From order-to-cash to wall-to-wall: Four SAP implementations at Smithfield Foods

Abstract

This case examines a transformation journey at Smithfield Foods, a global pork processing company. In 2005, Mansour Zadeh, a company’s CIO, initiated a replacement of the old order management legacy system with an SAP SD (sales and distribution) module in one of company’s independently operating divisions. The case ends in 2017 when the entire corporation switches business operations to a company-wide SAP HANA system. The case allows for a discussion of strategic alignment of business and IT, issues involved in selection and customization of an Enterprise Resource Planning package, and structure of IT governance.