The cbs ET Enterprise Transformer supports data transformations end-to-end. Starting with comprehensive analysis functionalities, through flexible and consistent data extractions, to the consistent application of complex transformation rules and the subsequent validation.
The innovative software is essential for cbs transformation-as-a-service and digital data transformation factory. Minimal-invasive interventions keep the business untainted and relieve the corporate functions. ET can be deployed as a service, licensed or run within a partnering model.
The smart route to the new world
Transformations to SAP S/4HANA® have been a business reality for a long time. Established SAP customers arrive at a new enterprise platform via various routes.
Many use the opportunity to establish a new process and system landscape in a greenfield approach while using existing best practice processes and systems.
The parallel operation of different ERP systems and releases poses a challenge, especially in process and system landscapes that have evolved for years.
What is the goal? Initiatives of this kind seek to harmonise and consolidate entire enterprise platforms in a way that is both audit-proof (compliant) and highly efficient. The intention is to harmonise processes, organisational structures, applications, functions, and data.
To migrate to SAP S/4HANA, existing systems and data must be transformed into SAP S/4HANA-compatible solution structures. This entails harmonising structures and processes, standardising master data, cleansing legacy data, and similar housekeeping tasks. The next step is to complete the technical migration to SAP S/4HANA by migrating the ERP data from the existing source systems.
cbs Enterprise Transformer® – innovation from the leader in quality
cbs Enterprise Transformer® for SAP S/4HANA® is the world’s first comprehensive standard software for migrating existing process and system landscapes flexibly and holistically to the solution and data structures of SAP S/4HANA.
cbs ET offers best-practice transformations for all existing SAP system change scenarios. It also provides end-to-end tailored business solutions for complex company-wide business and corporate restructuring scenarios. cbs ET enables entire SAP enterprise platforms to be standardised, harmonised, and consolidated quickly and reliably.
cbs ET provides continual support for sustainable, strategic transformation management processes.
Automated data transfer – migration over a weekend
So, what does this mean for go-live? cbs ET makes it possible to migrate data to an SAP S/4HANA system almost without restrictions. Ideally, users log out of the legacy system on Friday evening. When they log back in on Monday morning, they can continue working exactly where they left off in open purchase orders, deliveries, billing documents, and projects in the system.
Migration to SAP S/4HANA – simple and seamless
cbs ET enables all structures, business objects, master data, transaction data, and historical data to be transferred directly from ERP systems to SAP S/4HANA. All relevant transition strategies are supported, including migration from non-SAP systems.
The transformation scope is flexible and tailored to the customer. Whether you want to transfer all historical data or just data from a specific period (for example, two years), or if you wish to do this across defined organisational units or based on selected business processes – cbs ET can handle the full spectrum of requirements. It makes all kinds of transformations calculable, easy, and reliable – whether a greenfield, brownfield, or landscape scenario.
One standard software for all application scenarios
With our standard software cbs ET Enterprise Transformer, we help companies efficiently implement data transformation requirements in an increasingly volatile world.
Certain types of transformation are business as usual – occur in high frequency and on several levels: organisations, business processes, structures, IT systems and data. S/4HANA is on the horizon for SAP customers, and cbs is helping them navigate through these scenarios with that in mind.
- Merger & Acquisition: Consolidating process and system landscapes, merging SAP / ERP systems, fast
- Carve-out/ Split (Disinvestment): Separating enterprise units, business-compliant and on schedule
- Restructuring: Reorganising with continuity in ongoing operations, with more than SAP resources
- Harmonisation: Unifying accounts and company codes, controlling areas, master data and platforms
- Data migration: Migrating and converting data from heterogeneous systems, rapid and secure
- S/4HANA: Transforming to S/4HANA by migration, conversion or by ‘selective data transition’ as the silver bullet
Accelerate your SAP data transformation with cbs ET Enterprise Transformer for SAP S/4HANA, the world’s first comprehensive standard software solution. Contact us today to learn more about how we can fast track your data migration!
Features of cbs Enterprise Transformer®
- A consistent, process-oriented approach
- Central transformation management
- Near-zero downtime support
- Analysis and evaluation functions
- Flexible, customer-specific solutions
The Technology of cbs Enterprise Transformer®
- End-to-end transformation solution
- No separate implementation system
- High-speed data transformation
- Minimally invasive – no business impact
- Direct database update & standard methods
M-cbs – Project Methodology and cbs DNA
Combining our standard “cbs Enterprise Transformer for SAP S/4HANA” (cbs ET) software and the M-cbs methodology-based transformation approach offers clear benefits for companies making a move to SAP S/4HANA. M-cbs is a unique methodology tailored to the specific challenges involved in SAP-supported transformation and optimisation projects of all types, sizes, and scopes.
The consistency M-cbs offers is one particular advantage our clients enjoy. Using integrated techniques, cbs guide you as you progress from defining your strategy and designing processes and solutions to implementing them worldwide.
The right method for implementing the SAP S/4HANA enterprise solution
M-cbs allows companies to move to SAP S/4HANA to take advantage of the knowledge and best practices from more than 1,500 transformation projects and more than 20 y years of project experience.
The transformation approach used must be tailored to the individual company. A comprehensive approach and strategic preparation should be used for the implementation. The business and IT agendas must be integrated methodically and efficiently. Only then will the transition to a new software platform be a sustainable strategic success.
Comprehensive transformation support
The end-to-end transformation portfolio offered by cbs allows companies to design their strategy, business processes, systems, and data from a single source. cbs consultants devise a tailored road map together with the customer, design a sustainable digital enterprise solution, and ensure that the transformation is implemented successfully worldwide.
Customer Success: World’s Biggest SAP S/4HANA Transformation Completed at Viessmann
Viessmann, a globally operating energy systems manufacturer, has completed a high-speed migration to a new, futuristic digital enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform based on SAP S/4HANA.
During a seamless go-live, the company migrated a total of 28 production units in 34 countries to the new system, along with 78 sales organisations worldwide.
The demanding system conversion was pursued as a greenfield project, with 190 company codes and 30 billion data records transferred and more than 6,000 users impacted. The migration was carried out using the near-zero downtime method, and the overall project was completed in just 18 months.
Digital Transformation: Pioneering is a Viessmann Tradition
Viessmann is in the middle of a digital transformation. This means taking a dynamic approach to implementing business requirements for its IT department. Therefore, it was only logical that they tackled the conversion to SAP S/4HANA early. Viessmann wanted to get its central IT platform in shape for the digital age in global markets. The goal was to establish a digital core and harmonise and standardise business processes worldwide.
“We couldn’t afford a protracted enterprise project lasting five years or longer,” said Dr. Harald Dörnbach, managing director of Viessmann IT Service. “For a global player like Viessmann, the SAP S/4HANA transformation is a future mission-critical project of strategic importance. At the same time, it was the largest IT project in our history. As such, it represents a quantum leap when we can implement a project like this quickly, and at a fraction of the cost.”
Custom-Tailored Project Approach to ERP System Conversion
Viessmann decided to pursue a selective approach, “s.m.a.r.t. Green,” which was developed cbs Corporate Business Solution. In an upgrade project entitled “system conversion,” the company would have had to transfer all existing processes and data on a 1:1 basis – including custom developments and processes that were no longer viable or needed. That did not seem to make sense. Under the cbs approach, the core business processes are initially reviewed with regard to their viability. Eighty percent of the processes were deemed to have a high level of maturity and were migrated to the new ERP system. The rest was adjusted or completely redesigned according to business requirements.
Viessmann took a selective approach and concentrated on the processes where transformation added value to the company’s business model. From the start, Viessmann expected a large leverage effect from SAP S/4HANA.
Viessmann managers knew if they wanted to standardise their processes worldwide, they would need a centralised control structure. Dörnbach explains, “We wanted to ensure that the global standards were followed consistently throughout. That’s why we appointed global process owners – to ensure uniform process standards.”
SAP ERP is the central component of the internal system landscape at Viessmann: 190 company codes and one client are used by more than 6,000 users in 34 countries. Twenty-six languages had to be taken into account.
Selective Data Transition: Migration Without Technical Constraints
The technical migration approach was a “selective data transition,” which required three steps. First, an SAP S/4HANA system was set up. Then, relevant customising settings were copied and adapted into the system. Relevant customer developments were also migrated. Finally, the data migration and go-live took place.
The standard software cbs ET Enterprise Transformer for SAP S/4HANA transferred all the data from the source system to the new system. This transferal was minimally invasive and used the near-zero downtime method with minimal interruption in ongoing operations.
ERP System Go-Live Success
The demanding system conversion was pursued as a greenfield project, with 190 company codes and 30 billion data records transferred. More than 6,000 thousand users were affected by the worldwide conversion.
Viessmann selectively optimised and harmonised processes during the project, implemented innovations, defined global standards, streamlined systems, and cleansed data. The transfer included all SAP modules: financial accounting, asset management, controlling, materials management, warehouse management, production planning, sales and distribution, human capital management, customer services, project systems, quality management, and plant maintenance. The migration was carried out using the near-zero downtime method, and the overall project was completed in just 18 months.
“Looking back, it was the easiest conversion I’ve ever experienced during my career in enterprise IT,” Dörnbach reflected. “All processes in the ERP system worked smoothly from the start. Production, shipping, warehouse – all areas continued running at full load without any interruption.”
Users could continue working on purchase orders, deliveries, billing documents, and projects exactly where they left off before the go-live weekend.
ERP Transformation: Flagship Project for Manufacturing Industry
The new, selective, customer-specific migration approach has paid off. “This was a pioneering project,” Rainer Wittwen, a member of the Executive Board at cbs, emphasised. “It shows that global ERP transformations don’t have to take years on end, yet can still deliver solid business benefits. It is creating global standards in record time, implementing digital innovations selectively, and migrating an entire company to the new platform in just a few months. That’s smart and sets new standards. It will be a model for future SAP S/4HANA migration projects.”
Extensive Benefits from SAP S/4HANA
The project managers draw an entirely positive conclusion: “We now have integrated digital business processes company-wide,” continued Dörnbach. “Our future platform is here.”
Viessmann will benefit from significant process improvements, greater efficiency in many business areas, and a reduction in the complexity of the entire IT infrastructure. The new ERP platform makes critical spare parts available more quickly, made possible through internal prioritisation in case of bottlenecks. This, in turn, enables reduced inventories and opens up further potential savings. All of these benefits will positively impact the satisfaction of Viessmann customers.
In addition, Viessmann has implemented innovations such as integrated business planning and material requirements planning. In material requirements planning, calculation times have been cut drastically, from six hours to just 50 minutes, a reduction of 86 percent. As a result, workflows within the supply chain can be coordinated better and more quickly. This means Viessmann is also improving its service levels in logistics.
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