Thierry Soulabaille

Thierry Soulabaille is a seasoned IT and Supply Chain Director with over 20 years of experience in managing complex international projects. His expertise spans ERP/CRM implementation, business intelligence, IT infrastructure, and security, with a strong focus on strategic alignment and operational excellence.

Thierry's career highlights include leading IT transformations, ERP deployments, and cloud migrations for global organizations. He has successfully reduced IT costs by over 30% through downsizing and optimization strategies. His experience in managing multicultural teams and navigating dynamic environments, such as carveouts and management buyouts (MBO), has honed his ability to drive change and deliver results.

SAP Transition Management, Team Build-up, Succession

Context
  • A fast-growing international agri-food group required interim SAP leadership following a Europe-wide SAP go-live.
    The organization faced major stabilization challenges, with an unstructured support model including approximately 250 uncategorized tickets, no Run / Project separation, no prioritization or KPIs, and elevated Segregation of Duties (SoD) and Firefighter (FUE) risks.
    The mission also aimed at building a sustainable SAP organization and preparing long-term succession.
Accomplishment
  • As SAP Europe Solution Manager (Interim), the mission focused on SAP transition management and stabilization. SAP application maintenance and demand management (change, incident, release) were structured, the backlog was categorized and prioritized, and a clear separation between Run and Projects was implemented, supported by KPIs and service dashboards.
  • Governance was reinforced through the reactivation of the Change Control Board (CCB) with value-based decision-making, as well as a full review of authorizations, SoD risks and Firefighter usage.
  • In parallel, teams were structured and onboarded, key roles were recruited, knowledge was transferred, and the successor was hired and onboarded.
  • The assignment also included supervision of the SAP deployment in the UK and definition of integration scenarios for French subsidiaries.
Outcome 
  • Within six months, SAP operations were stabilized and business continuity secured.
  • The initial backlog of 250 unmanaged tickets was reduced to a controlled flow of approximately 20 incidents and 30 change requests.
  • The organization transitioned from an unmanaged post go-live situation to a structured, KPI-driven SAP Run model with clear ownership, predictable workload management, and controlled change execution.