Thanks to in-memory technology, SAP HANA allows Galfa to respond immediately to changes in the market, customer behavior and production processes. Employees always have a current view of the constantly shifting business requirements.
“Access to reliable real-time data improves our planning accuracy and allows us to respond to changes in the market, customer behavior and production processes immediately,” says Frank Herdeg, shareholder at Galfa, a midsize surface finishing company. Herdeg achieved this comfortable situation for his company by migrating to SAP HANA, which was introduced following the successful implementation of an SAP Business-All-in-One solution. “With our new SAP ERP system, we laid the foundation for transparent and efficient processes and business figures,” he emphasizes. “Now SAP HANA, on the basis of in-memory technology, is providing us with far-reaching possibilities for the delivery of information.” The company will be able to generate significant competitive advantages on this basis going forward as well.
The conversion to SAP HANA became necessary because business was getting increasingly more complex and fast-paced. Galfa is a specialist for tailor-made corrosion protection coating solutions. The company is fully integrated into the logistics chain of its customers in the automobile, construction, hardware, and electrical industries, as well as metal construction and mechanical engineering. For the industrial service provider, just-in time delivery by its customers and processing/delivery on the same day has become a standard requirement, especially for automotive clients. Highly individual solutions and pronounced competitive pressure are factors that push conventional ERP systems to their limits.
“The analysis of data, which keeps getting more demanding, has long since formed the basis of our management decisions for controlling,” explains Frank Herdeg. “Before we implemented SAP HANA, we obtained our key performance indicators in a variety of ways using different software tools. Every department had its individual approach, in part with significant manual effort, using separate and uncoordinated databases,” Herdeg explains. “This made processes and decisions longer than necessary and led to inaccuracies as well as unproductive discussions. We wanted to rectify that.” Just like the SAP ERP implementation, the project for the migration to SAP HANA was awarded to the SAP partner and full-range IT service provider Sycor.
Thanks to successfully making the move to SAP HANA, all Galfa employees now have current information at all times about constantly changing business requirements: With the reports that still have to be prepared, all departments will be supplied with the right data at the right time going forward. This means Company Management, Sales, Finance and Controlling will always be provided with the essential information needed for controlling and orientation. “Reports and visualizations in real time, detailed simulations and faster business processes – with SAP HANA, Galfa has great flexibility in the analysis of large data volumes and is able to make relationships transparent that used to remain largely concealed,” is how Oliver Reichardt, Sycor Project Manager, describes the results. “SAP HANA has laid the foundation for a company-wide business intelligence solution.” Action-oriented KPIs to ensure cost efficiency (budgets, process control, maintenance) and organizational further development can be mapped precisely.
The technical implementation of migrating the existing ERP system to SAP HANA, without significant customization or programming changes, was carried out with just a few hours of downtime. In doing so, Sycor ensured that daily procedures at Galfa were not disrupted and processes continued running as usual. System improvements tailored to suit the company’s needs were subsequently implemented step-by-step, making some processes drastically faster.
“The decision in favor of SAP HANA as a strategic solution has really paid off. In-memory technology is a genuine competitive advantage for us. We are very satisfied with the new system and with Sycor as a partner,” Frank Herdeg emphasizes. The roll-out for the site in Kaniów, Poland started in November. There, the system went live on January, 1 2016 without any problems.