Last month, successful implementations of SAP applications were honored with 2021 SAP Quality Awards in four categories: Business Transformation, Business Transformation SAP S/4HANA, Digital Pioneer, and Rapid Time to Value.
The big winners of this year’s awards, which were held as a virtual event for the first time, are chemicals companies Roehm and Pfinder Chemie, energy company Uniper, and automotive supplier Kongsberg Automotive.
SAP has recognized customer efforts with the annual SAP Quality Awards since 2006. In total, the judging panel rigorously examined more than 50 directly recommended customer projects.
The SAP judges rated the projects based on 10 quality principles. Successful SAP implementations are characterized above all by stringent project planning and emphasis on a rapid, cost-effective deployment that follows SAP standards. The objective here is for projects to achieve measurable added value, shorter implementation cycles, and faster time to value. SAP Quality Awards also aim to support the development of a network of thought leaders and to strengthen collaboration with customers and partners.
Alexander Klaeger, managing director of SAP Germany, was impressed by the quality of the projects, as he stated in his welcoming address to the nominated finalists: “All of the projects nominated this year are characterized by creativity in the implementation of innovations in our customers’ core processes. I’d like to congratulate all the winners, who have made a significant contribution to their companies’ success through digitalization.”
Winner in Business Transformation: Roehm GmbH
After being spun off from Evonik Industries in 2019, Roehm GmbH realigned its human resources (HR) processes. Using SAP Cloud methodology, the team successfully implemented SAP SuccessFactors and SAP ERP Human Capital Management solutions in a very short time frame. The reconfiguration of the HR IT landscape enabled simplification and automation of the HR processes, resulting in significant and permanent cost savings. The digitalization of HR processes has enabled self-service scenarios for employees and increased system flexibility. The judging panel praised the rapid design phase and incremental implementation close to the system standard, which were carried out together with partners Empleox GmbH (SAP SuccessFactors) and Swiss Post Solutions (SAP ERP HCM).
In addition to the category winner, the judges were also impressed by the following finalists:
- The SAP Sales Cloud project by energy provider badenova AG & Co. KG, together with partner Power Reply GmbH & Co. KG
- Stabilus, the expert for motion control, with its SAP HANA database migration to SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud on Azure, supported by SAP Deutschland SE & Co. KG
- Stiegelmeyer GmbH und Co. KG, leading manufacturer of beds, furniture, and accessories for hospitals, nursing homes, and home care, with its project SAP Commerce Cloud and partner B2B Solution GmbH
Winner in the Business Transformation SAP S/4HANA: Pfinder Chemie
Pfinder Chemie, a pioneer, global market leader, and innovation partner for cavity preservation and non-destructive materials testing, implemented SAP S/4HANA for all enterprise resource planning (ERP) processes at the company. The IT project was the main component of a project for internal company development and now helps ensure smoothly running enterprise processes worldwide. Here as well, the project was executed close to the standard, without modifications to the software, allowing the implementation to be completed within the allotted time frame and budget. For these reasons, the judges selected the customer and its partner Innovabee GbH as the winner among the finalists.
Other category finalists that achieved outstanding on-premise implementations of SAP S/4HANA included:
- Energy company E.ON SE, the largest distribution system operator in Europe and supplier of customer solutions, with its partner SAP Deutschland SE & Co. KG
- Pharmaceuticals manufacturer Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH with partner CNT Management Consulting
- Enercon IT Service GmbH, the largest German manufacturer of wind turbines, with its partner smartShift Technologies GmbH
- Carmaker Daimler AG Group with its partner SAP Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG
Winner in Digital Pioneer: Uniper
With 12,000 employees, the portfolio of Dusseldorf-based industry giant Uniper includes large-scale installations, trading activities, and services in the energy sector in more than 40 countries worldwide. As part of Uniper’s #saplab program, the digitalization of existing financial and maintenance processes was achieved in four sub-projects, in close collaboration with SAP ActiveAttention, with major benefits for resource-conserving handling. The holistically considered end-to-end processes, professional project management, and resulting large, across-the-board business benefits were the key factors named by the judges in their decision.
The other finalist was INDEX-Werke GmbH & Co. KG, one of the leading global manufacturers of CNC lathes. The company implemented a maintenance and lifecycle platform that utilizes intelligent technologies and SAP Commerce Cloud, together with its partner Sybit.
According to the judges, the “under-staffing” of this category was due not only to the low number of suitable projects, but also to the difficulty of even demonstrating the quality criteria of standard projects in the framework of innovative technologies.
Winner in Rapid Time to Value: Kongsberg Automotive
Automotive manufacturer Kongsberg Automotive migrated its HR systems from Workday to SAP SuccessFactors software in just six months. With this step, the company standardized and optimized its central HR processes, giving its employees a modern, motivating work environment. The SAP SuccessFactors solution enables companies to manage global workforces with a cloud-based human resources information system that covers all main HR functions. It will give Kongsberg Automotive consistent digital HR processes in the future, with uniform data for recruitment, onboarding, and performance management. It also enables the rapid, efficient creation of reports for optimized workforce planning and analysis.
Our congratulations also go out to the other Rapid Time to Value finalists:
- International service provider Dussmann Stiftung & Co. KGaA, with its partner Nagarro ES GmbH, for the successful implementation of SAP S/4HANA Cloud, essentials edition
- Solvent specialist Fashion Chemicals GmbH & Co. KG, which implemented SAP Model Company together with its partner SAP Deutschland SE & Co. KG
- Global technology group Voith, which implemented SAP Master Data Governance on SAP HANA together with its partner Ibsolution GmbH
- Nuclear technology specialist NUKEM Technologies Engineering Services GmbH and its partner B4BSolutions GmbH for the successful completion of its SAP Business ByDesign project
This story was originally published on the SAP Germany News Center.