Amey and Arch: A Platform Partnership Supporting Core SAP Processes from ECC to S/4HANA

For more than fifteen years, Amey and Arch have worked together to design and deliver some of Amey’s most business-critical SAP processes. What began in 2008 as an initiative to replace manual data capture has evolved into a platform-based approach that today underpins how Amey pays its people, bills its customers, manages suppliers, and governs professional development across the organisation. Most recently, that platform was successfully transitioned from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA, with Arch supporting Amey through a complex but carefully controlled technical upgrade.

Amey operates at scale across infrastructure services, with a workforce that includes large numbers of field-based employees, supervisors, subcontractors, and managers. Much of the organisation’s commercial performance depends on accurate operational data being captured close to the point of work and flowing reliably into SAP. Time recorded by consultants and operatives feeds directly into payroll and customer billing. Subcontractor purchase orders control significant spend and underpin service delivery to government departments. Performance and development processes affect workforce capability, retention, and compliance. These are not peripheral workflows; they are core business operations where failure has immediate financial and reputational consequences.

From the outset, Amey recognised that standard SAP transactions and manual workarounds were not sufficient to support these requirements at scale. Processes had to reflect real organisational structures, cope with remote working and intermittent connectivity, enforce deadlines, and validate data before it ever reached SAP. Arch’s platform provided a way to model these processes end to end, combining intuitive user interfaces, embedded business logic, controlled workflow, and reliable SAP updates. Over time, this approach replaced spreadsheets, email-driven approvals, and rekeying with automated, auditable processes tightly integrated into Amey’s SAP landscape.

Time capture and assignment

Over time, Arch’s products have become part of Amey’s broader SAP process platform. Time capture processes, originally in PDF forms, are now delivered in Fiori using Stelo, supporting payroll and customer invoicing.  Professional development and performance review processes use Arch’s platform to manage data capture, approvals, notifications, and audit trails. The Subcontractor purchasing process combines structured data capture, approval workflows delivered through Microsoft Teams, and high-quality SAP outputs for purchase orders and payment notifications, all delivered using Arch’s platform – Stelo, Floe and Looply. Together, these processes form a connected layer that sits directly on top of SAP, handling the interaction between people, processes, and core business data.

By the time Amey embarked on its S/4HANA programme, Arch’s platform was deeply embedded in how the organisation functioned. The transformation project included upgrading SAP ECC to S/4HANA and moving payroll to SAP SuccessFactors. Wherever possible, Amey treated this programme as a technical upgrade rather than a wholesale process redesign, with the explicit aim of preserving proven business processes while modernising the underlying SAP architecture.

Arch’s role was not simply to make its software compatible with S/4HANA, but to protect the integrity of processes that directly affect payroll accuracy, supplier payments, customer billing, and employee engagement. This began with ensuring that all Arch components were upgraded and aligned with current support levels ahead of the system conversion. Given the volume and age of operational data held within forms and process tables, Arch also supported data cleansing and archiving activities to improve system performance and reduce risk before the migration.

A critical part of the work involved reviewing custom ABAP logic and user exits that had accumulated over many years. Some of this code dated back to early ECC implementations and had been extended incrementally as business needs evolved. Arch reviewed this logic in detail to ensure compatibility with S/4HANA’s data structures and programming model, addressing issues that automated upgrade tools alone could not resolve. In parallel, particular attention was paid to timesheet and HR data usage, ensuring that integrations with SuccessFactors Employee Central provided the required information and that redundant dependencies on legacy HR infotypes were removed.

The move to S/4HANA also provided an opportunity to modernise how users accessed these critical processes. Historically, Amey had used a separate front-end server for Fiori applications. With S/4HANA, the Fiori LaunchPad was redesigned and embedded directly within the S/4HANA system, using pages and spaces aligned with SAP best practices. Arch supported the redeployment of applications, validation of SAPUI5 services, and restructuring of navigation so that time capture, subcontractor purchasing, and professional development processes were presented consistently and securely within the new landscape.

Throughout the programme, Arch supported multiple test phases, go-live, and an extended period of hypercare. Issues raised by the business were triaged and resolved in close collaboration with Amey and its other delivery partners. Despite the scale of change, no business-critical showstoppers were encountered, and core processes continued to operate as expected. This outcome reflected not only technical preparation, but a deep understanding of how those processes are used day to day by thousands of users.

Today, Amey’s Arch-based processes are running on S/4HANA with minimal functional change, but with a platform that is better positioned for future optimisation. With a modern SAP core in place, Amey now has the option to simplify legacy designs, extend collaboration through tools such as Microsoft Teams, and take advantage of new SAP capabilities without being forced into disruptive rework. The Arch platform continues to act as a stable bridge between SAP’s evolving technology stack and the practical realities of running a complex infrastructure business.

Reflecting on the project, Chris Scott of Arch noted:

“Once again it was great working with the team at Amey, many of whom we’ve worked with over 15 years.  It was great to see custom processes on the Arch platform upgraded to S/4HANA with the minimum of effort, and continue to provide such value to Amey’s business.”

Seeing long-standing custom processes transition successfully to S/4HANA reinforces the value of treating SAP process automation as a platform investment.

For other SAP customers facing similar journeys, Amey’s experience demonstrates that heavily customised, business-critical processes can be upgraded with confidence. When those processes are built on a coherent platform, and supported by a partner that understands both the technology and the operational context, S/4HANA becomes an opportunity to build on proven foundations rather than a reason to start again.