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apsolut supports GEA with Release Management and Technical Ariba System Monitoring
Company
GEA Group
Branch
Specialist machine and plant engineering
Products
Machinery, plants and process technology for the food, beverage and pharmaceuticals industries
Number of employees
over 18,000
Turnover
4.7 billion euros in 2021
Headquarters
Düsseldorf, Germany
Websitewww.gea.com
Transfer of Knowledge and Support during a Complex Transformation
It took fully two weeks to hand over the GEA project from the implementation team to colleagues in Solution Management Services (SMS) within apsolut GmbH. That period of time hints at the complexity of the procurement transformation at GEA. The overall corporate group comprises more than 250 subsidiary companies. With the digital transformation, all operational and strategic SAP Ariba modules will also be rolled out with SAP S/4HANA Central Procurement.
GEA quickly realised that the complexity and sheer number of parallel tasks within this mammoth project would necessitate additional external support. Although GEA considered other competitors at first, it ultimately decided to continue its partnership with apsolut.
‘During the implementation of Ariba and Central Procurement, we had a great many positive experiences and benefited from the expert knowledge of colleagues at apsolut,’ recalls Tina Schmidt, Senior Business Application Consultant SCM and IT Project Manager at GEA ‘In addition, we were also convinced that the transfer of knowledge would be much more straightforward with a partner established in our IT landscape.’
The SMS team at apsolut has since been integrated into the ticket system at GEA. As part of Release Management, new functions will be documented and potential improvements resulting from these releases will be identified. The team also provides regular monitoring to identify and eliminate malfunctions in ongoing operations at an early stage.
In this project – with its numerous modules and back-end ERP systems – monitoring has been a crucial success factor, something that could not very easily been managed with internal resources alone. Since the number of end users will continue to increase as a result of the roll-out with the digital transformation, the complexity will also continue to increase. Over the next two years, Ariba Guided Buying with Central Procurement is expected to be rolled out to a further more than 30 companies.
GEA and apsolut will make a few minor adjustments to their support agreement over the coming fiscal year. apsolut will then provide more technical support. For Bei Mortensen, IT Business Service Owner – SCM & Manufacturing at GEA, this represents the next logical step in the partnership with apsolut:
‘We’re on the right track to being able to take full advantage of the potential that this transformation offers, as apsolut not only gives us the expertise that we need, but also has an incredibly agile and committed approach. apsolut no longer feels like an external partner to me, but more like an internal department, with whom I hope we can continue to work well into the future.’
Technical Ariba System Monitoring: We offer regular monitoring and comprehensive reporting on the performance of your systems to enable rapid identification and bug fixing of errors in ongoing system operation.
Release Management: We take the totality of the content of new releases, filter out the new functions and potential improvements and show you the individual recommendations for action.
Implemented tools
Release Management
Technical Ariba System Monitoring
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Annette Römer, Project Manager, McKesson Europe AG
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Martin Traxl, Head of Strategy & Digitalization, OMV
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Markus Ortlieb, Director Global Procurement, ProMinent GmbH
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Stefan Ehrhardt, Head of SAP Governance Purchasing, MAHLE
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"Being able to design our purchasing processes flexibly, digitally and above all efficiently offers great added value. We will therefore continue to expand our system in the direction of SAP Ariba."
Armin Kaczmarek, Senior Vice President Corporate Purchasing, Vorwerk
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"With apsolut, we have gained a partner who has implemented our requirements effectively and efficiently in the configuration of Ariba in a practical manner and in a breathtaking amount of time. The customer-oriented approach was one of the main reasons why we also chose apsolut for the implementation of SLP and Contract Management."
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Manuel Steffen, Project Officer Source-to-Pay, Evonik Industries
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“To be quite honest: I have experienced so many IT projects in the past where the ambitious original goals were eroded bit by bit. But this time, it was different because apsolut worked very systematically and always intervened promptly when something threatened to get out of hand,”
Thomas Henzler, Chief Information Officer, PILLER Blowers & Compressors
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Simon Bohn, Global Solution Architect Procure to Pay, STIHL
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Michael Spiess, Chief Procurement Officer, Sanitas Krankenversicherung
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Zinah Matar, Digital Business Development Manager, Juffali Commercial Vehicles
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Marcel Krischer, Zentis GmbH & Co. KG
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"apsolut led us in a very cooperative and super-competent manner throughout all phases of the project! Above all, the open collaboration between all project members kept motivation high throughout. The project team gets on very well with each other. We were also impressed by the solution-oriented approach and the ability of the entire project team to make quick decisions!"
Hubert Buchsteiner, Group Vice President Purchasing, ZKW Group
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"The mix of virtual design discussions, system demonstrations and break-out sessions, supported by best-in-class tools that allowed us to annotate and track tasks and decisions during screen sharing, enabled us to work closely with apsolut even though distances of up to 12,000 kilometres had to be bridged. We were very pleased that both our projects could be successfully implemented with the help of apsolut."
Alina Aftene, Procurement Solutions Specialist, Delivery Hero
"Although personal contact was very limited due to Corona, a strong team formed during the intensive project phase. The decision-making paths at BITZER and apsolut were always short so that issues could be dealt with promptly and the planned go-live date achieved. The home office was not an obstacle, but also gave us the necessary flexibility for a project of this size.
All team members have done a great job, I have rarely worked so well with a consulting firm!"
Steffen Bauer, Project Manager, BITZER
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„We were able to roll out Ariba very quickly, because we established a pragmatic and open culture of cooperation with the apsolut team from the very beginning, and we were prepared to systematically align ourselves with the standard“,
Sarah Eve Wiedemann-Geiß, who oversees purchasing and supplier management at Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall
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"apsolut impressed us in our project , particularly because of the open and cooperative partnership. The project team gets on very well with each other. But we were also impressed by the solution-oriented approach and the fast and efficient enablement of our support staff!"
Annette Römer, Project Manager at McKesson Europe
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Chandrashekhar Saldur, AGM - Global Procurement & Projects, ETG Group
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‘We’re on the right track to being able to take full advantage of the potential that this transformation offers, as apsolut not only gives us the expertise that we need, but also has an incredibly agile and committed approach. apsolut no longer feels like an external partner to me, but more like an internal department, with whom I hope we can continue to work well into the future.’
Dr. Bei Mortensen, IT Business Service Owner – SCM & Manufacturing, GEA Group
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"As our experiences with apsolut were so positive across all national companies, we have already doubled the number of monthly support days twice. Thanks to apsolut, we now have the resources we need to implement rollouts in other national companies. At the moment, they are ongoing in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and France."
Sandra Mancino, Application Consultant, C&A
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“After the first Ariba roll-outs, we continued to work with apsolut to jointly develop our Ariba Suite. We usually work together at eye level, and I appreciate apsolut’s open and honest advice. I always have the feeling that the best solution for the customer is their guiding principle. This level of honesty is what led us to working together for so long.”
Małgorzata Pośpiech, SCM Process Manager, JOYNEXT
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"From the beginning of the project, we have made a remarkable change together with apsolut. The Döhler employees find their way through the easy user interface without any prior knowledge of SAP. As a result, our purchasing department is no longer an operational procurement office, but a team of in-house consultants."
Shibu Palakalodil, Projektleiter SAP Ariba-Implementierung
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