Azure Optimisation for global FMCG
Learn how a global fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) uncovered a 30% saving on Azure spend and while building a successful business case for retaining operational autonomy.
Global fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brand
This leading Australian fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brand sells its health and wellbeing products in countries around the world. It is a subsidiary of a global company that manufactures and markets a wide range of FMCG products internationally.
Key benefits
- 30% overall cost savings in ongoing public cloud spend
- Documentation and visibility for all its Azure public cloud services
- Improved security and governance of its public cloud ERP platform
- Maintaining autonomy in operating its own public cloud infrastructure
Building a business case for Microsoft Azure
The organisation implemented a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution to replace multiple legacy software applications that were running its business operations.
The ERP solution had been designed and deployed on Microsoft Azure public cloud services by a consulting firm engaged for the project, with ongoing management of the platform and the ERP system handed over on completion.
With its parent company planning to centralise and consolidate its IT infrastructure into its own in-house data centres, the Australian business had to submit a business case to continue to host its backend systems on Azure. While the initial design and build of the ERP solution was best practice for public cloud at the time, over the intervening years minimal changes had been made to the underlying platform. As a result, the solution was not operating as efficiently and cost-effectively as it could be, and the organisation was not taking advantage of new features and service improvements that had been implemented on the Azure platform over that time.
Identifying cloud spend wastage and risk
To improve the efficiency of the ERP solution on public cloud, Interactive delivered its Azure Optimisation Assessment service, a complimentary high-level consulting engagement to customers that combines technology tools and processes to capture and analyse data and billing information from the organisation’s Azure footprint.
The data was collected over a month of business operations, to ensure the peaks and troughs of a normal business cycle could be fully captured and analysed. It provides visibility into current cloud usage and spend, identifies areas of cloud spend wastage, identifies business and technology risk, recommends where cost savings can be made and action that can be taken to remediate any issues.
A smooth implementation after the assessment
Interactive identified that the organisation was not taking advantage of the new services and features that had been added since the deployment of the ERP solution.
That included newer subscription plans and discounts that could be applied to its Azure account and more cost-effective services to support various components of the ERP environment.
A lot of built-in security enhancements had been added to the Azure platform that had never been enabled by the organisation, presenting a significant business risk. Interactive also identified and removed orphaned resources – services that had been spun up by the organisation over the years for development and testing but never decommissioned.
Interactive generated ongoing savings of 30% on the customer’s monthly Azure spend. Free Azure security features and best practice architecture were adopted to improve security and governance across its ERP environment. We also gave the FMCG company visibility on overall Azure usage, performance and spend was centralised on one easily accessible online portal.
Most importantly, the true value for the Australian business and the regional CIO was having documentation, data and analysis on the efficiency and costs involved in operating its public cloud ERP platform. That helped the team in managing its internal stakeholders, and gave the CIO more credibility and influence in the decision-making process, allowing the business to retain its more efficient and cost-effective public cloud option, rather than migrating to the consolidated group data centre infrastructure.
