Honda Pakistan joins SUSE and IBM to deliver enhanced customer experience and improve business agility

“With SLES for SAP Applications underpinning our new SAP S/4HANA solution, we have peace of mind that our mission-critical systems will be available around the clock.” Muhammad Ali, General Manager, IT Honda Pakistan.

To stay competitive in the congested Pakistani automotive market, Honda built its strategy around optimizing customer service and increasing loyalty. The company migrated existing SAP ERP solutions to next-generation SAP S/4HANA software, running on the SUSE Linux Enterprise platform on IBM Power Systems hardware.

The aim was to use real-time order data from the dealership network to create an automatic planning and replenishment process for spare parts, enabling seamless services and greater customer satisfaction.

The team selected IBM to build a new infrastructure platform for SAP S/4HANA on the latest generation of IBM POWER9-processor-based systems. Honda quicky realized that SLES for SAP Applications would empower them to meet stringent service level requirements around end-user application performance. This decision was based on technical compatibility as well as the tight partnership between SAP, IBM and SUSE, meaning business processes became reliable and streamlined.

Ready for the road ahead

By selecting SLES for SAP Applications as its operating system for SAP S/4HANA, Honda Pakistan is on track to drive significant efficiencies in its management, maintenance and disaster recovery processes, as well as equipping its dealerships to deliver even higher-quality services to customers: nurturing loyalty and helping to protect market share.

With SAP S/4HANA on the SUSE Linux Enterprise platform, Honda Pakistan is confident that it will unlock an immediate 15 percent increase in revenues by efficiently moving unsold inventory to where it is needed in its dealership network. Honda now enjoys an 80 percent faster planning process for spare parts and a 33 percent faster systems recovery forecast.

SLES for SAP Applications powers data driven capabilities that equip dealerships to deliver higher-quality services to customers. SUSE solutions support integrated business planning between dealerships, manufacturing plants and head office, allowing optimization of spare parts inventory across dealership network. Live Kernel Patching ensures that key data and customer-service workflows are always available for use.

The SUSE-powered after-sales process is making a strong contribution to the business goal of enhancing customer experience and fostering long-term loyalty. To deliver on brand promise to customers it is vital that dealership teams have 24/7 access to the digital tools they need to serve customers effectively.

Click here to find out more about how the combination of SUSE, IBM and SAP technologies gives Honda Pakistan a reliable, high-performance platform for supporting critical business processes, enhancing customer loyalty, driving efficiency and improving competitive advantage.