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Successful digital transformation in purchasing at Gelsenwasser
Company
Gelsenwasser
Branch
Utilities and infrastructure
Products
Water supply, waste water disposal, gas supply, electricity supply, chemical park management, infrastructure services, renewable energies, digital grids
Number of employees
approx. 1,800
Turnover
approx. 3 billion euros
Headquarters
Gelsenkirchen, Germany
Websitewww.gelsenwasser.de
How apsolut and SAP Ariba Facilitated A Strategic Realignment
Gelsenwasser is a constant in the German utilities sector: a reliable partner specialising in water, waste water, energy and infrastructure services. The company’s focus is on the Ruhr region of Germany and surrounding areas in North Rhine-Westphalia; it also supplies areas of Lower Saxony and has holdings in other locations, particularly eastern Germany. After extensive market research, Gelsenwasser classified the processes that could be implemented at the company and identified potential digital improvements to leverage value.
A detailed internal survey of employees in purchasing highlighted the potential for improvement. Employees said that they were often unable to clearly allocate suppliers to material groups in the standard version of SAP S/4HANA. This increased the risk of single sourcing, as employees often fell back on suppliers that had been used repeatedly, meaning that potential cost savings and improvements in quality that could have been achieved through broader competition – particularly in smaller material groups – were lost. Framework agreements were often difficult for end users to find or were ambiguously allocated, resulting in inefficient processes.
After an intensive evaluation phase, Gelsenwasser ultimately opted for the e-procurement platform SAP Ariba. Decisive factors in the company’s decision included the intuitive user experience (guided buying) and the established standard interfaces to SAP S/4HANA that ensured the technical integration process would go as smoothly as possible and would minimise the maintenance required in future. These positive aspects convinced Gelsenwasser that the solution would offer lasting benefits, chief among them improved transparency, streamlined processes and more efficient long-term strategic management of purchasing. Gelsenwasser selected apsolut as its partner for the implementation process, primarily because apsolut has comprehensive expertise in implementing Ariba in a range of different industries; the partnership also offered long-term strategic prospects.
The overarching goal of the project was to stick to the standard version of SAP to the greatest extent possible. However, certain adaptations had to be made as a result of industry-specific requirements that differed from the requirements of the manufacturing industry (for which SAP Ariba is particularly well suited). apsolut overcame this challenge with a flexible, solution-oriented approach: framework agreements for civil engineering services or motor oil, for instance, were mapped as multi-supplier catalogues and service orders were integrated. Conventional framework agreements were converted to PunchOut catalogues, and employees are now able to directly access external marketplaces that have been connected to the system.
Additionally, the project team defined clear eligibility criteria for suppliers and systematically expanded the pool of suppliers for each material group in order to reduce risk and fully tap into all available procurement potential.
SAP Ariba Buying successfully went live in 2023. Immediately following the go-live, Gelsenwasser launched a comprehensive process to transform its ERP system to SAP S/4HANA; the integration of S/4HANA into Ariba also played a role here. The SAP Ariba SLP module officially went live in July 2025.
And the project is already showing the first signs of success: users are now reliably able to find the right suppliers, contacts and framework agreements for each material group, and they can do so quickly. They are impressed by the solution’s user-friendly interface and the optimised integration of catalogues. Above all, however, the solution has created a new level of transparency that, for the first time, provides comprehensive support for a strategic approach to purchasing.
Simon Band and Christoph Stephan, both of whom are responsible for purchasing at Gelsenwasser, offer a highly positive summary of the situation:
“apsolut won us over with their keen problem-solving skills. They took a pragmatic, efficient approach that allowed them to overcome every challenge they faced”,
Simon Band emphasises. Christoph Stephan adds: “Our collaborative partnership and the excellent availability of the apsolut team were decisive factors in the success of this project. Our teamwork with apsolut was top-notch – communication was always open, solution-orientated and on equal terms”.
Having taken this important step toward digitalization and integration, Gelsenwasser is now ideally positioned to deliver an agile response to changes in the market and to consistently drive future investments in purchasing and IT infrastructure.
The functions offered by the standard version of SAP Ariba are ideal for complex supply chains, making the solution particularly attractive for manufacturing companies. We draw on tried-and-tested, industry-specific use cases to adapt the tool to the needs of a variety of different sectors.
Supply chain risk management is particularly important in the utilities sector, not least in order to prevent bottlenecks. With the implementation of SAP Ariba SLP and the associated expansion of supplier pools (which had been relatively small up to that point), Gelsenwasser expects to significantly reduce risk within its supply chain.
Implemented tools
SAP Ariba Buying
SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance
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Julia Führer, IT Inhouse Consultant Procurement, BIOTRONIK
“For the new Ariba system, wewere able to onboard more than 1,400 users in three national subsidiaries with only little training effort. With regard to our Procurement processes, we have gained significant transparency and control.“
Jane Wanger, Global Procurement Systems & Support bei KSB
"Together with apsolut, we started as a pioneer in Central Procurement and we are very pleased that we were able to reap the first fruits of this pioneering work so early on.”
Stefan Ehrhardt, Head of SAP Governance Purchasing, MAHLE
"apsolut has been supporting us in the ope-ration of our SRM system for 10 years. It does not matter whether we report a problem in the production system or want to discuss change requests. We are contacted by apsolut in a timely manner to resolve our concerns or discuss our requirements in detail. apsolut always provides the important piece of securi-ty in the background - if anything goes wrong, they always help quickly and straightforwardly."
Torsten Enseroth, SAP S/4HANA Solution Architect, Friedhelm Loh Group
"From the beginning of the project, we have made a remarkable change together with apsolut. The Döhler employees find their way through the easy user interface without any prior knowledge of SAP. As a result, our purchasing department is no longer an operational procurement office, but a team of in-house consultants."
Shibu Palakalodil, Projektleiter SAP Ariba-Implementierung
“To be quite honest: I have experienced so many IT projects in the past where the ambitious original goals were eroded bit by bit. But this time, it was different because apsolut worked very systematically and always intervened promptly when something threatened to get out of hand,”
Thomas Henzler, Chief Information Officer, PILLER Blowers & Compressors
"With apsolut, we have gained a partner who has implemented our requirements effectively and efficiently in the configuration of Ariba in a practical manner and in a breathtaking amount of time. The customer-oriented approach was one of the main reasons why we also chose apsolut for the implementation of SLP and Contract Management."
Frank Unfried, Director Digitalization Purchasing & Indirect Spend bei Pfleiderer
"The mix of virtual design discussions, system demonstrations and break-out sessions, supported by best-in-class tools that allowed us to annotate and track tasks and decisions during screen sharing, enabled us to work closely with apsolut even though distances of up to 12,000 kilometres had to be bridged. We were very pleased that both our projects could be successfully implemented with the help of apsolut."
Alina Aftene, Procurement Solutions Specialist, Delivery Hero
"apsolut led us in a very cooperative and super-competent manner throughout all phases of the project! Above all, the open collaboration between all project members kept motivation high throughout. The project team gets on very well with each other. We were also impressed by the solution-oriented approach and the ability of the entire project team to make quick decisions!"
Hubert Buchsteiner, Group Vice President Purchasing, ZKW Group
“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.”
Felipe Antunes Miranda, Global IT Category Manager and Project Manager, Archroma
“Right from the start, apsolut supported us with the comprehensive experience and expertise they had acquired from their enormous number of past projects. They were able to respond quickly and precisely to our complex requirements and present us with ideal solutions. Thanks to their experience with Ariba, we were able to digitalise our purchasing processes and make them more efficient as a result.”
Alexander Köhler, Purchaser and Project Manager, MLP
‘We’re on the right track to being able to take full advantage of the potential that this transformation offers, as apsolut not only gives us the expertise that we need, but also has an incredibly agile and committed approach. apsolut no longer feels like an external partner to me, but more like an internal department, with whom I hope we can continue to work well into the future.’
Dr. Bei Mortensen, IT Business Service Owner – SCM & Manufacturing, GEA Group
„We were able to roll out Ariba very quickly, because we established a pragmatic and open culture of cooperation with the apsolut team from the very beginning, and we were prepared to systematically align ourselves with the standard“,
Sarah Eve Wiedemann-Geiß, who oversees purchasing and supplier management at Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall
“The cooperation with the international apsolut project team from Germany and India was very effective despite the tough schedule. Due to the high degree of standardisation and automation, we were already able to realise potential savings and, in particular reduce process costs.”
Markus Ortlieb, Director Global Procurement, ProMinent GmbH
"As our experiences with apsolut were so positive across all national companies, we have already doubled the number of monthly support days twice. Thanks to apsolut, we now have the resources we need to implement rollouts in other national companies. At the moment, they are ongoing in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and France."
Sandra Mancino, Application Consultant, C&A
"When selecting a partner for our procurement transformation, a high level of technical know-how was of course also important to us. Here, apsolut was able to convince us with best practices from customers of a comparable size. The decisive factor in the end was the experience in change management! Only in this way were we able to introduce a fully-fledged procurement system that is also accepted by all employees."
Göktürk Simsekol, Digital Transformation Director, Flint Group
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Regina Krüger-Wendel, Chief Procurement Officer, Atruvia
„apsolut not only guided us through the project with the utmost professionalism and a proactive approach – the decisive factor was that apsolut enabled us to operate the new tool independently and to manage the next steps ourselves. apsolut’s employees quickly familiarised themselves with our system and processes, which made it easier for us to achieve the project goals within the given timeframe. I would also like to praise their flexibility in adapting to changes and their flexibility in implementation, with clear communication and excellent project management. We look forward to benefiting from this expertise more often.”
Zinah Matar, Digital Business Development Manager, Juffali Commercial Vehicles
"apsolut impressed us in our project, particularly because of the open and cooperative partnership. The project team gets on very well with each other. But we were also impressed by the solution-oriented approach and the fast and efficient enablement of our support staff!"
Annette Römer, Project Manager, McKesson Europe AG
“apsolut won us over with their keen problem-solving skills. They took a pragmatic, efficient approach that allowed them to overcome every challenge they faced”,
Simon Band, Group Manager Materials Management – Purchase Contracts, Gelsenwasser
"Being able to design our purchasing processes flexibly, digitally and above all efficiently offers great added value. We will therefore continue to expand our system in the direction of SAP Ariba."
Armin Kaczmarek, Senior Vice President Corporate Purchasing, Vorwerk
"apsolut pro-actively asked us questions from the outset, discussed our aims and created a new roadmap. This approach was the complete opposite of the original project and it worked fantastically,"
Patrick Tydex, Project Manager, Zentis
„During our conversation with apsolut, it quickly became clear that while we definitely did have potential for digitalisation in direct procurement, the potential in indirect procurement was much greater. That’s why we shifted our focus, and it was absolutely the right decision“,
Yvonne Kippschull, SAP-Prozess- & Application Consultant, wolfcraft
“We had many specific requirements and together with apsolut we found a solution for each one of them. We used to search for supplier information, now we do find it. We are really very satisfied!”
Tanja Sefrin, Project Manager, KUKA
„We were looking for a specific solution that did not exist yet. We didn’t want to compromise. So we looked for the right partner to model a flexible tool so that we could configure the specific processes ourselves. We used our expertise and creativity to make Squando our global supplier management tool.“
Ketylin Morello, Purchasing Strategy and Market Intelligence & Functional Product Owner for Squando, Schaeffler
"Of course, we are immensely proud of how we implemented this complex transformation together. The always competent and more than punctual execution moved us to initiate a parallel project for partial process innovation in the ongoing project. Actually a no-go, but with apsolut no problem! With this positive experience, it was easy for us to initiate another project, which is currently being implemented. One thing remains to be said: Without the team around Bodo Hempelmann, this journey would definitely have been more difficult!”
Manuel Steffen, Project Officer Source-to-Pay, Evonik Industries
"apsolut demonstrated a high degree of flexibility and commitment during the project. The structured working methods and the dedicated team enabled us to meet the urgently needed go-live deadlines."
Paul Trautmann, Manager Procurement Processes & Projects, Röhm GmbH
“I would give them nine out of ten points – apsolut is definitely among the top five per cent of all consulting services we’ve ever worked with.”
Felix Leister, Global Process Owner – Source-to-Pay, Festool
"Although personal contact was very limited due to Corona, a strong team formed during the intensive project phase. The decision-making paths at BITZER and apsolut were always short so that issues could be dealt with promptly and the planned go-live date achieved. The home office was not an obstacle, but also gave us the necessary flexibility for a project of this size.
All team members have done a great job, I have rarely worked so well with a consulting firm!"
Steffen Bauer, Project Manager, BITZER
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Martin Traxl, Head of Strategy & Digitalization, OMV
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Annette Römer, Project Manager, McKesson Europe AG
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Gerald Goldgruber, Strategic Manager for Process Management and SAP, Frutura
„Every time we came up against an unexpected challenge during the course of the project, apsolut immediately showed up possible options to resolve the issue. We always knew to what extent we had freedom of movement within the constraints of the cloud solution.”
Linna Krasnikov, SCC System Administrator, Kärcher
“With a partner like apsolut, not even a pandemic is able to stop us! When the project started, we were a little skeptical, due to the fact that the project team was unable to meet face-to-face. But we are now delighted to say that all our concerns have proven to be unfounded.“
Chandrashekhar Saldur, AGM - Global Procurement & Projects, ETG Group
“After the first Ariba roll-outs, we continued to work with apsolut to jointly develop our Ariba Suite. We usually work together at eye level, and I appreciate apsolut’s open and honest advice. I always have the feeling that the best solution for the customer is their guiding principle. This level of honesty is what led us to working together for so long.”
Małgorzata Pośpiech, SCM Process Manager, JOYNEXT
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Michael Spiess, Chief Procurement Officer, Sanitas Krankenversicherung
„Despite all the digitalisation and automation, we still work in a people business. During this project, we have grown into such a resilient, unified team that we’ve managed to meet all of our deadlines up to this point, even though some of them were quite ambitious. Ultimately, that also motivates everyone involved to do their part in driving the project forward!“
Simon Bohn, Global Solution Architect Procure to Pay, STIHL
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