of its IT infrastructure, as well as applications development and support, would cease after the benefits were found to be lower than expected.

The logistics giant is also currently operating without a chief information officer after John Ansley departed the organistion earlier this year.

iTnews understands an executive is currently acting in the role while the company hunts for a replacement.