Exemplary Conversion Thanks to Teamwork

Backaldrin, Austria’s leading manufacturer of baking ingredients, combines the tradition of baking with state-of-the-art technology. The family-owned business places great emphasis on quality and innovation—including in the IT sector—and took the initiative regarding SAP S/4HANA as early as 2018.

With support from INFORMATICS, Backaldrin participated in the S/4HANA Adoption Starter Program. In 2019, the Readiness Check and the BSR Report were implemented, the IT infrastructure was analyzed, and the path to the cloud was discussed. Based on the program results, the decision was made to proceed with an on-premise conversion. Backaldrin’s internal IT team had already outlined a strategy for the migration and defined the target architecture and target system landscape. Together with INFORMATICS, the roadmap was developed, workshops were scheduled, and work packages were put together. Backaldrin’s IT team remained the project lead, serving as the interface to the business department and receiving conceptual and operational support from INFORMATICS.

COMMITMENT FROM ALL DEPARTMENTS

In 2020, preliminary projects such as the migration of business partners were already implemented, and an initial workshop provided information on the new features in SAP FI and New GL. Detailed project planning followed in early 2021, before the migration to the new general ledger in ECC took place.
At the same time, the findings from the S/4HANA pre-check tools (ATC, Readiness Check, BSR)—which we also offer as a fixed-price package—were analyzed, the future use of modules such as EWM and TM was assessed, and the changes in SAP SD were discussed. Standard solutions were intended to replace existing custom developments. All business units were continuously involved, recognized the added value of the migration, and were motivated to implement the innovative workflows that SAP Fiori brings to users.

LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE SANDBOX

The first sandbox was already implemented on the target hardware in July 2021. Numerous lessons learned from that experience are now being incorporated into the second in-house sandbox. For example, downtime for the go-live can be significantly reduced by switching the operating system from Windows to Linux ahead of schedule.
In addition to the well-developed project schedule and intensive preparation, the collaboration of all parties involved makes this conversion a prime example: Internal IT, all business units, and INFORMATICS as an external partner are contributing their expertise with full commitment to every step of the project. The go-live is scheduled for April 2022—given the well-coordinated project team, this appears entirely realistic.