ERP Conversion

Allgeier ES becomes Nagarro Enterprise Services, Nagarro ES. Under the competent management of Jörg Dietmann and Michael Schmidt, a well-known and very successful partner is transformed into a leading international system house in the global SAP community. From the point of view of the SAP community, the timing is ideal: SAP itself is reorienting itself and SAP CEO Christian Klein already has a crystal-clear strategy after just one year in office: listen and act!

Jörg Dietmann and Michael Schmidt, the Managing Directors of Nagarro ES, are walking in step with SAP CEO Christian Klein, who outlined his concept for the future in his DSAG keynote speech in mid-October: building on the successes of the past, preserving what is valuable and at the same time looking far into the future beyond the SAP horizon. Jörg Dietmann and Michael Schmidt are doing exactly the same when they build on the successes of Allgeier ES to create a new competence for existing SAP customers.

Christian Klein is well aware of the added value of a fully integrated ERP system, as R/2 and R/3 once were and as SAP Business Suite 7 still is today. At the same time, he knows that these tried and tested solutions will not be enough for the future. During his DSAG keynote speech, SAP CEO Klein promised the SAP community that he would go further and think ahead to ensure that SAP and non-SAP products are fully integrated in the future.

Christian Klein wants to transform the old added value into an agile end-to-end concept. Together with his colleagues on the Executive Board Jürgen Müller and Thomas Saueressig, he has built up a perfect team at SAP for these plans - he also said this in the DSAG keynote: that a lot of change management was necessary here. And Christian Klein will need successful partners like Jörg Dietmann and Michael Schmidt from Nagarro for his vision of the future.

Christian Klein's narrative thus leads to the question: Is the path to S/4 another release change or a holistic reorientation of ERP?

"It depends heavily on the initial situation"Jörg Dietmann knows from his long and successful career in the SAP community.

"For those who have mapped their processes solidly and efficiently in ERP, it looks more like a technical release change - which it actually is not. With S/4 Hana, SAP is converting its many years of market leadership and experience in the field of ERP into new, modern technology that enables companies to tap into new potential."

His managing director colleague Michael Schmidt adds:

"For those who have experienced major changes in business processes and the business model, it is more of a reorientation. With SAP S/4 Hana at the core of an enterprise architecture, it can become a holistic view. From our point of view, it can be both."

However, companies should not stop at the juxtaposition of ERP conversion versus holistic change management, because the promise of SAP's Intelligent Enterprise goes far beyond technology and business management considerations - similar to what SAP CEO Christian Klein postulated in the DSAG keynote.

According to Michael Schmidt, the key point is: "How can companies use innovative technology and functions to better support people and their work? Or: How can a company do the right things so that work and tasks can be done more easily, more simply and more pleasantly?"

"The fact that the focus is only on ERP - without the opportunities that are also available outside of it, for example through analytics - is too narrow in our opinion"emphasizes Jörg Dietmann and explains:

"The path must lead beyond S/4 and Hana. We have customers who have already opted for SAP S/4 Hana for precisely this reason, because they know that innovation is taking place via in-house developments, but that classic ERP within the SAP boundaries does not provide this innovative power for the future."

The fact that some existing SAP customers were already very well set up on the process side meant that Nagarro ES was often able to implement a quick conversion, i.e. brownfield. Dietmann explains:

"The customer is on S/4 after ten months and now has completely new options thanks to a refocus on the standard and the innovative power that it already achieves via machine learning scenarios."

The impending digital transformation is a major challenge for many CEOs, CFOs and CIOs - and now they need to change the ERP database, the ERP system itself and perhaps even the operating model from on-prem to cloud? Many tasks at the same time, or does the digital transformation have a reciprocal effect on the conversion to S/4?

"To be honest, there are a lot of tasks - but these are all issues that either arise from legacy issues and innovation backlogs in the past, lack of documentation, lack of strategy, etc., or that are necessary as a basis for further development"Michael Schmidt knows from his professional experience.

"Now is the chance to work through what has been neglected in the past."

Global challenges

Nagarro-ES Managing Director Jörg Dietmann reports on his own company:

"For example, we have realized that we can only meet global challenges with a sustainable IT infrastructure. Covid-19 has clearly demonstrated this. Back in 2016, we decided to introduce S/4 Hana in the cloud and adopted a cloud-first strategy.

But we also started out on a greenfield site back then after we founded Allgeier ES. Now, almost four years later, with 600 more employees and coronavirus on our doorstep, we can say that we made the right decision. Because we were able to send our employees to work from home overnight - if they weren't already - and the connection of the SAP Analytics Cloud, SAC, to our ERP gave us the opportunity to view the cash flow on a daily basis and react accordingly."

Nagarro ES Managing Director Michael Schmidt adds in the E-3 interview:

"The fact that we adopted the cloud mentality so early on allowed us to continue working with relative ease and also carry out international projects during the lockdown - specifically, we carried out three international roll-outs, all involving more than 20 countries. One of these projects was directly at Nagarro, which we enabled to operate completely digitally: with 8400 employees in a global organization, and with S/4 Hana Cloud."

Jörg Dietmann comments:

"It is also very clear that our approach suits us and cannot simply be transferred as a blueprint to other companies with completely different requirements. With the options in deployment, on-premises, cloud, hybrid, IaaS in hosting or with hyperscalers or as SaaS directly with SAP or as variants of licensing as a CapEx or OpEx model, CEOs, CFOs and CIOs are equipped with the maximum decision-making power to select the best solution for their individual requirements."

What can that be? Most companies need a reliable partner like Nagarro ES who doesn't just think in one direction, but has the big picture in mind - from on-premises to hyperscaler to the cloud, as CapEx or OpEx.

Competence and full service

Nagarro has a large number of SAP specialists - according to competence and application options: What is the classification in terms of business, organizational, technical and licensing consulting?

"We are positioned as a full-service provider in the sectors and topics on which we have focused"defines Michael Schmidt and his colleague Jörg Dietmann explains:

"This starts with advice on SAP licenses and maintenance, planning and process consulting through to implementation consulting. Afterwards, as a managed service partner, we are also available for optimization and innovation as an equal partner."

From a managed services perspective, Nagarro brings three things to the table that will help the young company on its way to becoming a full-service IT provider internationally: additional expertise, capacity and reach.

"The industry expertise in the manufacturing sector is a very good addition, as is the agile development of applications for web, mobile and cloud environments as part of Nagarro's DNA"Jörg Dietmann describes the current situation.

This opens up opportunities for the Managed Services team at Nagarro ES to be able to cover even more industry expertise and special SAP solutions in the future. Strategically, the management of applications outside the SAP environment is also an important direction, as SAP CEO Christian Klein emphasized in his DSAG keynote speech.

Nagarro's international capacities open up new possibilities for making delivery models more flexible (keyword "bestshore") - and for tailoring them even more closely to the customer's needs.

"Global reach facilitates engagements with 24/7 coverage"Michael Schmidt knows.

The development of applications on the SAP cloud platform is a future field that not only brings a new dynamic from a developer's perspective, but also leads to new solutions with real added value for customers.

"Looking through SAP glasses is not a mandatory requirement"says Jörg Dietmann in the E-3 interview.

"The cloud team will benefit from Nagarro's experience and development expertise and will be able to profitably share its experience with the international developers. The success factor for this is fast, simple paths between the international Nagarro and the German Nagarro ES, which promote cooperation and enable transparent decisions."

The coronavirus pandemic may have led to slumps in many industries. The pharmaceutical industry is certainly not one of them. With ongoing business in the chemical industry and planned initiatives in the food and beverage industry, capacity utilization in the Process Industry team remains high, explain both Nagarro ES Managing Directors.

In addition to internationalization and its opportunities, there is potential for Nagarro Enterprise Services to expand its focus:

"The core service is and remains SAP integration"Dietmann and Schmidt emphasize.

"How Nagarro's experience and expertise can be used specifically for new or supplementary services, for example in such a key area as research and development in the pharmaceutical industry, is an exciting field of development."

Suitable for S/4 and Hana

Michael Schmidt explains the future of Nagarro ES:

"There is no question for the Transformation Services team that the joint venture with Nagarro, iQuest and Objectiva has potential. The decisive factor will be where it can best be realized.

In the case of products and services, one direction will be to find or jointly develop complementary solutions that fit in with the S/4 approach. Gradual expansion of the team will create more scope for this. Greater resources and increased reach are particularly interesting in terms of the scalability of projects."

How exactly Nagarro's capacities can be used effectively and in the sense of real added value for customers is still to be developed.

"Especially in larger S/4 transformation projects, for example, additional resources can help and be used as an extended workbench for projects"Jörg Dietmann knows from many successful customer projects.

The global presence of Nagarro's colleagues also makes a follow-the-sun service conceivable, giving customers 24/7 access to certain services.

"In addition to the potential offered by complementary expertise, additional resources and access to a new customer base, Delivery also believes that the joint approach to marketing and sales offers new opportunities to provide the best possible support for all units"adds Michael Schmidt.

Using the advantage of Nagarro's local presence to better meet international customer requirements is naturally a goal of the two managing directors. Jörg Dietmann says:

"Germany, with its strong customer base and focus on large existing customers, is always the starting point for the retail team. Targeted expansion into other markets is only the next but one step. Before that, it is important to establish the cooperation with Nagarro and to realize obvious synergies, for example in the future positioning in the markets."

Supporting local authorities in mapping their business processes and providing suitable solutions is an important topic, especially in the German-speaking SAP community.

"Whatever it means to take their special requirements into account"Dietmann emphasizes that country-specific regulations and procedures for an international perspective mean that nearshore or offshore delivery is not an option.

The question of how the collaboration with Nagarro can be used to increase market penetration in Germany, on the other hand, is highly relevant.

"Nagarro is active in the public sector in Germany and generates comparable sales figures. A harmonized and coordinated approach can only strengthen our presence in the market and win over new customers"Nagarro-ES Managing Directors Jörg Dietmann and Michael Schmidt are looking forward to future successes.

Nagarro and the SAP specialists at Nagarro ES will bring sustainable added value to the SAP community locally and globally.

"With SAP as a leading player in the ERP sector, it is important for Nagarro to strengthen its expertise in this area. This is where we come into play with our many years of successful SAP experience"explains Jörg Dietmann, former CEO of Allgeier ES.

"As Nagarro ES, we are the global SAP business unit and offer Nagarro important access to German SMEs, particularly those with an international focus. Conversely, we will benefit from an unbeatable global presence and scalability in the future."

Conversion and cloud pioneer

At the upcoming turn of the year, it is important to ask about the goals and roadmaps up to 2025, the 2027/2030 transformation phase and a pure S/4 Hana era.

"We are still planning double-digit growth YoY"both Nagarro-ES managing directors agree and Michael Schmidt specifies:

"As cloud pioneers, we will be the innovative partner at eye level for global companies from Germany. Our acquisition of Maihiro Products in September 2020 also fits into this context.

With the CX knowledge that we have gained as a result, we have created a win-win situation and underpin our claim to a broad portfolio with in-depth knowledge. We ensure scalability via our delivery centers near and offshore - the cloud in a two-tier approach is an ideal example of this."

Managing Director Jörg Dietmann adds: "With Nagarro's increasing internationality and nearshore and offshore expertise, we will of course also offer hybrid and on-prem solutions for larger companies. To this end, we will continue to be available with conversion factories for customers in the SME sector, in the classic brownfield or selective data transition."

And the specific question: What plans does Nagarro ES have for 2021 that existing SAP customers should know about? Jörg Dietmann:

"As part of Nagarro, we now offer customers an even stronger international perspective, the global expertise of top software developers and access to new innovative software solutions at the interfaces to SAP and beyond."

And Michael Schmidt explains: "As part of Nagarro, we have the aforementioned resources at our disposal, which will enable us to develop new and expanded solutions in the future - tailored to the needs of our customers.

From now on, we offer an even stronger international perspective with Nagarro locations in 25 countries. They are proof that we can act as a global player. With access to Nagarro's resources and new delivery options, we are strengthening our flexibility and offering customers new, needs-based options."

Jörg Dietmann puts it once again in visionary terms: "For us, distance is irrelevant, because we bring the knowledge of the best minds to the customer, regardless of location."