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apsolut implements SAP Ariba Snap for Archroma, a global leader in specialty chemicals and dyes
Company
Archroma
Branch
Chemistry
Products
Textile dyes and chemicals, packaging solutions
Number of employees
Over 4,000
Headquarters
Pratteln, Switzerland
Websitewww.archroma.com
Flexible Project Management: Big Bang Instead of Go-Live in Two Waves
Archroma is a global, diversified provider of specialty chemicals serving the textiles, packaging, paper coatings, adhesives and sealants markets. The company operates in over 90 countries and has over 30 production sites worldwide. Following the acquisition of the Textile Effects division of Huntsman Corporation in March 2023, the company has been undergoing a comprehensive restructuring program.
The main components of this program are
- the integration of the Textile Effects division
- the consolidation of the Group’s various ERP systems and
- the transformation of purchasing to a central SAP Ariba realm
The new Ariba suite replaced both the previous SAP SRM solution from Archroma and the existing SAP Ariba realm from Textile Effects. apsolut not only helped to merge the different company codes, but also to secure the attachments to purchase requisitions from the Textile Effects suite. These were downloaded using a self-developed interface and transferred to the new suite.
The biggest challenge for the timing of the procurement transformation was the overarching ERP project. As part of this, several ERP systems from the Archroma Group and the Textile Effects ERP were merged into one central system. Due to numerous complex dependencies, the go-live of the new ERP was delayed several times. As a result, the original project plan had to be scrapped. The original plan was to go live in the branches in Spain and Switzerland first and then carry out rollouts in the other four regions in a second wave.
As the schedule kept getting pushed back, the decision was finally made to go live with a ‘big bang’.
For Felipe Antunes Miranda, Global IT Category Manager and Project Manager at Archroma, this big bang approach was definitely a challenge: “The basic workflow doesn’t change if I go live in six regions at the same time instead of two. But of course, we also had to carry out user acceptance tests in all six regions at the same time, which was very challenging. Here we were really glad to have an experienced partner like apsolut at our side. They not only helped us with the tests, but also advised us on how to manage the transfer of knowledge to the end users and our management. This enabled us to establish a sustainably stable process.”
The feedback from employees worldwide has been overwhelmingly positive, as the user interface is very intuitive, and the process is easy to understand. Nevertheless, the transformation journey is far from complete. Many employees still need to be onboarded and not all catalogues have been integrated into the system yet. Felipe Antunes Miranda follows an important principle when working with apsolut: strategy is more important than technology. He explains:
“Technology undoubtedly opens up many new possibilities. But if you don’t convince people of the benefits of this technology, you won’t benefit from these opportunities. apsolut has played a major role in ensuring that people at Archroma recognize the advantages of the new solution and that the company benefits in the long term.”
SAP Ariba Snap is the preconfigured midmarket license model for procurement. It can be implemented quickly and supports widespread best practices in medium-sized companies.
With the help of a self-developed interface, attachments from an expiring Ariba Realm could be saved and transferred to a new central ERP.
Implemented tools
High-quality training materials for all end users
Backup and migration of attachments to purchase requisitions from the expiring Ariba realm of Textile Effects via API
SAP Ariba Snap Buying
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