Minimally invasive to Hana

Wacker Neuson develops, manufactures and distributes light and compact equipment and offers its customers a comprehensive range of services worldwide. With more than 50 affiliates, 140 production and service locations and over 4,500 employees worldwide, the Group plans to continue its international expansion.

The focus was on standardization and consolidation, paving the way for progress and further development of the mechanical engineering company on the global market.

Previously, the group's IT was spread across three locations, each with different SAP ERP systems, structures and processes. Responsibilities were separated within the organizations, and different key user groups managed the processes with a view to their units and with a different understanding of the processes.

The interfaces between backbone systems and subsystems were inconsistent. In such a heterogeneous environment, it was difficult to coordinate corporate activities within the Group and manage them across the board.

There was a second reason to strive for a comprehensive transformation and standardization: The company felt that its existing infrastructure and system landscape did not equip it sufficiently to make its own IT future-proof and innovative.

The realignment should therefore also form the basis for future steps and developments. Business processes, data and systems should therefore be transferred to a common SAP ERP solution, standardized and suitably harmonized.

A globally oriented IT organization should also integrate all peripheral systems and create a worldwide key user network with a common understanding of processes.

With its sights firmly set on the future, Wacker Neuson decided to rely on SAP ERP on Hana as an on-premise solution and new global ERP Group system. A consolidated and innovative ERP on Hana platform was the best possible strategic prerequisite for quickly tackling and implementing the key development goals with regard to globalization, digitalization and simplification.

The global SAP ERP on Hana provided a robust basis for international rollouts as well as for innovations such as Industry 4.0, S/4 Hana and Simple Finance.

The particular challenge of the project was to achieve the set goals in a very short time despite the demanding and diverse tasks. Ongoing business processes were not to be impaired as much as possible. A specific project approach and a "minimally invasive" procedure were required.

In company-wide change initiatives, optimization affects business processes, structures, data and systems. Approaches and skills that combine these aspects are a success factor.

Wacker Neuson chose the Heidelberg-based management consultancy cbs Corporate Business Solutions as its project partner. In close cooperation with the customer's management, the cbs consultants developed a needs-based project solution.

The consultants supported the planning of the company-wide change programme, developed a company-specific standardization concept and helped to plan the target system landscape.

They introduced a standardized, tool-supported implementation method for consolidating the systems and designed and implemented the new target structures and business processes for the new, global SAP Group solution.

The holistic M-cbs methodology was indispensable for the design, planning and efficient implementation of the overall project. With the standard software cbs ET Enterprise Transformer, it was possible to merge the systems, harmonize the group structures and convert and migrate the data in a short time during ongoing operations.

From the perspective of the innovation-oriented construction machinery group, cbs also scored points with the fact that the consultants are pioneers in future topics and have already been able to contribute extensive technical and specialist knowledge and practical experience from pioneering projects with other customers in SAP ERP on Hana, SAP S/4 Hana, SAP Fiori and cloud solutions.

In a three-month preliminary study, the cbs consultants first worked with the customer to develop a suitable SAP project strategy for standardizing, harmonizing and consolidating the process and system landscape.

Based on this, they developed a detailed program plan for carrying out the company-wide implementation. Based on the M-cbs project methodology, this plan was implemented in a targeted, fast and secure manner.

This involved migrating two of the three existing ERP systems in the group to the third, future group system. The latter first had to be prepared for the new Group target structures; the target processes also had to be defined and mapped.

By using the M-cbs methodology and the standard software cbs Enterprise Transformer (cbs ET), this was achieved in a "minimally invasive" process, without disrupting ongoing operations and with only minimal involvement of the specialist departments.

The target system was first technically converted to the new structures and the dependent data was adjusted. It was to be based on the new SAP general ledger SAP New G/L (General Ledger).

Organizational units had to be renamed. An enhancement package upgrade had to be carried out. With the help of cbs ET, the individual projects could be bundled and carried out in one step.

Following this "minimally invasive" preparation of the template system, the business units of the two remaining ERP group systems were migrated to the central, harmonized template system - also tool-supported and without interrupting or disrupting business processes.

Consolidation on a uniform Group platform laid the foundations for global use of the SAP enterprise solution. Following a stabilization phase, the international rollouts began, during which various non-SAP and SAP systems were replaced at Wacker Neuson subsidiaries around the world and transferred to the central Group solution.

Fundamental transformation

The international group has fundamentally transformed its process and system landscape in collaboration with the management consultants from cbs. It now has a consolidated company-wide SAP business solution based on a standardized and harmonized process and system landscape.

This will make it easier for Wacker Neuson to implement its international expansion plans and integrate future locations into the company smoothly. The standardized SAP system also simplifies all basic processes within the company, as standardized data and structures are now available.

Wacker Neuson will also benefit from the simplified maintainability of its IT systems in the future. Looking to the future, the new solution also offers comprehensive benefits for the company.

With SAP ERP on Hana, Wacker Neuson has its finger on the pulse and is prepared for future developments in technology. Important future topics such as S/4 Hana, Simple Finance and Industry 4.0 are already being planned.