How LeverX Helped a Chemicals Company Maintain Clean Core Discipline

A chemicals company protected its Clean Core with LeverX. 70% of customization requests were eliminated, millions in upgrade costs avoided, and SAP standard processes fully adopted through change management.

Client

A global chemicals company that implemented SAP S/4HANA with a Clean Core strategy to minimize modifications, reduce technical debt, and keep the system upgrade-ready.

Challenge

Shortly after go-live, business users began requesting dozens of customizations to replicate legacy processes and familiar ways of working:

• Finance teams asked for legacy-style reporting formats.
• Supply chain teams pushed for custom workflows to match the legacy environment.
• IT faced increasing pressure to compromise Clean Core principles.

Without intervention, the company risked:

• Losing Clean Core integrity
• Increasing long-term total cost of ownership (TCO) due to custom code growth
• Undermining the agility and upgrade simplicity promised by SAP S/4HANA

Solution

LeverX applied a change management approach tailored to Clean Core transformations, helping the client align expectations, reduce resistance, and govern customization requests.

Key elements of the solution included:

• Process alignment workshops: LeverX mapped “as-is” vs. “to-be” processes with business teams and demonstrated how SAP standard functionality could cover 80–90% of requirements without custom development.
• Standard vs. custom heatmaps: The team built a visual heatmap of customization requests, separating business-critical needs from “comfort zone” habits and quantifying the long-term impact of each customization.
• TCO and upgrade risk communication: LeverX helped stakeholders understand how customization overload increases upgrade effort, risk, and costs over a 5–10 year horizon, using benchmarks to support decision-making.
• Change champions across functions: LeverX established a network of functional champions and delivered targeted enablement to accelerate the adoption of standardized SAP processes.

Technology Stack

• ERP platform: SAP S/4HANA
  Core ERP environment supporting standardized processes and long-term upgradeability.

• Implementation approach: SAP Clean Core
  A strategy focused on minimizing custom code and preserving SAP standard to reduce technical debt.

• Governance tools: Standard vs. custom heatmaps, TCO model
  Data-driven tools are used to evaluate customization requests, classify them by business value, and quantify long-term cost impact.

   

Results

Within six months of LeverX engagement, the client achieved measurable business and governance outcomes:

• Eliminated over 70% of customization requests, preserving Clean Core integrity
• Avoided millions in projected upgrade costs by reducing technical debt growth
• Improved adoption of SAP standard processes, shifting teams away from legacy-driven behavior
• Maintained a scalable, flexible SAP landscape ready for future innovation and updates