Codan’s HR Chief on SAP Connect 2025: A Customer Spotlight
▼ Summary
– Codan has grown from 250-300 employees in 2021 to over 1,000 in 2025, driven by seven acquisitions in four years.
– The company implemented SAP SuccessFactors in September 2024 to create a single source of truth and better connect with employees.
– Codan plans to continue its acquisition strategy and expand SAP’s ECP system to regions like North America with a partner.
– The company is excited about SAP’s AI tool Joule to enhance processes like performance reviews and connect employee priorities to strategy.
– Codan uses SAP for finance and supply chain operations and views AI as a partnership to enhance employee capabilities, not reduce headcount.
Exploring how global enterprises leverage cutting-edge technology to manage rapid growth offers valuable insights for business leaders. Marjolijn Woods, Chief Human Resources Officer at Codan, recently shared her perspective on the company’s strategic use of SAP SuccessFactors and the promising developments unveiled at SAP Connect 2025. This South Australian technology firm has transformed into an international operation with significant workforce expansion, making their HR technology choices particularly noteworthy.
During the recent SAP Connect 2025 conference in Las Vegas, SAP demonstrated several groundbreaking innovations. These included an expanded network of role-based assistants within their Joule AI platform designed to collaborate with human workers, an enhanced data ecosystem for deeper business insights, and advanced supply chain software capable of predicting disruptions before they occur. These developments represent significant steps forward in how businesses can optimize their operations through intelligent technology integration.
Codan’s journey with SAP spans more than seven years, with the company completing a comprehensive SAP SuccessFactors implementation in September 2024. This marked a substantial upgrade from their previous limited version that handled only performance management, goal tracking, and recruitment functions. The driving force behind this expansion was creating a unified system that could effectively connect with all employees as the company grew dramatically.
The technology company has experienced remarkable expansion, growing from approximately 250-300 employees in 2021 to over 1,000 by 2025. This surge primarily resulted from seven strategic acquisitions completed within the past four years. Founded in 1959 as a specialized communication, detection, and connection technology group, Codan now maintains operations across five continents with about fifteen offices worldwide.
Looking ahead, Codan intends to maintain its acquisition-focused growth strategy, which will inevitably lead to further workforce expansion. The HR team will concentrate on developing robust human resources strategies, enhancing system capabilities, and ensuring newly acquired companies can integrate smoothly into their existing technology infrastructure. The organization also plans to implement Employee Central Payroll in additional regions, including North America, through partnership arrangements.
Woods expressed particular enthusiasm for SAP’s Joule AI capabilities and their potential to transform HR processes. She highlighted how AI could revolutionize performance reviews by automatically gathering all relevant information, thereby helping align individual employee priorities with broader organizational strategy. The company has recently appointed a Chief Operations Officer specifically tasked with accelerating AI adoption throughout the organization.
For their SuccessFactors implementation, Codan collaborates with a third-party partner and is currently seeking a North American partner for upcoming ECP deployments. The company is also in discussions with SAP about assigning a dedicated account manager who can help them better understand and utilize the full range of SAP’s capabilities.
Beyond human resources management, Codan utilizes SAP solutions for finance and supply chain operations, along with Concur for expense management. Each department follows its own timeline for technology integration and system rollout, creating a coordinated but decentralized approach to digital transformation.
Regarding artificial intelligence’s role in the workforce, Woods maintains an optimistic perspective. She views AI as a collaborative tool that enhances human capabilities rather than as a replacement for employees. This partnership approach focuses on making work more efficient and natural while expanding what people can accomplish, not reducing headcount.
The company’s origins trace back to 1959 when three friends from Adelaide University established the business in South Australia. Their earliest clients included iconic Australian institutions like the School of the Air and the Royal Flying Doctors Service, laying the foundation for what would become a globally recognized technology enterprise.
(Source: ITWire Australia)
