Rapid SAP Implementation Project Completion

Introduction to the Client

Burg-Wächter is a global manufacturer of locks, access control solutions, window protection, safes, and letterboxes. Headquartered in the Ruhr area of Germany, the company boasts a long history of producing premium quality products. Their SAP Implementation Project aimed to extend their core SAP footprint into the UK, ensuring seamless integration with their global operations. Burg-Wächter UK serves as the main distributor for the UK and Ireland, providing security products both from their parent company and external sources.

Business Challenges

Burg-Wächter UK’s SAP Implementation Project faced several challenges:

• Delivering a fully operational SAP solution to a strict year-end deadline, with most of the work to be completed within four months by only 2-3 consultants.
• Avoiding the need for additional business resources during the project.
• Meeting UK-specific requirements within an existing non-UK SAP template.
• Implementing change management to enable effective use of SAP for a user base with no prior experience.
• Migrating a large volume of master data.

“We were clear from the start that we planned an on/off switch over for the SAP Implementation Project. We knew this would require detailed planning and support, but it had to be delivered on time and on budget – and Bluestonex fulfilled that.”
— Andrew Field, Managing Director, Burg-Wächter UK & Ireland

Solution Overview

Bluestonex was engaged to deliver a full ERP solution as part of Burg-Wächter’s SAP Implementation Project, leveraging best practices already in place at their German operations. This included key processes like Purchase to Pay (P2P), Order to Cash (O2C), Financial processes, and more. By adopting SAP ECC6, Burg-Wächter achieved flexibility and consistency across their operations while minimizing costs.

The full scope included:

• Master Data.
• Sales and Distribution.
• Logistics execution (Delivery Processing).
• EDI.
• Procurement.
• Inventory Management.
• Outputs (Such as Delivery Notes/Despatch Notes).
• Financial Accounting
• Controlling.
• Strategic Reporting.
• Security and Authorisation.

The Process

Bluestonex were engaged because of their reputation in core SAP ERP and because of the cultural fit & size of business helping other SME businesses towards their journey onto SAP technologies.

Burg-Wächter had considered looking at SAP Business One or similar sized ERP packages but after initial consultation with Bluestonex, the team realised that strategically and from a cost / value perspective, moving to SAP ECC was in fact the right decision. There were some drivers behind this such as their parent company in Germany was already using SAP ECC and licenses were available but in terms of functionality SAP ECC would give the flexibility they would need for longer term business growth.

Bluestonex firstly carried out due diligence exercise looking at different options from business one to other SME ERP packages available. Because of synergies with Burg-Wächter Germany and the need for consistency across processes and technology it was decided to move onto the existing platform as a new company code implementation.

In the initial scoping exercise, Bluestonex reviewed Burg-Wächter Germany’s as-is processes, SAP functionality, modules, landscape, periphery systems, sizing information, and interfaces. The UK company’s user capabilities & business functions were also analysed, to derive a new way of working for the UK business.

Following sign-off of the scoping document, the principal project phases from blueprinting to go-live were completed over a 4-month period.

Gaps between the existing SAP template and the UK requirements identified during scoping were resolved early in the blueprinting phase by agreement between Burg-Wächter UK, Group IT, business users in Germany and Bluestonex.

Workshops were conducted with the UK company throughout the blueprinting, build and UAT phases to ensure that the proposed processes were fit for purpose and would be fully owned by the business.

Throughout the project, there was close collaboration between the Burg-Wächter project team in UK and Germany, senior UK management and Bluestonex. This was particularly vital to facilitate the change management around organizational and processes changes, user training, data conversion and go-live planning.

The complexity and volume of master data to be migrated required an on-going work stream during much of the project.

The complete project life-cycle (Project management, functional consulting, technical consulting, training & data migration) was managed by Bluestonex, and the project was delivered on time and within budget, without any major go-live or support issues.

Project documentation was provided throughout, including formal scoping and blueprint documents, gap analyses, configuration specifications, user manuals and test scripts.

Results

• Full SAP ECC6 implemented within 4 months at a cost of under £150k.
• Improved regulatory controls and real-time integration between finance and operational processes.
• Consistent information across the Burg-Wächter Group.
• Built functionality and expertise within the SAP system and user community.

Collaboration with Bluestonex

Bluestonex’s expertise in SAP Implementation Projects and their pragmatic approach helped Burg-Wächter succeed. Their focus on both systems implementation and business change ensured that the project was delivered on time and within budget, while also preparing the organization for future growth.