How Discovery Consulting Transformed with SAP Business Suite
Growth Comes with Growing Pains
Growth is a sign you're doing something right. Yet as headcount, clients, and transactions increase, the cracks show: handoffs slow down, reports take longer, and what was once a tidy stack becomes a patchwork of tools. Cash flow gets squeezed by invoicing delays, month-end stretches on, and leaders struggle to get a single view of truth. These aren't edge cases—they're the predictable side effects of success when processes and platforms don't keep pace.
At Discovery Consulting, we reached that point too. As an SAP partner, we recognised the problem first-hand. Manual effort creeping back into finance, fragmented data across time, project, and expense workflows, and teams spending time reconciling rather than working with our clients. We chose to reset on one integrated cloud ERP—SAP Business Suite—so our people could focus on clients and growth, not administration. This article shares the practical steps, the measurable results, and why using the same platform we recommend to clients has strengthened outcomes for both our business and theirs.
The Scaling Challenge – What Every Organisation Encounters
For many growing organisations, scaling brings more complexity than control. Systems that once worked seamlessly in the early stages become patchy, disconnected, and hard to manage. Each area of the business often adopts its own tools, creating silos that block visibility and slow decision-making. Finance, projects, and operations end up speaking different digital languages, which means data is constantly re-entered and reconciled rather than analysed and acted on.
This fragmentation has real financial consequences. Research shows Australian firms spend up to 80% of their IT budgets1 maintaining outdated systems, leaving little room for innovation. At the same time, poor customer experiences—often the downstream effect of internal inefficiency. In Australia this has been calculated at a staggering at $71 billion2 in annual revenue at risk! Over the last 15 years it's a pattern we see repeatedly: as technology ages and manual workarounds multiply, employee frustration rises, customer satisfaction dips, and the business stalls and why in many cases clients come to the realisation that something needs to change if they want to succeed. For others they find their business stagnating or worst still going backwards. Therefore recognising this cycle is the first step toward breaking it.
Discovery Consulting's Own Reality Check
Discovery Consulting wasn't immune to the same pressures. As the business expanded across Australia, growth began to expose the limits of our own systems. Separate tools for time tracking, expenses, project management, and accounting made everyday work harder than it needed to be. Teams were duplicating data across spreadsheets, chasing invoices through email, and struggling to produce timely financial reports. The result was familiar, inefficiency, lost visibility, and frustrated employees.
Behind the scenes, financial processes had become too manual to sustain. Month-end closings dragged on, and reconciling accounts took valuable time away from strategic work. Even more concerning, the lack of unified data meant leaders couldn't see performance clearly or share accurate updates with clients. For an organisation built on helping others streamline their operations, this was a clear signal—it was time to modernise from within.
The Turning Point – Choosing SAP Business Suite
Faced with these growing pains, Discovery Consulting made a deliberate decision: to adopt the same next-generation ERP system it was implementing for its clients. SAP Business Suite offered a single, unified platform capable of streamlining finance, project delivery, and reporting while embedding best-practice automation throughout. For Discovery, this wasn't a test—it was a strategic move to create the operational foundation needed for sustained growth.
The public cloud model also brought clear advantages. Implementation could be completed in less than 12 weeks—a fraction of the time required for on-premise ERP rollouts. Continuous updates from SAP meant the system has evolved with innovations in AI, machine learning, and process automation without major disruption. As Managing Partner, Alistair Elliott explains, "Using SAP Business Suite internally gives us deeper insight into its capabilities. We understand its benefits from lived experience, and that translates directly to our clients."
Implementation – Leading by Example
Once the decision was made, Discovery Consulting approached implementation with the same discipline it applies to client projects. The goal was to deploy quickly, with no customisation, and to use the standardised best practices built into SAP Business Suite. Within twelve weeks, the system was live, fully integrated with SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Concur, and integrated with SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) and fully mobile enabled.
The transition brought immediate benefits. Financial data, project tracking, and time entries now flow through a single, connected system. Teams could view real-time updates on budgets, resource allocation, and performance without chasing spreadsheets or reconciling duplicate entries. By running its own operations through SAP Business Suite, Discovery not only improved internal efficiency but also strengthened the methodologies it uses to guide clients—turning experience into expertise and proof into practice.
Measurable Results – Efficiency Transformed
The shift to SAP Business Suite quickly delivered tangible gains. Processes that once consumed days now take a few hours. The time to issue sales invoices dropped by 90%, from eighteen days to just one. Financial closing was cut from 20 days to a day—a transformation that gives leaders timely, accurate insights into business performance. At the same time, over 90% of bank reconciliations are now automated, freeing finance teams to focus on analysis and planning rather than repetitive data entry.
Beyond the numbers, the change reshaped the employee and client experience. The team can access real-time information on projects, resources, and expenses through a mobile-enabled interface, improving accountability and satisfaction. Clients benefit from faster reporting, greater transparency, and consistent communication. What began as an operational upgrade has become a cultural shift toward agility, accuracy, and smarter decision-making.
The Broader Value – Empowering Clients Through Lived Experience
Implementing SAP Business Suite internally gave Discovery Consulting something invaluable: first-hand experience of the transformation it enables. As an early adopter of SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud, having used the solution for more than 3 years, the business now approaches every SAP Business Suite client engagement with a deeper understanding of both the challenges and the opportunities that come with using a solution that is always up to date and the benefits of adopting the standard processes that come natively with SAP Business Suite. When Discovery consultants talk about speed to value, automation and scalability, they speak from direct experience, not theory.
This lived experience strengthens Discovery's credibility with clients who want confidence that transformation delivers real outcomes. For instance, automation within the firm's own finance workflows—such as converting time sheets into service entry sheets—has become a practical demonstration of what's possible. Clients see the tangible return on investment through Discovery's own results, reinforcing the message that SAP Business Suite isn't just software.
It's a platform for continuous improvement and measurable business value.
Beyond Go-Live – Continuous Partnership Through AMS
Transformation doesn't end when a system goes live. Discovery Consulting extends its commitment to clients through Application Management Services (AMS), ensuring the same experts who implement the solution continue to guide its evolution. This long-term approach helps organisations stay up to date as SAP Business Suite introduces new features, updates, and best practices, without losing momentum or control.
Rather than offering reactive support, Discovery's AMS model is consultative. It focuses on continuous optimisation, fine-tuning workflows, and identifying opportunities to automate or simplify further. This consistency of expertise means clients benefit from a partner invested in their outcomes—not just their implementation. By staying close to both the technology and the business, Discovery ensures that modernisation becomes a journey of continuous improvement rather than a one-time project.
Conclusion – Scaling with Confidence
Discovery Consulting's journey with SAP Business Suite shows that transformation is not simply about upgrading systems—it's about reshaping how a business operates, thinks, and grows. By confronting the same challenges faced by its clients and solving them through its own implementation, Discovery has proven that efficiency, accuracy, and innovation can coexist. The measurable improvements in invoicing, financial closing, and automation stand as proof that scaling doesn't have to mean strain.
Today, Discovery's consultants bring this experience to every client project, backed by the credibility of having achieved the same results themselves. The message is clear: modernisation is an investment in agility and trust—both within teams and with customers.
If your organisation is ready to scale without the strain, Discovery Consulting can help you achieve the same transformation with SAP Business Suite.
References:
- The True Cost of Maintaining Legacy Applications: An Industry Analysis Prologic September 2025 https://www.profoundlogic.com/true-cost-maintaining-legacy-applications-industry-analysis/
- Australian firms risk $71 billion due to poor service- CFOtech Australia 19th Nov 2024
