CSM Bakery Solutions uniforms IT Landscape across countries with SAP

SAP Template for global process optimizations

Introduction the CSM Bakery Supplies case

The history of CSM goes back to 1919. A number of independent sugar factories were merged into CSM. CSM were specialized in bakery ingredients for bakers and consumers. Today, CSM specializes in a wide portfolio of products ranging from ingredients to semi-finished products and deep-frozen ready-made and ready-made products. Her customers are craft bakers, bakery chains, in-store bakeries, industrial bakeries, food service and out-of-home.

CSM Bakery Solutions has branches in Europe, Africa, North America, Latin America and Asia. In recent years, CSM Bakery Solutions has grown substantially in size due to a number of acquisitions. In 2013, CSM itself was acquired by Private Equity organization Rhône Capital, after which the company's activities and markets continued to increase.

Involved Project Members

Stephan Mahler - Manager Application BSEU CSM

Joan Voswijk - Business Process & IT Manager BSEU CSM

Ferry Bogaards - Managing Partner Scheer Netherlands

Advantages of standardization and
simplification of IT landscape

Each country had its own systems and its own maintenance plan. Beside SAP, Navision systems were active.

CSM was challenged to establish a single integrated information system to support all global operations.

CSM Bakery Solutions decided to standardize based on SAP Solutions. Not only was SAP already used in a number of countries, but SAP fulfilled all CSM requirements in terms of functionality and scalability.

CSM was looking for an external partner that could support CSM in creating a uniform template. Main challenges for CSM were:

Improve customer interaction;
It can work more predictably;
A more efficient and effective supply chain execution.

Therefore, it was necessary to standardize business processes across all countries and to simplify the ERP system landscape. Then the roll-out of the operating model could take place.

Process Focus approach of Scheer Nederland was decisive

Scheer Nederland selected because of process oriented approach

In particular, Scheer Nederland has been asked to provide support for this project due to its process-oriented approach and the knowledge of SAP Best Practices. The goal was to create one integrated SAP solution and to develop an operating model that could be deployed worldwide.

"Getting in line with all the different systems was actually an impossible task. That was the reason to start this project, "says Joan Voswijk , Business Process & IT Manager BSEU at CSM. "We wanted to create a system for all countries and therefore have one version of the truth, regardless of location. This harmonization was obviously very business-driven because it should enable us to streamline processes and achieve further improvement in the efficiency in the countries. "

End-to-End Process Approach

Scheer Nederland provided CSM a complete Application and End-to-End Process approach:

Specific management teams have been set up to capture the goal and the smart objectives of processes.
These processes are translated into a clear blueprint, test scenarios and long-term deployment plan.

Stephan Mahler ( CSM): " Scheer The Netherlands has helped us with an integrated solution that uses the standard SAP standard functionality as much as possible. Many companies think their processes are unique, but if you look closely, most of them are fully covered by standard ERP functionality. Scheer has played an important role in the standardization of processes and allows only exceptions in processes that really make the difference for our organization. By using the ARIS modeling tool, it was also possible to visualize processes and continue to speak in our business language instead of IT or SAP ERP language. This approach to Scheer has led to a significant acceleration of insight and choices within the project . "

The importance of a Pilot Site
for the validation of the developed Global SAP Template

Selection of the correct Pilot Site

After thorough consultation and comparisons of the complexity of the different countries, Austria has finally chosen to act as a pilot country. The operations of Austria are relatively small and clear. As a result, it was possible to implement and validate the developed template within a period of several months. The transition to the new environment was realized without the failure of a single order.

Next step: Global roll out SAP Template

Following the evaluation of the pilot, it was decided to deploy this SAP Global Template to the other countries.

Joan Voswijk concludes: " CSM and Scheer had previously collaborated with each other, making it known that the process and SAP knowledge of the Scheer Consultants for this project was a right choice. Scheer knows perfectly how to translate our business processes into SAP,. This foundation has been laid for a uniform set-up that can be deployed worldwide and will lead to efficiency benefits.

Ingredients for a successful Global Project

Ferry Bogaards concludes that the following ingredients have contributed to the successful creation of a global template for CSM bakery solutions:

Robust base can only be achieved by focusing on processes, with CSM's strategy being paramount;
Deployment of ARIS Business Process Manager provides the right insight into the structure of and interaction between processes. ARIS was used to create clear business view for the associated disciplines;
Focus on the fit of SAP Industry Best Practices Scenarios in order to avoid customizing. Let the standard solutions work.

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Findings from the Project

Need for uniformity in the systems

Getting in line with all the different systems was actually an impossible task. That was the reason to start this project. We wanted to create a system for all countries and therefore have one truth, regardless of location. This harmonization was obviously very business driven because it must enable us to streamline processes and achieve further improvement in efficiency in the countries.

Joan Voswijk

Preference for standard instead of custom solutions

Scheer has played an important role in the standardization of processes and allows only exceptions in processes that really make the difference for our organization. By using the ARIS modeling tool, it was also possible to visualize processes and continue to speak in our business language instead of IT or SAP ERP language. This approach by Scheer has resulted in a considerable acceleration of insight and choices within the project.

Stephan Mahler

End-to-End approach works

Scheer Nederland provided CSM a complete Application and End-to-End Process approach. Specific management teams have been set up to capture the goal and the smart objectives of processes. This has then been translated into a clear blueprint, test scenarios and long-term innovation plan.