Shifting Gears: How Lemongrass and SRAM Accelerated Transformation Through Modernization
Founded in September 1987 in Chicago, Illinois, with the introduction of its groundbreaking Grip Shift® technology, SRAM® has grown into one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high-performance bicycle components. Over its 37-year history, SRAM has remained committed to innovation across all cycling disciplines. The company has expanded its portfolio by acquiring some of the most respected and forward-thinking brands in the industry, including RockShox®, Zipp®, Quarq®, TIME®, Hammerhead®, and Velocio®. With more than 3,500 employees and operations in 16 countries, SRAM continues to inspire cyclists through cutting-edge product development.
Challenge
SRAM, operating under the vision of a newly appointed CIO, embarked on an ambitious initiative to modernize its SAP estate. For years, critical SAP systems had been running on expensive, outdated hardware located both at corporate headquarters and a nearby colocation facility. While stable, these environments constrained SRAM’s ability to scale SAP efficiently, adopt emerging capabilities, and integrate more deeply with the Cloud-native tools the organization was already using across other technology domains.
The CIO’s mandate was clear: reduce technical debt and eliminate reliance on outdated infrastructure, while enabling technology capabilities to support SRAM’s business vision. At the same time, SRAM needed to ensure that any transformation pathway supported business continuity and set the stage for an eventual move to SAP S/4HANA.
SRAM needed a partner with end-to-end SAP transformation expertise—spanning advisory, security, Cloud migration, change management, governance, and long-term operations. This became even more critical as SRAM determined that RISE with SAP offered the most fit-for-purpose commercial and operational model for their business-critical SAP landscape.
The organization turned to Lemongrass to help shape the journey, leveraging RISE Advisory Services to clarify licensing implications, define a migration strategy, and design an operational framework suitable for a modern, Cloud-based SAP environment.
Lemongrass Solution
Lemongrass’s engagement began with foundational advisory discussions, during which the teams assessed SAP licensing needs, RISE with SAP pricing strategies, and the commercial model needed to support both current and future-state operations. This early guidance helped SRAM make confident decisions based on industry best practices through Lemongrass.
The engagement expanded into functional advisory, where Lemongrass helped SRAM map the sequence of activities necessary to transition from their legacy SAP system to S/4HANA. This included defining the technical path, identifying integration touchpoints, and establishing the change management and governance structures required for a successful transformation. Lemongrass also provided inputs into the broader operating model redesign, ensuring SRAM would be ready to manage SAP applications in a RISE with SAP operating model.
The first major milestone involved the migration of SRAM’s colocation-based disaster recovery environment to AWS, which provided an early opportunity to validate Cloud landing zones, security patterns, performance, and operational architecture. Following this, Lemongrass transitioned the SAP estate designated to remain outside of RISE into the client’s native AWS environment, architecting a hybrid landscape that integrates S/4HANA in RISE with SAP workloads retained on AWS in support of the client’s broader modernization strategy.
The migration culminated in the successful RISE with SAP S/4 production go-live in October 2025—a significant achievement that required Lemongrass to manage in close coordination with multiple partners including SAP ECS. This cross-team integration was critical to the program’s resounding success. It ensured that all functional, technical, and Cloud-related changes were executed in a cohesive and precise manner.
Throughout the program, Lemongrass worked closely with all levels of SRAM and SAP ECS teams. The organizations operated “hand in glove,” ensuring full partnership on decisions, milestone planning, risk mitigation, and issue resolution. Lemongrass consistently aligned its execution with SRAM’s sensitivities and strategic objectives, adapting plans as needed while maintaining momentum toward the overall transformation goals. The partnership could be defined as Lemongrass acting as a pivotal extension of the SRAM team with a delivery and advisory focus.
Impact
Although the RISE go-live is recent and long-term business metrics are still evolving, the organization is already seeing the early benefits of its Cloud modernization. SRAM now operates a significantly more flexible and scalable SAP landscape capable of supporting future innovation, automation, and business change. Early benefits include:
- Completion of the RISE with SAP production migration on schedule and without disruption
- Stabilized SAP operations within AWS and RISE environments
- Improved alignment and integration across infrastructure, Basis, functional, and Cloud teams
- Enhanced visibility into system performance and operational maturity
- Tooling that is now able to meet SRAM’s continuous improvement mindset
Over the coming months, SRAM expects to realize deeper business value, including:
- A modernized SAP operating model aligned to RISE best practices
- Increased agility through cloud elasticity, enabling quicker scaling and provisioning
- Enhanced cybersecurity posture due to modern Cloud controls and RISE security frameworks
- A modern platform to enable future SAP Data modernization
The transformation has laid the foundation for a long-term partnership between SRAM and Lemongrass. Lemongrass is working with SRAM to further enhance security operations and advisory support and exploring opportunities to modernize further by adopting SAP Cloud ALM to replace Solution Manager. With a successful RISE transition in place, SRAM is well-positioned for continuous innovation, and Lemongrass remains committed to supporting their journey for years to come.