John Keells IT to accelerate business innovation with Microsoft

Microsoft team (left) and John Keells IT (right) at John Keells IT HQ

• John Keells Holdings will be the first customer in Sri Lanka to host SAP S/4HANA on Azure

Microsoft recently announced a strategic partnership with John Keells IT to accelerate John Keells Holdings’ Digital Transformation journey as well as enable them to build on this value proposition as a Partner across Asia and MENA.

A big step in that direction was John Keells IT’s first-ever deployment of Azure – a cloud computing platform built by Microsoft – to host SAP S/4HANA for one of their SAP instances at John Keells Group. The hybrid-cloud platform will enable John Keells IT to propel its advocacy based on Bi-MODAL IT strategy as part of the consultancy’s digital transformation mission to increase value for their customers and other stakeholders alike.

John Keells Group will be one of the first customers in APAC to adopt and deploy SAP S/4HANA on Azure, laying the foundation for the rest of its SAP workload to be moved to the cloud. By leveraging a platform that can accelerate digital transformation, John Keells IT will help the conglomerate realise the growth potential arising from today’s digital economy. This will allow the Group to scale in a more cost-effective, flexible manner and adjust to their specific business needs with a secure and reliable enterprise-grade platform that will readily extend to any eco-system.

The first-ever deployment of Office 365 in Sri Lanka set the stage for the Group’s digital transformation journey back in 2012, reflecting strong ties between John Keells IT and Microsoft. Their partnership since then has helped increase Microsoft’s footprint in Sri Lanka and strengthened John Keells IT’s expertise, capability and capacity in delivering future-ready solutions for its customers in Sri Lanka as well as across Asia and MENA. 

“SAP S/4HANA on Azure will give John Keells IT a joint ecosystem that brings unique insights and rich product integration to help their customers make the most out of running SAP solutions and applications in the cloud – accelerating their performance, productivity, and innovation with seamless enterprise-class support,” said Country Manager for Microsoft Sri Lanka and Maldives Hasitha Abeywardena. “John Keells IT has been at the forefront of digital transformation and innovation and we’re happy to have them as our partner and see them driving this transformation across Sri Lanka and beyond.”

Ramesh Shanmuganathan, EVP/Group CIO John Keells Group and CEO John Keells IT added, “Building innovative and transformative solutions based on a Bi-MODAL strategy and DESIGN THINKING philosophy requires collaboration, co-innovation and co-creation. Microsoft’s partnership strengthens our value proposition and helps us to further our digital transformation mission. With this partnership, we can unlock the true potential of digital for our customers and have already expanded on this partnership in MENA and South East Asia’s New Markets.”

This partnership will be pivotal for both Microsoft and John Keells IT in driving the adoption of Microsoft’s enterprise-grade cloud computing platform which encompasses Mobility, Big Data, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, IoT and Blockchain. Azure is a world-renowned digital transformation platform known for its seamless integration within existing platforms/eco-systems via APIs.