Greater Agility in Plant Equipment Manufacturing With JiVS and S/4HANA

The world is changing. Faced with the unprecedented challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical tensions, climate change, and other events with far-reaching global impact, it’s no secret that companies need to be agile and respond quickly to changes in their environment. Investments in game-changing technology and digital transformation are key to survival, and as businesses seek to expand market share, increase geographical coverage, and capture new markets, some will pursue a strategy of mergers, acquisitions, and carve-outs. This strategy doesn’t come without obstacles though, especially when it comes to managing and integrating disparate systems and decades of data. This blog takes a look at how Data Migration International helped one such company – plant equipment manufacturer Bühler AG – become a more agile organization through innovative technology.

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Migration to One Unified SAP Client

Billions of people unknowingly come into contact with Bühler’s technologies every day – whether by eating food produced using Bühler equipment or traveling in a vehicle manufactured with parts produced on Bühler machinery. Active in over 140 countries, the Switzerland-based multinational plant equipment manufacturer has completed numerous mergers, acquisitions, and carve-outs over the years. While this approach has continued to secure the company a competitive and strategic advantage, ten or so years ago it identified a clear need to streamline processes and migrate all its existing ERP systems into SAP ECC. It is now in the process of converting SAP ECC and the systems of its most recently acquired business to SAP S/4HANA. A transformational step that will not only provide real-time visibility of all its operations in a single environment and allow it to utilize tech like AI and machine learning, but one that will also make it more agile, flexible, and responsive to change.

Benefits of Separating Historical from Operational Data

To fully exploit the potential of SAP S/4HANA, Bühler needed a simple and fast approach to selective data migration and an efficient solution for managing its historical information. Being a satisfied customer of DMI for more than 10 years, Bühler, together with their SAP S/4 implementation partner, decided to do this with our data migration experts and our information management platform JiVS. By deploying JiVS as a tailored solution, Bühler was able to separate its historical data from its operational data, store the historical information in a centralized, secure environment, and switch off its legacy systems. The platform requires little or no maintenance, and it meets all legal and industry requirements for data and information security. By decommissioning its legacy systems and managing all its historical information through JiVS,

Bühler has reduced operating costs by 80% and minimized the total cost of ownership of SAP S/4HANA. What’s more, Bühler was able to transfer information from a spin-off business unit to a newly formed company within just six months. On top of it all, since completion, Bühler has been able to access data directly from SAP S/4 and has benefited from the continuous rightsizing of the new SAP S/4 system.

A Solution for Today and Tomorrow

JiVS is not only simplifying Bühler’s conversion to SAP S/4HANA by managing its historical information and supporting a lean ERP environment, but will continue to work in parallel, supporting the global company with further agile business scenarios like carve-outs, mergers, and acquisitions as it continues its ambitious growth plans. Thanks to this new-found level of agility and responsiveness across the IT landscape at Bühler, the organization is well-positioned to overcome the challenges it faces today and those that arise in the future.