When Radisson Hotel Group set out to modernize its SAP landscape, the goal wasn’t just about moving systems to the Cloud. It was about enabling the business to respond more quickly to guests, innovate at pace, and scale with confidence across global operations.
Carlos Violero, who leads SAP at Radisson, summed it up well: “We’re a hospitality business, but we operate like a fast-moving tech company. Innovation is constant. Timelines are tight. And any disruption in guest-facing systems has a direct impact on customer experience which is the key value we offer in our business.”
Radisson had been running its SAP systems in a legacy SAP HEC environment. When the time came to rethink that setup, the question wasn’t if to move—it was how fast, and how smoothly, it could be done.
Zero Room for Downtime
With reservation systems, check-in and check-out processes, payments, restaurant orders and all the other core operations all tied into SAP, avoiding downtime was non-negotiable. Even a minor disruption could create a ripple effect across hotels, impacting both staff and guests and of course, the generation of revenue. The move to Cloud had to be engineered with all this in mind and in a planned, precise, and carefully orchestrated process.
Radisson Hotels teamed up with AWS and Lemongrass to navigate the transition, aiming for a high-speed, low-disruption and successful outcome. In the end, a transformation that might typically take over a year was completed in six months. Planned downtime dropped from 18 hours to just 4. The team gained much-needed visibility and control over their SAP estate—something that had been difficult to achieve in their previous setup.
“It Felt Like One Team”
What really stood out in this project wasn’t just the technology—it was the collaboration. This wasn’t a traditional back-office SAP migration. It required a deep understanding of Radisson’s business model, priorities, and pace.
“There was a lot of mutual learning along the way,” said Eamonn O’Neill, Lemongrass’s Chief Transformation Officer. “This kind of transformation only works when there’s openness on both sides. We had to get close to their team, both technically and culturally.”
Carlos shared a similar perspective: “It’s hard to find partners who truly feel like an extension of your team. We shared ownership, and that made all the difference.”
Cost, Agility, and Cloud on Their Terms
Beyond stability and performance, the move was about creating a platform for agility. Carlos noted that Radisson is now able to respond much more quickly to demand—whether that’s supporting a marketing campaign or scaling services across regions to support peak times. That kind of flexibility is essential in hospitality, where guest expectations are always high and booking patterns can shift quickly.
After assessing all three major hyperscalers, Radisson chose AWS—based on its maturity, SAP expertise, and strong customer references. Today, AWS supports the core of their SAP operations, while Azure and Google Cloud are used to explore analytics and AI, forming a hybrid Cloud environment that aligns with the broader IT strategy.
What’s Next: Clean Core and Continuous Innovation
With the foundations now in place, Radisson is turning its attention to what comes next—from intelligent automation to clean core architecture and AI-enabled insight. The idea is to reduce technical debt, simplify operations, and maintain the flexibility that’s become so valuable.
Lemongrass tooling is helping to accelerate this shift, supporting efforts to strip away unnecessary custom code while keeping the capabilities that make Radisson’s SAP setup distinct. For Lemongrass, this is the exciting part—helping customers not just move, but transform.
A Practical Path for Modernization
With a relatively small core SAP team, Radisson is running a business-critical global platform that’s now more efficient, resilient, and scalable than ever before.
This isn’t just a migration story. It’s a practical example of how to tackle SAP modernization with clarity: start with the business case, find the right approach, and build relationships based on trust and shared goals.
Because when the technology does what it should, guests don’t notice a thing. And that’s exactly how it should be.
Read the full case study: Radisson Hotel Group
In the news: How Radisson’s SAP Cloud Migration put downtime, teamwork in focus
