When legacy ERPs don’t keep pace with growth
Our client is considered a world leader in the steel pipe industry. It’s already one of the biggest steel pipe manufacturers in Europe and has eleven production facilities across three continents with a growing presence here in the US.
But recently, even as our client was expanding into new markets and acquiring new businesses, its legacy ERP software was struggling. The team relied on a heavily customized platform that was 10+ years old and hadn’t been designed for today’s faster pace of data management.
Making improvements or introducing new functions was becoming increasingly complex and difficult. Leaders also wanted centralized business insights so that different markets could work closely together and make faster decisions.
It was time for an upgrade.
iSoftStone’s team brought our best ERP knowledge and processes to support that vision. We’re proud to be a core technology partner working alongside our client at every step of its transformation journey, all the way from providing initial consulting services to the selection of SAP S/4 HANA, the US implementation through go-live, and partnering into future rollouts for each market.
iSoftStone’s strategy consulting services start an SAP transformation
When iSoftStone first connected with our client, the executive team was developing a transformation roadmap for the company’s core systems. They had narrowed down the new ERP to two options: an updated version of the previous system or an all-up change to SAP S/4 HANA.
Our team provided strategy consulting services for an assessment that helped leadership confidently select SAP. The platform’s access to a wide range of cloud-based APIs, its flexibility, and its real-time analytics all appealed. Executives also appreciated SAP’s expertise with heavy industries like their own.
With the platform selected, the long and considered work of a transformation journey could start. Says Alper Bilge, regional director of iSoftStone in Europe, “ERP systems are generally the backbone of the company.” A strong governance structure to ensure intra-company collaboration and a holistic delivery approach would be essential.
iSoftStone helped define and build a 150-strong SAP project team to take the company through its high stakes, multiyear, multi-market project. In consultation with our client, we created the team structure, defined its job roles, and established the governance and processes of the new team.
Our client is not only harmonizing its systems. It’s also optimizing its way of working, its processes. We’re creating what will become the global standard for the company.
Alper Bilge
Regional Director, iSoftStone Europe
We’re supporting an end-to-end SAP implementation
As the project moves forward, iSoftStone is working closely alongside our SAP partners as they design the solution, and we continue to support the client’s team. The design and implementation work includes the most critical modules of SAP S/4 HANA.
Logistics:
- Materials Management (MM)
- Production Planning (PP)
- Quality Management (QM)
- Sales & Distribution (SD)
- Warehouse Extension (EWM)
- Transportation Management (TM)
Accounting:
- Project system (PS)
- Financial accounting (FI)
- Controlling (CO)
iSoftStone is staffing 30 experienced resources on the SAP transformation project, including key roles such as program manager, technical lead, functional lead, and integration lead. We’re partnering with other vendors and performing quality assurance work at each stage. Our team is also handling all the data governance, master data management, and data migration work for the implementation.
Unifying insights, improving decision-making & driving growth
When the SAP implementation went live to the client’s US–Panama entity, users were delighted with the smoothness of the transition and the efficiency and ease of their new ERP solution. Staggered rollouts to the remaining markets are planned over the next few years. The company expects the completed implementation to deliver efficiencies in communication, decision-making, and, critically, procurement where the smallest day-to-day fluctuations of steel prices on the open market can dramatically impact the bottom line.
Just as importantly, management will have true visibility. The new ERP system will capture changes in costs and surface insights that can be applied across the company. Senior leadership will see across the entire company using one system. And each market will have a clearer understanding of how to support each other’s work.
As Bilge notes, “Our client is not only harmonizing its systems. It’s also optimizing its way of working, its processes. We’re creating what will become the global standard for the company after the project.”
In short, the company will be able to take full advantage of its global presence, courtesy of an ERP system with capabilities that truly reflect the powerhouse organization it is.
