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Manufacturing case study

Etex modernizes its IT foundation for a new era of sustainable innovation

Cognizant and SAP partnered to migrate a business-critical SAP ECC environment to S/4HANA to ready Etex for future transformation and innovation.

At a glance

Industry
Manufacturing

Location
Global, with HQ in Belgium

Challenge

Modernize and migrate a legacy SAP ECC applications environment to S/4HANA to support future business growth.

Success Highlights

  • Project delivered in under 12 months with no surprises or setbacks
  • 40+ country operations gain a modern ERP backbone to support business growth
  • 6,000+ users benefit from a new digital core

The challenge

Etex is a pioneer in the manufacture of lightweight construction materials, enabling people worldwide to build safe, sustainable, smart and beautiful buildings. Founded in 1905, its innovations and acquisitions in fire protection, plaster technology, modular construction and engineering have revolutionized the construction industry, aligning it with Etex’s mission of inspiring ways of living.

Etex sees its products as part of the solution to combating climate change, as they are recyclable and up to 45% less emissions-intensive to produce over traditional construction methods. The company has signed the United Nations (UN) Global Compact and is fully committed to helping achieve UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in areas where its products can have an impact.

Migrating from a legacy SAP environment

Etex has strong ambitions to grow its business and develop the company’s sustainable product lines through internal innovation and further acquisitions. For this it needs a strong enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform with modern, business-enhancing functionality. Its legacy SAP ECC platform was facing end of support and Etex opted to take the opportunity to upgrade to SAP S/4HANA.

This was a major modernization project and Etex conducted a comprehensive multi-year assessment to determine the right approach. It opted for a brownfield migration, carrying some business-critical processes and functionality over to S/4HANA and leveraging new S/4HANA features where possible.

Etex wanted a world-class combination of systems integrator and technology partner to handle the migration and conversion. It therefore engaged Cognizant and SAP to deliver the end-to-end project.

Our approach

A target of 12 months was set for the whole environment to go live on S/4HANA. Throughout, Cognizant, Etex and SAP worked in partnership to ensure a smooth and successful project delivery with all parties working together to anticipate, address and resolve any issues.

Delivering a successful modernization

The modernization involved first developing a thorough understanding of the SAP environment.  A full system readiness analysis was conducted to understand which aspects of the environment would need remediation prior to the move.  A conversion plan for the migration was then created, using best-practice processes and frameworks.

our approach

To de-risk the project, a six-cycle migration was planned. The cycles started with the sandbox environment, being the lowest-risk, and progressed through to the production environment. Each cycle involved Etex, Cognizant and SAP working together to convert to S/4HANA, implement mandatory simplification items, make custom code corrections and migrate the data. The learnings from each cycle were applied in subsequent cycles, in readiness for seamless cut-over and go live.

As part of our end-to-end approach, Cognizant also implemented a best-practice test management strategy that Etex can use for future business transformation projects. 

All six cycles were completed as planned, with Etex going live on S/4HANA in a single weekend at the end of the <12-month period.

"I am deeply impressed by the professionalism and collaborative spirit of the joint project team comprising Etex, SAP and Cognizant. Their unwavering commitment and seamless coordination allowed us to successfully deliver this critical project on time, without any disruption to our business operations."

Dirk Altgassen, Chief Data and Information Officer (CDIO), Etex

Business outcomes

The smooth, on-time migration to S/4HANA allowed Etex to start benefiting from SAP S/4HANA features in a little over a year—a rapid timeframe for a full modernization of a complex legacy SAP ECC environment. Specific outcomes achieved to date include:

  • Next-generation platform to enable business growth: Etex now benefits from a modern ERP backbone that will support the company in areas like finance, warehouse management, transportation and HR. It now has a foundation to deploy embedded AI use cases to drive further business value.
  • A new ERP backbone for 100+ plants in 40+ countries: Etex operations around the world benefit from a new digital core that sets the foundation for an enhanced user experience in S/4HANA.
 

Throughout, the collaborative effort between Etex, SAP, and Cognizant facilitated coordination and ongoing external benchmarking. This has been fundamental for the successful execution and establishment of the groundwork for the digital transformation journey.

Business outcome
Ready for a new era of sustainable construction

Etex was already an industry leader and pace-setter, with its lightweight, low-carbon materials enabling the transition to sustainable construction worldwide. Now, with new products and acquisitions on the horizon, Etex is preparing for a new era of sustainable innovation. The new modernization and migration project has ensured that its business-critical SAP core is ready for that shift, delivering a powerful new technology backbone that enables Etex to benefit from new S/4HANA features as they roll out.

Etex modernizes its IT foundation to drive sustainable innovation

Watch video : 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSc3sqCXcgA
 

About Etex

Etex is an innovative and sustainable building materials company and a pioneer in lightweight construction. It employs 13,500 teammates globally, operating on more than 160 sites and  seven Innovation Technology Centers (ITC) in 45 countries worldwide. For more information, visit www.etexgroup.com.