18 countries, one deadline

Kemira, a chemical company headquartered in Helsinki, provides water-intensive industries with chemicals and know-how to increase their efficiency in the use of water, energy and raw materials.

The Finnish Group aims to implement strategic growth plans on a global scale in order to have a stronger presence in selected markets worldwide. For example, the Group acquired the paper chemicals business of the Dutch company AkzoNobel and integrated it into its paper and pulp segment Kemira Oyj.

The acquisition includes companies in a total of 18 countries in Asia, Europe, and North and South America. Kemira expects far-reaching technological and business synergies from this.

Kemira relied on the expertise of Heidelberg-based management consultancy cbs Corporate Business Solutions to integrate the new sites into a global SAP system. cbs supported the challenging post-merger project as general contractor.

In addition to IT program management, the cbs consultants were responsible for rolling out the SAP template, migrating the data to Kemira's SAP system landscape, and implementing the IT infrastructure.

All new national companies in 18 countries on four continents were to be integrated into the SAP system landscape and go live on a common cut-off date. Kemira uses standardized processes with central governance and a central SAP ERP and SAP BI system.

AkzoNobel also uses SAP software, but in some cases also other systems. For the integration, Kemira's existing SAP template had to be rolled out in all the countries involved.

A total of 75 SAP plants were integrated into the Kemira system landscape and associated data migrated. In addition, Kemira faced the challenge of ensuring a uniform IT infrastructure. The entire design and implementation of this challenging post-merger project required a total project duration of just nine months.

With the holistic methodology M-cbs, the Heidelberg SAP consultants made it possible to design the planning of the project process in a uniform, global and company-compliant manner. Despite the complex scope of the project, the consultants succeeded in combining comprehensive project and change management on an international level.

On the one hand, they realized the rollout of Kemira's existing SAP templates (SAP ERP and SAP BI) in the acquired national companies, and on the other hand, the template was expanded to include additional functionalities as well as legal requirements in new countries.

Through its expert knowledge in the consulting field of System Landscape Transformation (SLT), cbs offers central and global solutions for the restructuring of SAP system landscapes. On this basis, the project team carried out the carve-out and merger processes using cbs' own tools. In this way, the relevant data could be migrated and transformed specifically into the Kemira system landscape.

Holistic project management

cbs was already familiar with the existing system landscape as well as Kemira's given requirements and began the necessary preparations for the most extensive sub-project in the entire PMI program organization:

For this purpose, the team of 56 consultants was divided into five teams: two central teams for SAP and infrastructure, and three local rollout teams, each supporting one continent. As general contractor, the cbs consultants took on the complex project management, coordinating the rollout of the SAP templates and the parallel implementation of the IT infrastructure.

Although Kemira has a standardized structure and is organized centrally, this project nevertheless demonstrated the great importance of regional presence and support. On the one hand, this allowed the centrally developed, globally standardized solutions to be implemented regionally.

On the other hand, the challenges posed by extending the project to four continents revealed further advantages of this approach during the course of the project.

Since the total of 18 countries involved were divided into 13 asset deal countries and 5 share deal nations, the cbs consultants were able to pursue two different approaches without much effort:

While the asset deals had to be integrated into the existing units, the share deals involved forming new units in countries without a previous Kemira location.

In addition, there were regional requirements that arose due to country-dependent specifics in the new share deal countries. This is because the legal and tax regulations in the various countries are very different. cbs took these differences into account when adapting the Kemira system landscape.

Because the acquisition of the individual national companies first had to be approved, there were some delays caused by the competition authorities. Nevertheless, cbs succeeded in adapting plans promptly by acting flexibly and implementing the project promptly and within the tight schedule. The division of the consultants into regional teams and the high level of on-site presence proved to be particularly effective.

Quick to the destination

For the implementation of the project, the consultants used the holistic method M-cbs, which made it possible to structure and coordinate all processes from the very beginning and to continuously adapt plans.

In this way, deadlines and phases were met and processed according to plan. During implementation, cbs first realized the rollout of the existing SAP templates (SAP ERP and SAP BI) in all countries.

During project implementation, cbs carried out several integration tests at different points in time. These ensured that the Kemira system landscape functioned without any problems and that customer-specific requirements were met.

In this context, the SAP consultants used other special tools to monitor the progress of the project. Through SAP Solution Manager, they created global transparency during the integration tests.

During the going-live and the first bookings, the SAP system landscape was monitored by SharePoint applications in order to identify critical data constellations and to be able to initiate corrective measures immediately.

SAP Solution Manager then took over IT service management. The go-live took place after nine months on a common deadline in the 18 countries. And this was achieved despite high time pressure due to the tight project schedule.

Such a complex project on a global scale, involving both the integration of 18 national companies and the transformation and migration of 75 SAP plants as well as the optimization and introduction of additional business processes, requires comprehensive, global solution and implementation strategies.

Course set

Due to the additional implementation of the IT infrastructure, complex overall program management was required. Thanks to its many years of experience, proven expertise and tried-and-tested method, cbs was able to achieve this in a very short time. This also paid off for Kemira Oyj.

"The rollout was the best SAP rollout at Kemira to date. cbs made a fundamental contribution as a key sparring partner and idea provider in the overall program to make the project so successful"

says Terhi Ilvonen, VP Planning & Controlling Overall Program Manager at Kemira Oyj.

The acquisition of the paper chemicals business of AkzoNobel was an important growth stimulus. This is particularly evident in Asia, where the acquired share outweighs the previously existing share.

The smooth transformation and migration of the SAP plants and the integration of the purchased national companies in Asia, Europe, and North and South America also proved profitable for Kemira in economic terms. cbs implemented the project in the planned time with external delays and even stayed below the estimated budget.

Even though the post-merger integration phase has not yet been fully completed, the project is a great success for Kemira Oyj. The integration of the global acquisition has been successfully implemented.

With a uniform SAP system landscape worldwide, the course has now been set for further synergy effects. Kemira Oyj has also been able to increase its presence in selected relevant markets and strengthen its own competitive position in the long term. Kemira has thus taken a major step on the road to global expansion.