Cloud instead of new hardware

The core business of the steel construction company Butzkies is in the area of steel construction, steel building construction as well as steel plant construction and industrial construction. For its day-to-day business, Butzkies has been relying on the SteelOffice industry software for years.

It maps all the processes that result from day-to-day business. The family business uses the PPS system to control all processes, from quotation preparation to materials purchasing, construction site management and shipping.

"Requests are entered into this system and deposited immediately before we use the estimating program to calculate an order"

reports Arne Ruhe, responsible for sales and project management.

Based on the values determined, the program then creates and submits an individual quotation. If an order is received, the details already stored for each order can be transferred and the project can be initiated directly with SteelOffice.

The steel construction company had recently been experiencing problems with the outdated infrastructure of its data center. A new solution with more functions was needed. In addition to financial and payroll accounting, Butzkies also wanted to implement online time recording.

It soon became clear that Butzkies could not handle the project alone. Based on a recommendation and a subsequent invitation to tender, those responsible decided to collaborate with the Vater Group.

Two-tier system country based on SAP

"We implemented a two-tier landscape for Butzkies based on SAP ERP 6.0 with EHP 8"

reports Frank Schröder.

"The Q system function is performed by a Q client in the development system. In addition, we operate a SolMan."

The connection from the Butzkies data center to the business cloud, where the SAP system is operated, runs via two SAP routers. All systems are run on Windows 2012R2. MaxDB is used as the database.

"The project also served to standardize the system landscape at Butzkies"

says Schröder.

"That's why we initially implemented SAP in the commercial areas (FI, FI-AA, CO and PS)."

This made it possible to create a kind of commercial bracket around the SteelOffice industry software, which is used by around 30 users from administration and project management.

For payroll accounting, the steel manufacturer decided against SAP HCM due to the high project effort and also for cost reasons. Instead, a DATEV solution is used. Production is the backbone of the business processes and was integrated into the SAP system via interfaces, since project controlling takes place there.

Tight schedule

The steel manufacturer had set itself a timeframe of just four months for the changeover phase. To ensure that this could be met, Butzkies opted for a step-by-step introduction of the various SAP modules, starting with the integration of the new financial accounting and cost accounting.

The go-ahead for the changeover was given at the end of August 2016. By the end of December, the program had been installed and has been in productive operation since January 2017. As soon as this has stabilized and minor problems have been completely resolved, cost accounting and project control will be introduced step by step.

Since the company's own IT is outdated and the implementation of a new infrastructure would have exceeded the time frame, Butzkies decided to initially operate the new solution externally in the Vater Business Cloud.

This is based on an infrastructure from HPE and on virtualization solutions from VMware, although Hyper-V is also on offer. The necessary redundancy is provided by a second data center at the Hamburg site, which can also be used to implement a mirrored infrastructure if required.

However, Butzkies repeatedly has problems with the insufficient bandwidth for the connection to the cloud data center. To create more stable access, a second line was ordered.

For the future, however, Butzkies is counting on Telekom keeping its promise to further expand the broadband network in rural areas as well. In the course of the test phase, the SAP experts from the Vater Group held small workshops in each department to introduce the employees involved to the new solution and its functions in a practical way.

"We also successfully completed the year-end closing, which was a bit of a pain in the stomach, in parallel with the SAP implementation, thanks to the commitment of the employees as well as the SAP team at Vater"

says Arne Ruhe.

The SteelOffice industry program will continue as the leading program, as there are currently hardly any comparable solutions for steel construction on the market.

"In our industry, it's always about one-offs, not mass production."

explains calm.

He also considers the decision in favor of SAP to be correct in view of the fact that SteelOffice may one day no longer be used.

Fewer sources of error, more transparency

The new solution has significantly simplified the posting of incoming invoices. Previously, these were entered in SteelOffice and then entered again manually into the now replaced financial system.

This was time-consuming and labor-intensive, lacked transparency, and was also a source of errors. Today, incoming invoices are only entered via SteelOffice, and the transfer to the SAP system is automatic.

This leads to a reduction in work and creates more transparency, as cost centers can now be evaluated uniformly. In addition, sources of errors that occurred due to double entry were eliminated.

The cloud approach has also given Butzkies time to reconsider its investment decision for the necessary infrastructure.

"We can clean up and re-evaluate our previous environment".

Arne Ruhe explains.

"Our agreement for the Vater Business Cloud initially runs for two years, which gives us the opportunity to test this option. After that, we can always decide whether to invest in new hardware and install the solution back in our data center, or whether to stay on the Vater Business Cloud."

Future plans

When the current work is completed, further projects are already in the pipeline. For example, SAP time management and time recording are to be coupled with DATEV payroll accounting.

Until now, the construction site logs have still been created manually by the foremen on site, which can occasionally lead to considerable time delays. A mobile time recording system then integrates all employees on the various construction sites, with times still being recorded centrally.

This procedure is necessary because the foremen check at the same time whether the work is standard work, repair work, warranty work or even additional work.

For the SAP project, Arne Ruhe draws a first positive interim balance:

"SAP is by no means the great spectre that causes huge costs. On the contrary, such a solution is also worthwhile for medium-sized businesses if you have the right partner at your side."