Bekaert: Reorganizing Sales and Distribution Units in SAP ERP and SAP BW To simplify its business, Bekaert launched a project to reorganize its sales and distribution structures in its global SAP ERP application environment. Adjustments to sales reporting in Bekaert s SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW) application were performed in parallel, showcasing a key competence of the Data Management Services team at SAP.
Company Bekaert Headquarters Zwevegem, Belgium Industry Mill products Products and Services Steel wire transformation and coating technologies Employees 30,000 Revenue 4 billion (2014) Web Site www.bekaert.com Partners Data Management Services (DMS) team at SAP, Tata Consultancy Services BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION Objectives Simplify and reorganize sales and distribution structures Optimize sales and distribution business processes Eliminate obsolete sales data Merge and split organizational units in the SAP ERP application and in the SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW) application Convert transactional and master data with SAP Landscape Transformation software in SAP ERP and with the ReLine tool from DataVard GmbH in SAP BW Limit downtime to one window for SAP ERP and SAP BW Benefits Efficient, optimized operational environment Simplification of internal organization Higher data accuracy Consolidation of operational business documents Improvement of master data governance Read more All our expectations about the migration were met, and we can definitely further recommend the DMS team as an implementation partner. Francis Gregoir, Business IT, Sales, Bekaert TOP BENEFITS ACHIEVED 120 Sales organizations transferred 25 Hours of technical downtime 70 Credit control areas merged 2 / 6
Driving, hoisting, and winching better with Bekaert Bekaert is a world market and technology leader in steel wire transformation and coating technologies, headquartered in Zwevegem, Belgium. With 30,000 employees, the company serves customers in 120 countries and generates total sales of 4 billion annually. Bekaert products can be found in cars and trucks, in elevators and mines, in tunnels and bridges, at home and in the office. If it drives, ascends, hoists, filters, reinforces, or fastens, there is a good chance Bekaert is inside. Bekaert s market strategy better together, launched in 2005, reflects the way Bekaert employees throughout the company s divisions and regions work closely with customers, suppliers, and partners. In the first quarter of 2014, Bekaert decided to start a business unit reorganization project to merge sales organizations, distribution channels, divisions, sales areas, sales offices, and credit control areas. The reorganization also had a split of certain sales organizations in scope. The transformations were to be performed in the company s global SAP ERP application system and in its SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW) application. The main business objective behind this reorganization was to optimize business processes, simplify the business model, and cleanse old data content from both software systems. Communication between team members was key for this project. The DMS team did a great job, with the result that the entire implementation process was well aligned and met all deadlines. Krist Dewitte, Process Lead, Production and Projects, Bekaert 3 / 6
Converting logistics structures in SAP ERP and SAP BW The transformation project kicked off April 24, 2014. Managed by the Data Management Services (DMS) team, the major milestones were a business blueprint, two conversion test runs, one dry run, and the event for going live set for November 2014. An important request from Bekaert was that the transformation involved in merging the sales organization be performed in SAP ERP and SAP BW in parallel. The DMS team s project management delivered two working teams and provided both on-site presence and remote service. The implementation team transformed sales documents, delivery documents, quality notifications, handling units, and billing documents. The work covered 120 sales organizations, 18 distribution channels, 47 divisions, and 119 sales offices. Approximately 70 credit control areas were merged into 15 target instances. The DMS team converted application data in SAP ERP related to credit control areas using the tools of the SAP Landscape Transformation software. For SAP BW, it used the ReLine tool from DataVard GmbH. Realignment and cleansing logic was interactively defined, validated, and tested in close cooperation with DMS, SAP domain specialists of Bekaert, and its application sustainability partner, Tata Consultancy Services. As Bekaert s business content was constantly increasing between test cycles, volume issues were carefully addressed and managed by the DMS team. The project implementation went very smoothly. The implementation team established solid project governance and contributed to maintaining clear, continual communication channels with Bekaert. All project topics were transparent and visible to all stakeholders. The necessary testing was carried out as planned. All changes and updates were addressed immediately. The DMS team, bolstered by specialists from Bekaert and Tata Consultancy Services, exemplified well-set-up and maintained project management. 4 / 6
Improving business through simplification The transformation project went live December 8, 2014, with initial cutover having been started November 30. Both system conversions were performed on the same weekend, as per Bekaert s request. The transformation of the SAP ERP application covered 2,300 concurrent users within a compressed database of 3 terabytes. During the transformation of SAP BW, 176 million rows of InfoProvider InfoCubes, 531 million rows of data store objects, and 2 million rows of master data were converted. Overall technical downtime amounted to 25 hours, which suited customer s business requirements perfectly. With the new, simplified structure, Bekaert is now operating in an efficient, optimized environment offering opportunity for further business alignment. With logistics and sales organizations reorganized and centralized, Bekaert can make better and smarter decisions, which are improving overall business performance. More accurate data, consolidated operational business documents, and improved master data governance in SAP ERP are making a global strategic impact on the logistics reporting and analytics Bekaert performs in SAP BW. Bekaert was highly satisfied with the conversion project results, which were delivered on time and within budget. The overall feedback about technique, people, and milestone management was highly positive as well. The idea behind this project was to simplify the software and reduce overall complexity. Now, with the help of SAP ERP and SAP BW, the Bekaert software landscape in sales is lean, agile, transparent. Ajeet Pokharna, Process Lead, Sales and Outbound Logistics, Tata Consultancy Services 5 / 6
Bekaert Looking forward to the bright future of Bekaert and SAP Bekaert constantly looks for new opportunities to improve its daily business, always careful to move with the flow of the market. Looking forward to a lasting partnership with SAP, Bekaert has mapped out a sure and stable path for continuing success. True to its strategy of simplification, Bekaert has demonstrated the success of this approach and has opened a door to the future development of its business. Bekaert strives to improve its daily business operations and does it very successfully with support from SAP and from the Data Management Services team at SAP in particular. With the help of innovative SAP solutions, Bekaert is not just improving, not just growing, but flourishing and keeping pace with the constantly changing markets of the engineering, construction, and operations and automotive industries, to name just two. Studio SAP 38318enUS (15/07) 6 / 6
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