SAP and Tirlán today announce that Tirlán has established its independent SAP landscape in just nine months, delivering a clean separation from former partner company Glanbia without disruption to operations or production. The programme gives the 100% farmer-owned dairy, grains and nutrition business the digital foundation it needs to operate and grow across more than 95 countries.

Corporate separations place significant demands on IT teams, requiring careful planning, precise data management and rigorous execution, all at enterprise scale. Tirlán faced an accelerated timeline to meet a non-negotiable divestment deadline while remaining fully operational throughout. In a dairy production environment, where milk is perishable and supply chain continuity is tightly regulated, any disruption carries immediate commercial and compliance consequences.

Noel Liston, IT Transformation Manager, Tirlán said, “Delivering this separation in nine months, while keeping production running throughout, took significant preparation and the right people on the ground. We had confidence in the SAP Services team from our experience at Glanbia, and that expertise was critical to delivering on time. Our employees have been able to continue working on systems they already knew, and most importantly, we have continued serving our customers, farmers and communities without interruption.”

The programme involved the migration and establishment of SAP S/4HANA, SAP Business Warehouse on HANA, SAP Ariba and SAP SuccessFactors, alongside the conversion of archived files. The S/4HANA conversion was completed in under five hours, and the HCM conversion in fifteen minutes. Over 30 billion records were analysed, classified and selectively removed, giving Tirlán a clean, independent data foundation.

SAP Services played a central role in the programme, bringing a structured rehearsal methodology to reduce risk ahead of go-live. A copy of the existing environment was created, enabling the team to test and time every step of the process before the real migration began. Two full test cycles and a comprehensive dress rehearsal followed, each increasing the team’s speed and confidence while identifying and resolving potential issues in advance. By go-live, every activity had been tested, timed and refined, and Tirlán was transacting on its new SAP landscape from day one.

Ray Joyce, Head of Ireland, SAP UKI said, “Corporate separations are among the most demanding programmes a business can undertake, particularly when production cannot stop. Tirlán’s achievement of maintaining full operations across a nine-month, multi-workstream separation is a strong example of what expert preparation and disciplined delivery can make possible.”