Three customer stories that show modernization is not one journey or one speed
It is easy to assume that every system in an enterprise portfolio belongs on the same modernization schedule. In reality, different environments serve different business priorities today and will face different technology requirements tomorrow. A mission-critical Oracle system, a mixed SAP, Oracle, and VMware estate, and a global SAP ECC platform can all require different next steps. A CIO, CFO, transformation leader and application or infrastructure lead may each see the current environment differently. The real question is not whether every system must eventually change, but what each system needs next: continued stability, targeted improvement or larger transformation. Different systems in the same portfolio rarely call for the same answer.
Spinnaker OpenPath™ organizes enterprise software decisions around three lifecycle motions:
- Run protects mission-critical systems that cannot fail.
- Optimize reduces cost, complexity and dependency while restoring flexibility.
- Transform modernizes on a defined timeline once the business case and organizational readiness are in place.
Each motion has its own value. An enterprise may use one, two or all three across different parts of the same estate, often for years at a time. They are not required steps or maturity levels. The three stories below show what that looks like in practice.
Run: Specsavers Protects Oracle Continuity
Specsavers, a multinational vision and hearing care retailer operating across 11 markets, spent years absorbing persistent inefficiencies in its Oracle support, including rising costs, slow issue resolution, security concerns, and the ongoing risk of downtime across a supply chain the business depended on every day. What the business needed was uninterrupted, reliable operation, not a major platform change.
Spinnaker Support answered with dedicated engineers, tailored service, and proactive security measures built around Specsavers’ actual Oracle environment. As a result, issues were resolved faster, operational stability and security improved, a backlog of more than 90 aged service requests was worked down, supply-chain efficiency improved, and support costs dropped by 50 percent.
This is Run in practice, protecting a system that could not tolerate disruption. Running a stable system is an active strategic choice when that system is still delivering real value. Better support can protect operations while freeing up budget and internal capacity for higher-value work. The lesson extends beyond Oracle. Most enterprises have systems where continuity, not immediate change, is the strategic priority.
Optimize: A European Telecommunications Provider Regains Control
A European telecommunications provider faced a different set of pressures, with rising costs and declining support quality spread across its SAP, Oracle and VMware environments. In addition, a vendor-imposed upgrade offered the business limited value. The company also wanted to move key applications toward PostgreSQL but did not have the internal resources to pursue that on its own, and a disruptive all-at-once migration was never a realistic option given the platforms already in production.
Spinnaker provided coordinated third-party support across all three platforms, aligning service with the company’s business priorities. This included hands-on intervention during a serious vCenter issue, while planned transition work supported the gradual movement of key applications toward PostgreSQL. Support costs decreased, service quality improved, the company regained control over its own IT roadmap, and more internal capacity became available for the open-source work it had wanted to pursue all along.
This is Optimize in practice, and an example of how optimization can remove friction and reduce dependency so an organization can make its next decision from a position of strength. For this provider, that strength showed up directly in its ability to pursue open source on its own schedule instead of the vendor’s.
Transform: A Global Manufacturer Supports Its Modernization Journey
The Transform example looks different. A global manufacturer was managing rising SAP costs, underperforming support, and a highly customized SAP ECC environment spanning more than 17 countries. The company needed to reduce spend, strengthen stability, and avoid being pushed into SAP’s roadmap before it was ready. Unlike the previous two examples, it already had a defined direction toward an AWS composable ERP journey. What it needed first was the operational stability and financial room to support that future state.
Expert third-party SAP support, delivered through a consultative, security-first model, resolved inherited backlog issues quickly and stabilized the environment. SAP support costs dropped 71 percent in the first year, service quality improved, ticket volumes declined over time, and internal resources were freed up. As the relationship matured, the partnership renewed and expanded to include additional security and managed services capabilities, while preserving flexibility for the company’s AWS composable ERP journey.
This is how Spinnaker OpenPath™ can support a defined transformation. The company had a clear future-state direction, but operational stability, funding and internal capacity needed to reinforce that roadmap. Improving the current environment freed the budget and staff time needed to move the larger transformation forward.
One framework, three different paths
Looking back at all of the examples above, Specsavers did not need to transform its Oracle environment to create real value. The telecommunications provider used optimization to regain control of its roadmap while preparing to move key applications to PostgreSQL. The manufacturer stabilized its environment first so the savings it captured could fund a transformation it had already defined. In each case, the action matched the organization’s actual readiness rather than a predetermined maturity ladder.
Underlying all three paths is Assured Independence: the ability to make support, optimization and modernization decisions from a position of control rather than pressure. It gives customers the ability to decide when and how their systems evolve, rather than having those decisions forced by a vendor timeline or one-size-fits-all roadmap.
This portfolio-level approach reflects a broader shift in the ERP market. Forrester research notes that most large-scale ERP activity is now driven by modernization of existing environments rather than net-new purchases. It also recommends evaluating what to reassess, extract, advance or prune before selecting a path, reinforcing the importance of sequencing decisions around business needs rather than applying one approach across the entire portfolio.
Build a sequenced portfolio, not a mandate
A single company-wide mandate rarely fits every system in an enterprise portfolio. Spinnaker OpenPath™ helps leaders evaluate each environment on its own terms and build a sequenced portfolio across Run, Optimize and Transform.
Start with a Spinnaker OpenPath™ Strategic Pathway Session to identify the right path for each system based on business value, risk and readiness.
