How Adevinta Navigated a No-Rollback SAP S/4HANA Finance Go-Live Across 4 New Legal Entities – Without System Outage Chaos

Client Snapshot

• Client: Adevinta

• Industry: Online Classifieds (Tech & Media)

• Region: Europe (Norway, Netherlands, Spain, France, and Germany)

• Objective: Seamless SAP S/4HANA Finance deployment to support the creation of 4 new legal entities

• Timeline Pressure: Imminent legal deadlines; no room for rollback

The Cutover Challenges

“It was all a bit chaotic… we were nowhere close to having a nailed-down schedule.” — Charlotte

Adevinta faced brutal time constraints with legal and business-critical pressure:

• Go-live had to align with the legal creation of 4 new entities—no rollback possible after submission to authorities

• Outage assumptions were wrong: planned as local (Spain), but impacted systems globally

• Key stakeholders were busy, scattered, and not yet aligned on out-of-hours or weekend work

• No clear, agreed-upon cutover schedule existed before CMS arrived

Risk: Inability to process payments (suppliers & payroll) if the system fails. Legal entities would exist, but the system wouldn’t.

Our Implementation Solution

We stepped in as the bridge between business, finance, and system integrators, delivering:

1. Detailed Cutover Planning from Day 1, translating chaos into clarity
2. Finance-Led Translation: We spoke both finance and tech languages
3. Stakeholder Management: simplified, structured communication for Spanish, French, and global teams
4. Contingency Thinking: identified unplanned global impact and recalibrated outage windows
5. Rapid Replanning: reduced global outage period via scenario-based alternatives
6. Trusted Leadership: established immediate credibility and safety net through high EQ + deep detail orientation

The Results

• 📉 Outage Risk Reduced: Planned system downtime was minimised, limiting business disruption

• 🤝 Stakeholder Alignment: Business, finance, and technical teams operated in sync

• 💬 Crisis Navigation: CMS handled a global outage crisis mid-stream without derailing the go-live

• ✅ Legal Go-Live Success: All 4 new legal entities launched on time—no manual workaround needed

“Antoine’s ability to calm everyone down and present real options quickly was critical.” — Charlotte

Why It Mattered

Adevinta transitioned into a legally compliant, operationally sound SAP S/4HANA environment without derailing the business. Stakeholders across functions trusted the process, understood the plan, and delivered with precision—even under fire.

What’s Next

Charlotte re-engaged Cutover Manager Services for LEGO 2 (next wave), this time with an even broader remit across all functions, validating the impact and trust gained during LEGO 1.

Check out the Interview from Charlotte Rose – Programme Manager at Adevinta