Best basis for further growth

"Our goals? We wanted to optimize the processes in the company and improve our structures - and we achieved both with the implementation project," says Dr. Andrea Eckelhoff, Division Manager Information Systems and Central Administration and one of the project managers at GNS from Essen.

"To achieve this, we not only technically converted SAP S/4HANA, but also completely rebuilt the system, establishing SAP as the leading system and at the same time reducing the number of existing sub-systems that do not originate from SAP - in other words, the result of SAP S/4HANA is a leaner and permanently more flexible IT landscape."

GNS Gesellschaft für Nuklear-Service mbH carried out the greenfield implementation with GAMBIT from October 2020 to January 2022. The project was preceded by a joint preliminary study with the development of a roadmap for SAP S/4HANA, which was started in mid-2019.

"With the preliminary project, we laid the foundation for the implementation," says Ralf Schoolmann, project manager and GAMBIT project leader for the GNS project, "and therefore we also knew exactly which strategic goals were to be achieved and how, and what work needed to be done - for example, with a view to optimizing processes."

Prior to the conversion, GNS was working with SAP ECC 6.0 with enhancement package EHP6. The company had a two-tier system landscape consisting of development and production systems. As part of the SAP S/4HANA implementation, the experts set up a three-tiered on-premise system landscape consisting of a development system, a production system and a test system.

Other projects concurrent with implementation

One of the special features of the GNS project was that, in addition to the implementation, a whole series of other projects had to be implemented at the same time, for each of which there were other implementation partners.

• For example, the automated high-bay warehouse of GNS at the Mülheim site was subjected to a technical modernization (retrofit) by the service provider Viastore. Among other things, the specialists replaced the control technology and renewed the conveyor technology in the warehouse.
• The technology in the high-bay warehouse was also connected directly to an SAP EWM under SAP S/4HANA by the service provider Prismat - due to the conversion from Warehouse Management (SAP WM) to Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM) required for SAP S/4HANA. SAP EWM supports companies - with an extended range of functions compared to SAP WM and many automated processes - in the entire warehouse logistics and warehouse management.
• In addition, the HR service provider iCon (today: EPI-USE GmbH), which is new to GNS, converted the existing ESS portal (Employee Self Service) to the WebDynpro-based SAP ESS portal as part of a "re-implementation" - also in a parallel project. With SAP ESS, employees can record, manage and evaluate a lot of HR data independently.

The large number of project partners, some of whom were new, resulted in an increased need for coordination and communication, so meetings were already established in the preliminary project to integrate the various projects into the Gesa

Goals of the project achieved

In addition to the replacement of SAP ECC and the simplification of the IT landscape, GNS pursued other central goals with the introduction of SAP S/4HANA, such as, above all, the increasing orientation of GNS towards international markets and customers.

In addition, the implementation of SAP S/4HANA should make it easier to deal with some regulatory requirements - such as the American ASME Code, the world's leading set of rules for the design, manufacture and testing of pressure equipment and pressure-carrying components, in international accounting or fast close for faster preparation and publication of the annual financial statements.

The go-live at the beginning of January 2022 finally went off without any major problems. The go-live was preceded by an intensive training and test phase. During the go-live itself, all GNS processes - with the exception of Human Resources - were transferred to the new SAP S/4HANA system.

"We were only able to successfully master the project thanks to the good cooperation between the internal and external project participants throughout the entire project duration. The extensive cut-over plan - with 1,100 lines - and the associated planning for the go-live also led to success," said Daniel Schlick, Head of IT Applications, and Yvonne Staisch, Head of Finance and Accounting at GNS and part of the GNS project management team after the go-live. "The challenge of the changeover has been mastered, now the next challenge starts: everyday life!"