North Jersey Media Group (NJMG) must remain competitive in an industry experiencing a significant decline in newspaper advertisement sales and circulation as readers and advertisers move to the Internet and cable television. The company turned to Atos Origin for assistance with evolving its IT in the rapid transformation from paper to online and to accomplish this with tighter budgets.

North Jersey Media Group, with history that dates back to 1895, provides a broad spectrum of news and information products — both print and online — to serve the needs of diverse communities all across North Jersey.

Business Challenges

With increasing competition in an industry experiencing a significant decline in newspaper advertisement sales and circulation as readers and advertisers move to the Internet and cable television, North Jersey Media Group had a number of challenges.

The company found a growing need to evolve IT services in the rapid transformation from paper to online and to accomplish this with tighter budgets.

Additionally, NJMG wanted to make internal processes more efficient to cope with a small staff and yet still meet employee expectations.

Our Solution

Atos Origin facilitated an SAP upgrade “test drive” for North Jersey Media Group. We provided a standalone SAP test environment populated with NJMG’s data and using Atos Origin hardware so that NJMG could experience an upgrade before making the investment in the software, infrastructure and full implementation.
As part of the upgrade, we delivered an upgrade assessment with a scope analysis and project definition report.

The NJMG staff worked with the environment to assess whether an upgrade was the best choice and to become familiar with the additional functionality. As a result, Atos Origin implemented an upgrade of SAP to 4.7 ext 200 and enabled future expanded functionality in HR, FI/CO, MM, and PM.

The Atos Origin team also established the infrastructure to make it possible for NJMG to implement Employee Self-
Service and Manager Self-Service in the future. This included installing servers, databases and relevant SAP software.

Beyond the implementation, Atos Origin delivers end-to-end Technical and Functional remote support of the SAP environment.

The Results

The SAP upgrade “test drive” allowed NJMG to experience an upgraded version of SAP to reduce risks and manage organizational change. When NJMG is ready for the self-service features, the infrastructure is prepared for a smooth implementation. The features of Employee Self-Service and Manager Self-Service will further increase productivity of employees and reduce administrative costs.

Remote support from Atos Origin improves delivery of IT and allows the NJMG staff to focus on improving efficiencies in the workplace.