EPI-USE helped a real estate service provider replace a highly customised legacy SAP environment with a modern, clean-core platform designed for long-term efficiency and scalability.
When SAP announced the end-of-life of its on-premise platform in July 2026, the provider faced a choice that many organisations recognise: migrate the existing complexity into a new shell, or use the deadline as a forcing function to build something genuinely better. They chose Transformation.
The provider is the custodian of Australia's land title records — the organisation that sits behind every property transfer, title search, and ownership change in the state. Accuracy, compliance, and operational reliability are not aspirational goals here; they are foundational requirements.
The on-premise SAP environment had accumulated 440 custom objects over decades — each created to solve a specific problem, each now an obstacle to change. 32 custom sales order types existed where one standard type could do the job. Every SAP upgrade required a custom-by-custom impact analysis. The system was becoming more expensive and more fragile with each passing year. Technical debt at scale.
The provider operates a unique FlexTime working policy that no standard software module could address. Employees tracked their flexible hours through spreadsheets. Payroll ran a complex NSW Clerk Award configuration on a platform not designed to evolve with it. Manual processes filled the gaps between systems that had never been designed to connect cleanly. Operational workarounds as standard practice.
More than 40 external systems connected to the SAP environment — including the Integrated Titling System (ITS) that sits at the heart of the provider’s core mission, PEXA, the ATO, banking and broker portals. Many communicated via flat-file transfers and basic authentication. Security exposure was real, and the architecture could not support the real-time, event-driven model that modern operations demand. Integration fragility.
The provider engaged EPI-USE Australia to replace the entire SAP Business Suite in a single programme — Finance, Sales & Billing, Procurement, HR, Time, and Payroll — moving to SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud, SAP SuccessFactors, and SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP). The target was not a lift-and-shift. It was a greenfield, clean-core implementation that challenged every existing process and accepted customisation only where a genuine, unavoidable business requirement existed.
Assessed every element of the legacy environment, evaluated all 440 custom objects, and locked down the solution architecture. The greenfield approach was validated: the gap between what SAP standard could deliver and what the provider genuinely needed was far smaller than the legacy customisation count suggested.
Built, tested, and deployed the full solution in a phased go-live sequence designed to match the provider’s operating cycles: ERP first, then HR, then payroll and FlexTime — timed to the first pay run and the first day of a new 12-week flex period.
No single element of this programme better illustrates the EPI-USE & the provider's approach than the custom FlexTime application built on SAP Business Technology Platform.
The provider operates a Flexible Working policy that governs how employees bank and spend time above and below their contracted base hours across a 12-week rolling cycle. The policy includes accrual caps, half-day leave increments, mandatory meal break rules, manager approval workflows, and suspension triggers.
Rather than ask the provider to compromise the policy or accept a spreadsheet workaround indefinitely, EPI-USE built a purpose-designed application directly on SAP BTP — keeping the core SAP environment entirely clean while extending it precisely where the business needed it. The FlexTime application manages time entry, accrual calculations, leave requests, approval workflows, and the 12-week cycle resets. Policy rules are enforced automatically.
At go-live, the full current flex period data was migrated so every employee stepped into the new system with their complete historical record intact. The cutover date was chosen deliberately: Day 1 of a new 12-week cycle, removing any ambiguity about opening balances.
The FlexTime application is a direct demonstration of the clean-core principle: complex business requirements met through intelligent extension of the platform — not by modifying the core — so SAP updates land cleanly and future changes are straightforward.
97.7% reduction
manual filing eliminated
cleaner financial structure
simplified to standard
flat-file → authenticated APIs
compliance archived
From 440 custom objects to 10. Every future SAP release now lands on a clean platform without a custom-by-custom remediation exercise. The 32 bespoke sales order types collapsed into a single standard type. The system is simpler, faster to maintain, and less expensive to operate from day one.
47 redundant General Ledger accounts were formally closed. The provider moved from Internal Order-based revenue tracking to Profit Centre Accounting — best-practice financial structure that gives the finance team the visibility it has always needed. Month-end is cleaner. Reporting is faster. Audit trails are clear.
The first live payroll ran on 18 May 2026 — on schedule, for all employees, processed through a system purpose-configured for the NSW Clerk Award. Two full parallel test cycles and EPI-USE’s Payroll Control Centre validation framework gave the payroll team the confidence to go live without a fallback. That confidence was earned, not assumed.
Approximately 60% of the workforce — salaried employees on standard hours — no longer file daily timesheets. That administrative overhead simply disappeared. The remaining 40% now manage their time through the dedicated BTP FlexTime application with automated calculations, built-in policy enforcement, and a working manager approval workflow.
Every legacy flat-file integration — to ITS, PEXA, Connect, and the banking layer — was replaced with authenticated APIs. All authentication was upgraded to OAuth. The old payment gateway was decommissioned and customers migrated to the primary gateway. The provider’s core financial and HR data now flows through encrypted, auditable channels.
EPI-USE Archive Central secured more than eight years of legacy transactional data outside the new production environment, meeting the legal retention obligation while keeping the new SAP system lean and high-performing.