Community Short Facts - October 2022

First CMIS certification

As a long-standing SAP partner, KGS developed the process for SAP CMIS certification together with SAP as part of a pilot project and received this certificate itself. This makes the Neu-Isenburg software company the first provider whose interface has SAP's CMIS certificate. Over the past few weeks, KGS and SAP specialists have worked closely together to develop the process required to perfectly test an interface for its CMIS capability.

The joint task included the design and review of the entire process. The first step involved the functional review of the products and the CMIS interface. The second step involved the end-to-end process, including S/4 configuration and setting up an archive in the cloud. At SAP, it is assumed that the new CMIS certification will now be requested by many companies, not least because they will then be listed in the SAP Certified Solutions Directory.

“Now other companies also have the opportunity to obtain appropriate certification.“

Benny Schröder, Head of Development and Delivery, KGS

Goods receipt posting

xSuite has now released the new version 5.2.8 of its SAP-integrated and -certified xSuite Business Solutions Cube for on-premises operation. The previous components for procurement including order confirmations, invoice and order processing are now joined by a new product: xSuite Delivery Notes Cube for automated goods receipt posting in SAP. In Release 5.2.8, the software manufacturer is also further expanding its Fiori strategy and usability.

Pfeifer Group trims

The Tyrolean wood processor Pfeifer Group has used the corona phase to convert its corporate processes at seven locations in Austria, the Czech Republic and Germany to S/4 Hana. The transformation project was launched in 2019 with a feasibility study and successfully went live at the beginning of 2022. More than 50 employees were involved in the SAP implementation, which was realized by the Vienna-based SAP consultant CNT Management Consulting.

The background for the radical relaunch of the ERP software in the company was the fact that the existing old systems no longer offered any further development and were limited in terms of expansion. In addition, there was a lack of scalability due to historically grown system structures and interfaces. S/4 is now used as the central ERP system for the entire Pfeifer Group.

Successful conversion

NTT Data Business Solutions Switzerland has successfully implemented the go-live of S/4 Hana for Trafag. The brownfield conversion was implemented in just six months with the help of the NTT Data Conversion Factory. This marked the start of a comprehensive digitalization offensive for Trafag. The results of the joint conversion project: The automation and digitization of previously manual process steps in the value chain lead, for example, to a significant increase in the number of production units while simultaneously reducing the error rate.

The higher level of digitization makes further growth less dependent on the availability of personnel on the labor market. In addition, the flow of payments is optimized because the required net working capital can be reduced through improved material planning.

Master data migration

Scheuch Components in Aurolzmünster (Upper Austria) wanted to clean up master data for 1.3 million components, restructure them and transfer them to S/4 Hana. Thanks to consulting, software and services from Simus Systems, the manufacturer of centrifugal fans, industrial dampers, noise control equipment, conveyor elements and exhaust gas purification equipment was able to switch off the ERP system it had previously been using after one year. In the financial area, the ERP system S/4 was already being used when a service provider was sought for material transfer, classification of purchased parts and production parts, cleansing of the 1.3 million component data from Infor and transfer to S/4 Hana.

After a proof of concept, an agreement was quickly reached with Simus Systems, the Karlsruhe-based specialist for technical mass data. A total of around 50,000 purchasing materials and 300,000 to 400,000 in-house production materials were transferred to the new system in an orderly manner. Order-related materials and duplicates were successfully sorted out.

Global alliances in cyberwar

In the latest Digital Defense Report, Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, calls for international cooperation and coalitions for a "new form of collective defense" as a comprehensive strategy against the full spectrum of destructive cyberattacks, espionage and influence.

One of the first and largest of these new initiatives is the Pathlock Group, formed from seven IT security companies, the global market leader in access orchestration and application security for business-critical applications. It includes the Hamburg-based security experts from Sast Solutions. The strategy: to offer holistic solutions for global IT threat situations at 15 locations in the USA, Europe, Israel and India.

SNP advances

The Heidelberg-based software and consulting company SNP Schneider-Neureither & Partner has once again been awarded the seal of approval for leading medium-sized IT consulting companies in Germany. In the annual list of best companies compiled by Lünendonk & Hossenfelder, which includes a total of 20 companies, the transformation specialist has moved up five places to fourth place compared with the previous year.

Wasabi partner 

SEP and hot cloud storage provider Wasabi have entered into a technology partnership. From now on SEP supports Wasabi solutions for migration, source-side deduplication, mounting of backups for single file restore and replication of back-up sets. This allows SEP Sesam users to target another important cloud platform for their data protection.

In combination with the recently introduced new version of Si3-NG deduplication technology, fast, secure and efficient data backup is guaranteed. The S3 file hosting service is controlled directly from SEP Sesam. Through Wasabi's European data centers, data backup is carried out in accordance with the DSGVO.

“We are pleased to take another step towards diversified data storage.“

Jan Trinkl, Vice President Sales, SEP

Seamless digital

In order to serve the requirements of the growth fields of energy and information in a future-proof manner, Gebauer & Griller (GG Group) decided to transform its digital product creation. A strategic undertaking in which the Austrian innovation leader relies on the expertise of the IT and software house Cenit. The common goal of the collaboration, which began in June 2022, is to establish a globally standardized digital platform that unites all processes from product creation and engineering to operational business processes.

Certified by SAP

T.Con's HR Portal 4.0 solution has received the "SAP Certified Built on SAP Cloud Platform" certification from SAP for the fifth time. With this, the SAP Integration and Certification Center (SAP ICC) confirms that the solution was developed and is implemented in accordance with SAP guidelines for SAP Cloud Platform Services. The solution complements the HCM personnel management system and SuccessFactors.

Outsourcing

Due to regulatory requirements, Stadtentwässerungsbetriebe Lüdenscheid Herscheid AöR (SELH AöR) faced the challenge of transferring the SAP solutions already used in conjunction with the Enervie Group Hagen to a completely separate operation, consolidating them and converting them to a future-proof architecture. The existing SAP solutions have been supporting SELH AöR's wide range of tasks for many years. In a bidding competition within a national tendering process, SELH AöR finally chose Items from Münster as its partner.

Smart Factory

Forcam has expanded its SAP partnership to include services. As an SAP Silver Partner, the company is already represented in the Build and Sell tracks. The basis for realizing the full potential of SAP Digital Manufacturing Cloud is comprehensive digital connectivity of all inventory machines (brownfield). Such intelligent machine connectivity is provided by the Forcam Force Edge solution, which is available in the SAP Store.

Smarter service

It doesn't have to be a full-blown customer portal. Often, a more lightweight (and cost-effective) service portal as a central inbound channel to a ticketing system is sufficient. The Sybit Customer Self-Service Portal, for example, was realized on the basis of SAP BTP (Business Technology Platform) and offers integration of the portal to various systems and a modular structure. The base module, for example, contains the integration of the individual modules into the various systems (SAP Service Cloud, SAP ERP, IDP).

Expanded portfolio

Syntax now offers companies more comprehensive services for the automation of business-critical processes. With its holistic portfolio for hyperautomation, which focuses on SAP and Microsoft ecosystems, Syntax supports and advises its customers in the development and ongoing optimization of end-to-end process automation. Solutions such as SAP Process Automation, Signavio, AppGyver as well as PowerApps, PowerAutomate and PowerVirtual Agents as part of the Microsoft PowerPlatform are the main focus.
the focus.

On SAP track

Logicdata, the Styrian innovation leader for specific mechatronics solutions, will convert its corporate processes worldwide to S/4 Hana over the next twelve months. Around 50 specialists on both sides are involved in the "Mulan" project, explains CNT Management Consulting.

Master data as a foundation

Master data is the foundation of every company. If they are not correct, all downstream processes inevitably turn out to be faulty, are delayed or cause costs. That is why Retailsolutions has developed an add-on that is completely integrated into SAP. The Superior Data Quality Cockpit, or SDQC for short, uses machine learning to enable consistent and error-free master data. Thanks to a new extension of the SDQC tool, it can now also be used in the Business Partner.

In this way, customer and supplier data, plus additional data from sales representatives, for example, can be stored together. However, master data is not only relevant for retail. Retailsolutions has therefore now extended SDQC so that the add-on can also be used for industrial customers. SDQC also works in production to ensure the quality of material master data.

“This can be done without programming and automated, so that maintenance effort and costs are reduced.“

Lars Klimbingat, Partner, Retailsolutions