Kemira Oyj Integrates Paper Chemicals Segment of AkzoNobel

Transcription

1 Eighteen Countries Incorporated into the SAP World of Kemira Kemira Oyj Integrates Paper Chemicals Segment of AkzoNobel Global chemicals company Kemira is pursuing plans for further global expansion. For this reason, it has acquired the Paper Chemicals business of AkzoNobel. Integrating the new locations in 18 countries into the Kemira world meant having to standardize its SAP system worldwide. To this end, Kemira relied on the expertise of the Heidelberg-based management consultancy cbs Corporate Business Solutions GmbH, who supported the ambitious post-merger project as the general contractor.

2 About Kemira Kemira is a global chemicals company serving customers in water-intensive industries. They provide expertise, application know-how and chemicals that improve their customers water, energy and raw material efficiency. Kemira s focus is on pulp & paper, oil & gas, mining and water treatment. In 2015, Kemira had annual revenue of EUR 2.4 billion and around 4,700 employees. Kemira shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd.

3 Global chemicals company Kemira is pursuing plans for further global expansion. For this reason, it has acquired the Paper Chemicals business of AkzoNobel. Integrating the new locations in 18 countries into the Kemira world meant having to standardize its SAP system worldwide. To this end, Kemira relied on the expertise of the Heidelberg-based management consultancy cbs Corporate Business Solutions GmbH, who supported the ambitious post-merger project as the general contractor. Besides overseeing the IT program management, the cbs consultants were responsible for rolling out the SAP templates, migrating the data to Kemira s SAP system landscape, and implementing the IT infrastructure. The success of the project soon paid dividends for Kemira and is a milestone in the company s growth strategy. Plans for Growth where water meets chemistry Headquartered in Helsinki, the chemicals company Kemira provides chemicals and expertise to water-intensive industries to help increase their water, energy, and raw material efficiency. For this purpose, the company s global workforce develops innovative and sustainable methods together with its customers. Besides the oil and gas fields of business as well as mining and water treatment, it also focuses on the pulp and paper industry. The Finnish group is pursuing the goal of implementing strategic growth plans at a global level to affirm its presence in selected markets around the world. The group took an important step in this direction when Kemira s Pulp & Paper segment, Kemira Oyj, acquired the Paper Chemicals business of the Dutch company AkzoNobel. The takeover included companies in a total of 18 countries in Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. Kemira anticipates a number of far-reaching technical and business synergies as a result. New Units, New Challenges Customer Statement Vice President of Planning & Controlling and overall program manager of Kemira Oyj It was the biggest SAP rollout ever performed at Kemira. As an important dialog partner and a provider of ideas throughout the program, cbs played a key role in ensuring the project s success The takeover of the paper business presented Kemira with the challenge of ensuring a standardized, global SAP system at all locations. Therefore, all the new international subsidiaries in 18 countries on four continents had to be integrated into the SAP system landscape and go live together on the same day. Kemira uses standardized processes with central governance and a central SAP ERP and SAP BI system. To complete the integration, Kemira s existing SAP template had to be rolled out to all the countries involved. Altogether, 75 SAP plants were integrated into Kemira s system landscape and their associated data migrated. Kemira also faced the challenge of ensuring a standardized IT infrastructure. It took just nine months to design and implement all aspects of this ambitious post-merger project. Long-Standing Partnership The management consultancy cbs has actively supported Kemira as an SAP consulting partner for many years. For this latest project, cbs again fulfilled all the requirements of a general contractor to provide central, holistic solutions and, by adopting a global implementation approach, to enable the acquired units to be integrated successfully into the Kemira system landscape. Thanks to cbs, Kemira was able to rely on continuous support, advice, and expertise from one source from the conceptual design through to go-live.

4 Although Kemira has a standardized structure and is centrally organized, this project demonstrated the vital importance of regional presence and support. This enabled the centrally developed, globally standardized solutions to be implates (SAP ERP and SAP BI) in the acquired subsidiaries, and additional functions as well as legal requirements were also added to the template in the new countries. With its comprehensive expert knowledge in the system landscape transformation (SLT) field of consulting, cbs offers central and global solutions for the restructuring of SAP system landscapes. On this basis, the project team completed the carve-out and merger With the holistic M-cbs methodology, the SAP consultants from Heidelberg were able to plan the project workflow in such a way that it was standardized, global, and in line with the company s requirements. Despite the complex scope of the project, the cbs consultants succeeded in combining comprehensive project and change management at an international level. They managed to roll out Kemira s existing SAP temprocesses with tools developed in-house by cbs. This allowed the relevant data to be specifically migrated to the Kemira system landscape and transformed across the board. cbs also assisted the Finnish group in optimizing important existing business processes or introducing new ones. Holistic Project Management cbs was already familiar with the existing system landscape and the specified requirements of Kemira and embarked on the necessary preparations for the most extensive subproject in the entire PMI program organization. To this end, the team comprising 56 consultants was divided into five further teams: two central teams for SAP and infrastructure and three local rollout teams supporting one continent each. As the general contractor, the cbs consultants assumed responsibility for the complex project management, which involved coordinating the rollout of the SAP templates while at the same time implementing the IT infrastructure.

5 plemented at a regional level. As the project progressed, the challenges that arose by extending the project to four continents also highlighted further benefits of this approach. Because the 18 countries involved in total were subdivided into 13 asset deal countries and 5 share deal countries, the cbs consultants were able to adopt two different approaches without any major outlay. While the asset deals had to be integrated into the existing units, where the share deals were concerned, new units first had to be formed, some of which operated in countries with no prior Kemira footprint. Added to this were regional requirements that arose due to country-specific aspects relating to the new share deal countries. This was because the legal and fiscal regulations in the various countries differ considerably. cbs took these differences into account when adapting the Kemira landscape and carried out the relevant adjustments accordingly. Because the purchase of the individual subsidiaries first had to be approved, this resulted in a number of delays caused by the competition authorities. Thanks to their flexible methods, however, cbs still managed to adapt plans immediately and to implement the project in good time and within the tight time constraints. Dividing the consultants into regional teams and ensuring a high level of local presence proved to be particularly effective. cbs Standard Ensures Rapid Success To implement the project, the cbs consultants used the holistic M-cbs method. This allowed all processes to be structured and coordinated as well as plans continuously adapted right from the start. Consequently, deadlines and schedules were observed and completed on time. In the implementation phase, cbs first rolled out the existing SAP templates (SAP ERP and SAP BI) in all countries. The consultants carried out several integration tests at various times throughout the project implementation. These tests ensured that the Kemira system landscape functions properly, that its components

6 harmonize well, and that it fulfills customer-specific requirements. In this respect, the SAP consultants used further special tools to monitor the project s progress. With SAP Solution Manager, they created global transparency during the integration tests. During go-live and the first few postings, the SAP system landscape was monitored by SharePoint applications to identify critical data constellations and to initiate corrective measures immediately. Finally, SAP Solution Manager assumed responsibility for the IT service management. The cbs consultants expertise and the methodology they used enabled them to achieve a simultaneous go-live in the 18 countries on the same day after just nine months. And this was in spite of the considerable time pressure and short project duration. The Course Has Been Set A project of such complexity at a global level, which includes integrating 18 international subsidiaries, transforming and migrating 75 SAP plants, as well as optimizing and implementing further business processes, necessitates comprehensive, global solution and implementation strategies. Additionally implementing the IT infrastructure required a complex overall program management. Thanks to its years of experience, proven expertise, and accomplished methodology, cbs achieved all this within a very short period of time. It also paid dividends for Kemira Oyj. It was the biggest SAP rollout ever performed at Kemira. As an important dialog partner and a provider of ideas throughout the program, cbs played a key role in ensuring the project s success, says Terhi Ilvonen, Vice President of Planning & Controlling and overall program manager of Kemira Oyj. Acquiring AkzoNobel s Paper Chemicals business provided an important stimulus for growth. This is particularly evident in Asia, where the acquired share exceeds the previously existing

7 share. The smooth transformation and migration of the SAP plants and the resulting integration of the acquired international subsidiaries in Asia, Europe, and North and South America also proved to be economically profitable for Kemira. Despite external delays, cbs implemented the project within the timeframe envisaged and even remained below the proposed budget. Although the post-merger integration phase has not yet been completed, the project has already been a major success for Kemira Oyj. The global acquisition has been integrated successfully. With a globally standardized SAP system landscape, the course has now been set for further synergy effects. Furthermore, Kemira Oyj was able to increase its presence on selected relevant markets and strengthen its competitive position in the long term. As a result, Kemira managed to take a major step along the road to global expansion.

8 cbs Corporate Business Solutions GmbH The Materna Group Management Consultancy Im Breitspiel Heidelberg - Germany P contact@cbs-consulting.com