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Full speed ahead for the transformation: apsolut and DMK are restructuring Purchasing with SAP Ariba
Company
DMK
Branch
Food processing
Products
Cheese, quark, ice cream, vegan products, baby food, special foodstuffs and more
Number of employees
approx. 6,800
Turnover
around 5.1 billion euros
Headquarters
Zeven, Germany
Websitewww.dmk.de
New channels in Purchasing: How DMK Group interpreted digital purchasing anew
DMK Group, Germany’s largest dairy group, worked with a diverse, specialised system landscape – a conscious decision, as no single tool could cover all the requirements in the purchasing process. This structure allowed the business to fulfil different requirements in a targeted manner, but also entailed challenges such as limited integration and increased expenses. The digital transformation of Purchasing was therefore a strategic move to increase efficiency and transparency in the long term.
The journey began in 2018 with the development of a corporate procurement IT roadmap, with the SAP Value Engineering team and within the framework of the DMK-IT strategy specifications. In 2019, the project started with the first module: Supplier Lifecycle and Performance. Owing to the pandemic, there was another check and a revision of the roadmap in 2020 before the next projects were to start in 2021 – module for module, Guided Sourcing, Contracts and Guided Buying followed.
To implement the project, DMK called in apsolut – not least because of their 20-year partnership. apsolut is familiar with the organisation, understands the purchasing processes and thinks in end-to-end scenarios. The aspirations were clear: Reduce complexity, harmonise processes and shape Purchasing in such a way that it remains controllable and scalable in the long term, despite increasing requirements.
"It really helped to work with a partner who knows our organisation,”
says Wiebke Stahmann, eProcurement expert and project manager at DMK Group. “Despite frequent changes in personnel, we found solutions – and apsolut proved to be consistently open and cooperative when it came to escalations.”
The objective went beyond just digitalisation: Greater user focus, more independence and efficiency gains were also key.
But the journey was demanding: Supplier onboarding, change management, limited personnel capacities – all these things demanded a great deal from the project team. A structured key user concept, their own developed ticketing system and consistent communication helped to overcome these challenges. “We have a strong team and a fantastic cooperative spirit, but we still had such a long way to go,” says Stahmann.
On 18 March 2025, SAP Ariba Guided Buying went live with success – with 1,100 users, including 700 requesters and 400 approvers. In the first six months after the launch, over 20,000 requests had already been processed digitally. Especially pleasing: From the start, the organisation was able to integrate smaller suppliers as well as larger ones with success. And the number of suppliers on the network is increasing every day.
Today, DMK Group controls its approval process with flexibility, creates templates independently and benefits from centrally maintained data. Flexible reporting supports further increases in transparency in Purchasing and can be utilised on an individual basis.
The transformation is not yet complete; the project team are focusing consistently on topics such as user acceptance and integration between individual modules. With Guided Buying, Sourcing, Contracts and SLP, the organisation has laid strong foundations. Now the transformation is followed by the SCC module – a very demanding part of the project. This relates to direct materials, forecasting and planning, and may have effects on production. There is a great deal of respect for this task, but the previous experience gives cause for optimism. For Stahmann, one thing is clear: “Digitisation must make an impact – through transparency, process reliability and scalability. Only then will it be a real support to Purchasing.”
Implemented tools
SAP Ariba Buying
SAP Ariba Contracts
SAP Ariba Sourcing
SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance
SAP Business Network Supply Chain Collaboration
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