Transformation at global market leader Schenck Process with S/4HANA

Schenck Process transforms with SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Stephanie Hanl, CIO of the global market leader in measurement and process technology, reports on why now is exactly the right time for transformation.

About Schenck Process

Schenck Process is a global market leader in the field of measurement and process technology with more than 2,500 employees in over 20 countries. With a unique global network of locations and competent international partners, Schenck Process stands for process engineering expertise and sophisticated measurement technology worldwide in all aspects of weighing, feeding, conveying, screening and automation as well as air filtration technology.

The solutions, perfected down to the last detail, can be found in almost every industry. Whether for the perfect composition of animal feed or the calibratable weighing of small to large quantities, many companies rely on Schenck Process and Schenck Process is now focusing on SAP S/4HANA in the cloud. Together with SAP and Microsoft, they want to prepare for the future in the cloud.

Why change now

Schenck Process' initial IT situation is similar to that of many companies. Through in-house programming and further individual adjustments at the various locations, a very heterogeneous IT and process landscape grew organically over the years. This was reinforced by company acquisitions that were managed on a decentralized basis.

Due to a change in ownership and a realignment of the company, it quickly became clear that a highly individualized process and ERP landscape with over 20 different ERP systems could not support the realignment of the company to the extent desired.

The centralization of IT was driven forward with infrastructure consolidation, including the consolidation of existing local data centers into four globally centralized data centers. This served as a springboard for cloud-based services.

The next step is to centralize and standardize the individualized ERP and process landscape.

CIO Stephanie Hanl: "Introducing global, optimized best practice processes and at the same time enabling innovation without jeopardizing Schenck Process' core competencies and unique selling points in the industry is what drives us in this project."

Why cloud

In order to keep its current systems and processes permanently and efficiently up to date and to keep up with market innovation cycles, Schenck Process sought an innovative cloud model as its preferred solution, which would maintain the standard at its core and thus offer the desired agility and performance.

Together with SAP, a suitable solution was developed for precisely these challenges. The move to S/4HANA in the cloud offers standard, innovation and performance without compromising the individuality of Schenck Process.

The SAP Cloud Platform extends the standardized core and supports the transformation. To meet their challenges and requirements, Schenck Process relies on SAP's Fully Managed Cloud approach with S/4HANA.

S/4HANA is the fourth application suite based on the fast SAP HANA database. S/4HANA is based on a uniform digital core, whereby the code remains and the systems can therefore follow the release cycles as desired, as the core always maintains the standard. But what was the decisive point in opting for a cloud solution?

The path to a unified core is always characterized by a certain complexity. With SAP's fully managed approach, the responsibility for this no longer lies with Schenck Process, but with SAP. Together, a large team is formed to design this path and also to shape the transformation together with Schenck Process. If the project now faces an unplanned hurdle, SAP's full expertise can be used to respond as quickly as possible.

The advantage is therefore a shift in responsibility. While Schenck Process and its employees can continue to focus on their core competencies to keep the business running and increase their productivity, SAP is driving the transformation to a future-oriented company.

Another focus is on the cost structure. Plannable costs and the reduction of total costs of ownership are the focus here.

Both wishes can be fulfilled by the cloud. Thanks to fixed contract terms and fixed payment intervals, the costs to be incurred are foreseeable at an early stage and the larger initial investments of a conventional on premise software solution are eliminated.

The cloud solution is easier to scale and new users can be adapted quickly. This is additionally enabled by the flexible user model in the cloud. Full Use Equivalents (FUE) offer the possibility to transform to another user type if required. This means that no unused licenses are created in the long term.

Why SAP & Microsoft

With SAP and Microsoft, a conscious decision was made in favor of two strong partners to pave the way into the cloud world. Their combined expertise promises that the project will run as smoothly as possible.

CIO Stephanie Hanl "With reference architectures and the best practice approaches already optimized, we can drive IT transformation faster and in a more structured way."

By introducing S/4HANA in the cloud, the company wants to take steps in the direction of an even more digital enterprise and also promises a rapid implementation for upcoming automation projects with a view to the future.

Especially in today's environment, proactive action is particularly important in order to meet the dynamic market requirements.

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