Digital transformation is often associated with cutting-edge technologies like AI. But according to Mirela Siani, real transformation starts somewhere much less glamorous.
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“We started by fixing the basics,” said Siani, Transformation and Technology director at Ipiranga, one of Brazil’s largest fuel distributors.
Ipiranga operates almost 6,000 service stations nationwide. Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, the company has more than 6,200 B2B customers and 1,500 convenience stores. Ipiranga generates $120.7 billion in revenue, yet despite its size and market leadership, the company faced a critical problem: repeated project failures.
Working on the root cause
“Before we could start investing in new technology, we needed to take a good look at why some of our initiatives were not generating the expected value for the business,” Siani said, speaking at the TAC Insights conference for SAP for Energy and Utilities in Toulouse. “We needed a rigorous RCA.”
RCA, or root cause analysis, is a structured approach to problem-solving that focuses on identifying the underlying causes of issues rather than just addressing surface-level symptoms.
“Instead of making new investments, we decided to dig deeper and identify the causes,” she explained. “When we examined the company’s history, RCA confirmed that the high level of customization was limiting our ability to deliver at the required speed. Our inability to adopt the best technologies and functional best practices was directly impacting the company’s ability to evolve and drive business growth.”
Speaking the language
From the outset, the Technology team recognized that the case for the ERP transformation rested on demonstrating how inconsistent processes and the lack of standardized best practices hindered the organization’s ability to respond quickly and remain competitive in the market.
“When we went to the Board to secure the budget for the digital transformation, we didn’t start by talking about technology,” Sian sharedi. “We started by discussing what the business needed to achieve its strategic objectives faster. Then, we listed the obstacles preventing that progress along with the technology capabilities required to remove those barriers.”
By translating technical challenges and opportunities into business language, Siani helped Ipiranga’s leadership understand that innovation without a strong foundation would not take the business to the level of efficiency required.
“By identifying these root causes, we were able to avoid a common trap,” she explained. “Instead of investing in new technology without fixing the foundation, we shifted our strategy. We refocused on tools to process integration, governance, and operational discipline.”
Getting approval for a big investment
Ipiranga partnered with SAP to assess critical processes across operations, finance, and commercial operations.
“SAP brought in business experts to pinpoint how a heavily customized ERP system was slowing decision-making and limiting visibility and innovation,” Siani said. Rather than focusing on SAP functionalities, they asked fundamental business questions: What does your financial process look like? How does your order-to-cash process work?”
Armed with these insights and a clear understanding of what was slowing decision-making, Siani returned to the board with a clear message: “Fix the foundation, or transformation will fail.”
As a result, she got approval to implement a new ERP system, driven by business value and ROI. What ensued was a massive integration effort, with a targeted go-live scheduled for December 31, 2026.
With support from Accenture and SAP, Ipiranga adopted a clean core strategy, ensuring minimal customization and long-term scalability. Overall, 104 legacy systems were analyzed, 64 systems will be integrated and 40 decommissioned, and over 750 interfaces are being built. Of course, all developments had to pass strict governance gates to guarantee the clean core.
People driving change
Technology may enable transformation, but people make it successful. Over 350 professionals from a variety of business and technical teams are involved in the ongoing project. Crucially, leadership played a direct role. With executive sponsorship and transparent communication, resistance to change has been minimal.
“We were careful not to impose change, but to explain the impacts clearly and discuss them with a multidisciplinary team,” said the IT expert, who is also a rowing champion. “We made sure to prepare teams early and embed change management at every phase.”
The team prioritized initiatives with the highest return on investment (ROI) and paused non-essential projects. They also selected world-class partners—including Accenture as the implementation partner and Amazon Web Services (AWS) as the hyperscaler—to help ensure a high-quality, successful transformation.
The company’s transformation is now in the middle of a critical milestone (SIT1). The expected ROI is over $40 million, but more importantly, the company has built something far more valuable than a new system.
“We will have a solid operational foundation, integrated, scalable ,and efficient processes, and a culture that understands how transformation goes beyond technology. Technology is simply the path,” Siani said.
Ipiranga’s journey offers a powerful reminder that digital transformation is not about tools; it’s about assertive fundamentals. RCA can reveal issues technology alone cannot fix. It demonstrates that preparation is as important as execution, and that clean core strategies reduce long-term complexity.
“In effect, the path to successful transformation doesn’t start with innovation. It starts with clarity, discipline, clear goals that together determine the correct technology,” Siani concluded.
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