Phoenix Global, a metals and mining services firm that works across every stage of the steelmaking process, has undergone an ambitious, swift digital transformation journey since emerging from bankruptcy in 2023.

The company, which manages massive capital equipment fleets, metal recovery operations, and recycling services for global steel companies, relaunched that year with $400 million less debt, 200 new contracts, and a bold new mission: rebuild its operations and culture from the ground up.

Phoenix Global had to rethink not just its tools, but its entire operational mindset. At this year’s SAP Sapphire event, CIO and CTO Jeff Suellentrop sat down to share with The Stack how the company overhauled its systems, streamlined operations and positioned itself as an industry leader in real-time, activity-based management in an industry often slow to change.

Heavy equipment and digital drivers

For a company with nearly 1,800 employees, many of them heavy equipment operators, the biggest hurdle wasn’t technology, but people.

“Most change programs are built for corporate environments. Flyers and emails don’t work when your workforce is in dump trucks,” said Suellentrop. “We had to embed change champions into daily standups, use scorecards for accountability, and even hand out gift cards to incentivize behavior change.”

But by tailoring communication and training strategies to their unique workforce, Phoenix Global achieved nearly 100% adoption of new digital workflows within weeks of deployment. And that’s been vital to success.

The catalyst for change

When Suellentrop joined Phoenix Global in early 2023, the company had just exited bankruptcy and was grappling with the challenges of fast growth and fragmented systems. In just two years prior, eight new operational sites had launched, without integrated digital infrastructure to support them. 

Processes were still largely manual, data was siloed and many decisions were made using outdated information.

In an industry where timing is everything, and where profitability depends on liquid steel output and the ability to optimize costs as production fluctuates, Phoenix Global needed to make decisions in real time. 

Yet, they were often operating with around 45-day-old data.

“Our financials depend on how much steel a mill produces. If production drops and we don’t adjust our cost basis in real time, we lose money,” explained Suellentrop. “We knew we needed end-to-end visibility and control. What we call activity-based management.”

Roadmap for reinvention

The transformation began with a leadership alignment on business outcomes, not technologies. Suellentrop emphasized that success hinged on defining clear, measurable KPIs across departments, from inventory reduction targets to maintenance utilization gains. These outcomes served as a north star throughout the implementation process.

Instead of customizing new systems to mirror legacy processes, Phoenix Global pursued a best-practices-first model. 

“We didn’t waste time asking how we used to do things,” Suellentrop said. “We adopted proven methods, integrated them and optimized from there.”

They selected SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud for ERP due to its depth of functionality in their industry, but SAP was only part of a broader initiative. The team replaced every single legacy system and process, including HR, maintenance and safety, and it moved 100% of operations to the cloud. 

Multiple hyperscalers now support various workloads, chosen based on solution and fit rather than vendor loyalty, Suellentrop explained.

Real-time optimization

Beyond ERP, one of the most impactful areas of innovation was in safety. Partnering with Motive, a Silicon Valley-based AI firm, Phoenix Global deployed smart cameras in their equipment that were capable of detecting signs of fatigue, distraction and unsafe behavior in real time. These AI-driven systems issue vocal warnings, alert managers, and will soon support personalized training via avatars generated from actual performance data.

This has led to dramatic reductions in safety incidents and improved worker well-being, which is a critical ROI metric in heavy industry.

On the analytics front, Phoenix launched parallel AI projects, including the “Phoenix Asset Algorithm,” to optimize equipment utilization based on real-time data. The success of these initiatives not only informed their ERP rollout but also enabled predictive maintenance programs that save time and money.

“We’ve seen millions in inventory optimization alone,” Suellentrop noted. “And with our AI projects, we’re reducing maintenance delays, improving financial accuracy and enabling better decisions across the board.”

Culture and continuous innovation

A major theme in Phoenix Global’s transformation story is cultural reinvention. The company embraced minimum viable product (MVP) approaches, rapid prototyping and iterative rollouts across departments.

This agile mindset permeates all areas of the business. Rather than sequential implementations, the team is constantly layering new functionality, even while expanding SAP to more plants. Over time, the rollout has accelerated from one site to two, and soon, to ten sites at a time.

Even corporate training is evolving. Phoenix is integrating WalkMe for guided learning and building large language model (LLM) tools to automate IT support, AP processing and financial analysis.

Results and ROI

While specific figures remain confidential due to the company’s private ownership, Suellentrop shared that Phoenix has achieved:

  • Double-digit reductions in inventory
  • Significant increases in equipment utilization
  • Labor cost reductions in the low to mid-single digits
  • Dramatic safety improvements, with fewer incidents from day one of AI implementation

Importantly, Suellentrop shared that these gains are also compounding. Even legacy plants not yet on SAP benefit from standardized inventory processes and improved safety systems. As digitization spreads, the returns are expected to increase exponentially.

Advice for leaders ?

For Suellentrop, the key takeaway is clear: Know your outcomes in detail, and pilot often.

“Too many organizations try to boil the ocean,” he said. “It’s much faster and less risky to test, iterate and align each project to specific, measurable business outcomes. That’s how you build credibility and momentum.”

His advice to business leaders is to treat digital transformation not as a technology project, but as a business model redesign. Anchor everything in value delivery, adapt your culture to support continuous learning, and don't underestimate the need for tailored change management, especially in non-corporate environments, he explains.

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