Finance as a driver

With the help of cbs, the fast-growing technology group achieved a strategic corporate project and a pioneering S/4 performance that is expected to set global standards in terms of size, complexity, degree of innovation, speed and value creation. The conversion of the 84 company codes, 6300 tables and more than twelve billion data records was carried out in a minimally invasive manner without any downtime of the operational systems. Through this showcase project, Schott is implementing agile corporate management throughout and aims to become a pioneer in the international manufacturing industry.

As an integrated end-to-end business process solution, S/4 and Hana provide the development plan and the guard rails for shaping the Group's digital future. Uniform standards, processes, and organizational and data structures now enable the global business to be more granular, concise, flexible, and fast, and to respond much better to market situations with new transparency and agility. 

Schott was still working functionally in classic SAP general ledger accounting, albeit already harmonized in some places. The goal was therefore to implement a globally standardized finance and controlling platform, with harmonized and standardized processes in the finance area.

Uniform structures had to be created across all corporate units, worldwide of course. "We have implemented everything that belongs to such a concept: We have switched from classic general ledger accounting to New G/L, mapped parallel accounting in this course and standardized our fiscal year variants in the leading ledger. In addition, our chart of accounts was harmonized with all master data, the business partners were implemented, the new asset accounting was introduced, and everything concerning depreciation areas was harmonized within the asset accounting."explains Thomas Schöning, Vice President Finance at Schott.

Digital backbone

Finance was therefore the driver, motor and pioneer for the subsequent S/4 conversion at Schott. But which transformation approach would fit best? New implementation or conversion? Both have disadvantages: A greenfield project is too costly and runs the risk of becoming an unmanageable project over five, six or seven years. A pure conversion does not bring any value-added benefits.

For Schott, the speed with which value is generated in the company plays an important role. So the company opted for the selective transition approach and took advantage of the opportunity to change technology in a short time without sacrificing innovations (completely new financial system, innovative user interface through Fiori and new authorization concept).

In other areas, such as logistics, SCM, production, sales, HR and reporting, the company was satisfied with the existing processes, and carried out a pure system upgrade. The selective approach also meant that only data from the past two and a half years was transferred rather than the entire history. This also accelerated the project. 

"There were very many pioneering topics, the project had a very high intensity at all times because we proceeded at a high pace. At the same time, it is always important to build rest phases and time islands into the project in order to rethink things conceptually."emphasizes Sebastian Hellmann, Consulting Director at cbs.  

During the migration, the Enterprise Transformer from cbs as comprehensive standard software for holistic SAP data transformation was the engine that ensured that the selective transformation approach worked. A customized approach with maximum process continuity was chosen. The conversion of the 84 company codes, 6300 tables and more than twelve billion data records was carried out in a minimally invasive manner within a few hours without any downtime of the operational systems.

Fast Value

Rainer Wittwen, CEO at cbs: "We asked around in the market: converting 84 company codes in 34 countries with three different time zones and a total of 5,000 users to a new financial concept with this scope on S/4 in one fell swoop - no one has ever done that before. The motto: Business transformation with a short project duration and comprehensive added value - we call this Fast Value. Schott has made a quantum leap here to the intelligent enterprise. The Group has established a digital backbone as the core of a hybrid architecture. And this now forms the basis for current and future innovations."

Agile Group Management

Schott has now completely repositioned itself in the area of finance. This digitization project enables the company to implement agile corporate management throughout, so that the technology group can quickly shift its focus even in times of crisis, for example from growth-oriented evaluations to strict cash and cost management. From a management perspective, logistical and financial questions always arise: At which location can a product be produced most cost-effectively? Where do I have the shortest transport routes? Does the initial cost and price calculation fit? Schott can now answer precisely these questions for itself at any time.

With S/4, Schott has now created the basis for faster financial statements, such as monthly and annual financial statements. Added to this is an optimized and individualized reporting system. Another plus is the speed in the operational area, such as processes in real time. "Realtime Data Processing certainly fulfills every CFO's dream of being able to generate the complete group picture, right down to the balance sheet, at the touch of a button at any time"explains CFO Jens Schulte. 

In sales, the real-time credit limit assessment makes it possible to respond more quickly to customer requests, and the faster quotation calculation brings a clear competitive advantage thanks to an immediate response from the sales department on site. Processes are digitalized end-to-end and system-supported analyses are becoming a routine tool - in all countries and companies worldwide. With the help of new analytic tools, Schott can now generate forecasts of expected monthly sales per business unit from daily peaks.

"We now have real business added value, especially through end-to-end margin analysis. This allows us to individually calculate the most profitable production and delivery strategies for each order - in just a few seconds. This puts us significantly ahead in cost accounting."explains CFO Schulte. 

Strategic Finance 

"I am proud of everyone involved. In an unbeatably short time, we have built a completely new, state-of-the-art future platform that is second to none. With the smooth transition to S/4 Hana, we are reaching the next level of digital enterprise and process control. This puts us in a pioneering position in the market, which we intend to use to expand our brilliant market position."Frank Heinricht, Chairman of the Management Board at Schott, sums up. 

What was one of the main keys to success? cbs project manager Christian Brantl: "Early involvement of all levels on the business side, from the board to the employees who are to be involved in the project, is elementary." The management level recognized early on what the S/4 Ready project was all about. "Such a comprehensive digital transformation is not just an IT project, but a strategic corporate project. That's why Schott immediately got the business units, global functions and end users on board."says CIO Andreas Berres.

The right test approach was also very important. Schott had installed its own global test management team with five experts. Here, company departments had to be networked, communication organized, business functions integrated, and meaningful tests managed. "And it really pays to be well positioned here and to have experienced test managers on site," knows project manager Brantl. "We had a total of 10,000 test cases at 35 locations worldwide - that can't be implemented from a central organization at headquarters." Of course, you also need a good test tool.

"This was a strategic innovation project that used agile methodology to create real added value for the customer in a very short time - a prime example of our Fast Value paradigm. It was a pioneering S/4 achievement that set standards in terms of size, complexity, degree of innovation, speed and value creation. There is currently nothing comparable - anywhere in the world. Viessmann's 2019 project was the largest S/4 project in the manufacturing industry to date. Schott has now set the next beacon in the international SAP market with this project. This changeover will provide valuable insights for many companies that are planning something similar."explains cbs Managing Director Holger Scheel.