Johannesburg, South Africa – 26, November 2025 – IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the successful delivery of two major SAP S/4HANA system upgrades for Toyota South Africa Motors (Toyota), marking a significant milestone in the automotive leader’s enterprise-wide modernization journey. The projects, executed by IBM in collaboration with SAP, underscore IBM’s commitment to helping organizations achieve operational agility, business resilience, and data-driven decision-making. 

With mainstream support for legacy SAP ECC systems ending in 2027, IBM guided Toyota through a Brownfield upgrade strategy, enabling a seamless transition to SAP S/4HANA while preserving existing business process investments. This approach minimized disruption, accelerated deployment timelines, and ensured continuity for critical operations. 

Driving Transformation Across Core Business Functions 

Vehicle Management Modernization 

IBM led the upgrade of Toyota’s national Vehicle Management System—a mission-critical platform for managing orders, inventory, sales, and financial reporting across manufacturing and dealerships. By migrating to SAP S/4HANA, Toyota now benefits from real-time data visibility, improved inventory optimization, and faster responsiveness to customer demand. 

Human Capital Management Enhancement 

The second phase focused on modernizing Toyota’s HR systems, including payroll and personnel administration. IBM delivered a streamlined SAP S/4HANA-based HCM platform that simplifies workforce processes and lays the foundation for enhanced talent management and employee engagement. 

Speed, Continuity, and Risk Reduction 

Both upgrades were delivered on schedule and without operational disruption, ensuring Toyota maintained business continuity while modernizing its core systems. IBM’s proven methodologies and deep SAP expertise enabled a risk-mitigated transformation aligned with Toyota’s strategic objectives. 

“We are proud to support Toyota South Africa Motors in their digital transformation journey by delivering technology solutions that accelerate innovation and strengthen business resilience,” said Sikhumbuzo Ngcobo, Managing Partner, IBM Consulting South Africa. “At IBM, we call this the Science of Consulting - combining human expertise, AI, and technology to deliver scalable, data-driven transformations. By improving data visibility and governance, we help organizations like Toyota achieve their goals with speed and confidence.” 

Nazia Pillay, Managing Director, Southern Africa at SAP, says: “The best companies run on trusted data, optimised business processes and real-time intelligence into every part of the business. By upgrading to SAP S/4HANA, companies like Toyota unlock a suite of intelligent technologies that help transform business processes with intelligent automation. We commend Toyota and IBM on this powerful business transformation initiative and wish them well as they continue their rollout.” 

A Partnership Built for the Future 

Building on these successes, IBM is collaborating with Toyota on the next phase of its SAP modernization program, focusing on parts management systems. IBM and SAP’s long-standing partnership brings together hybrid cloud infrastructure, automation, and generative AI innovations powered by IBM watsonx™, enabling clients to unlock new value and drive industry-specific transformation. 

With over 18,000 certified SAP consultants and 300+ SAP S/4HANA implementations in the past five years, IBM helps organizations define transformation roadmaps, co-innovate solutions, and deploy modernization strategies with speed, scale, and AI-driven outcomes. 

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*In photo: (L-R) Hiren Bhoola, Associate Partner IBM SA; Suben Moodley, SVP Corporate Services Toyota SA Motors; Asif Mohideen, SAP Practice Leader IBM SA; Sikhumbuzo Ngcobo, Managing Partner IBM Consulting SA; Devan Reddy, VP IT Toyota SA Motors.

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About IBM 

IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. More than 4,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM's hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM's breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM's long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service. 

Visit www.ibm.com for more information.