Diehl Controls: Innovation & Sustainability
Headquartered in Wangen in the Allgäu region of Germany, Diehl Controls ranks among the world’s leading specialists in the development and manufacture of electronic assemblies, system components, and drive inverters for the household appliance industry. It is part of the globally operating Diehl Group, which has around 17,000 employees at over 80 locations in some 20 countries. The company’s corporate values of innovation and sustainability also feed into its IT, which is set to form the basis for further digitalization at the company with the implementation of the future-proof SAP S/4HANA business suite. For the realization of this challenging IT project Diehl Controls is relying on the expert consulting services of NTT DATA Business Solutions.
Which is the Right Approach to Take?
When planning a conversion to SAP S/4HANA, companies are frequently faced with the following decision: start from scratch (greenfield) or go for a system conversion (brownfield). To prepare for its SAP S/4HANA conversion, Diehl Controls decided to engage NATUVION and use their Selective Data Transition approach with the aim of realizing the future finance benefits of SAP S/4HANA from the start. The Selective Data Transition approach offers several advantages: cleaning up legacy data (structures and data), the introduction of future finance concepts, and the selective transformation of complex data structures for migration to an SAP S/4HANA system with prior selection of the records the business really needs. This facilitates a lean
conversion process and saves both time and money.
Selective Data Transition Meets Conversion Factory
In successful collaboration with NTT DATA Business Solutions, the transformation of the SAP ERP system was executed in line with the precisely customized SAP S/4HANA road map of the Diehl Group. This first involved the precise determination of the requirements for the Selective Data Transition for the implementation of the cost of sales accounting as well as the profit and the segment accounting incl. document splitting. Two challenges within the project: the tight schedule and the need to consider several time zones in connection with the conversion of the global ERP system, including those of Germany, China, and Mexico. The defined project objectives included the implementation of the so-called “Future Finance Guidelines”, specified at group level. Among other things, they stipulated that the benefits provided by SAP S/4HANA should be utilized to improve efficiency in the company’s controlling at an early stage. Essential elements of the guidelines were already introduced before the conversion using the Selective Data Transition, namely the change to the New General Ledger and the New General Ledger Accounting, the implementation of profit center and segment accounting, as well as the document splitting. NTT DATA Business Solutions then initiated the conversion executed using the Conversion Factory.
A New Intelligent System Landscape
This approach combines the NTT DATA Business Solutions expertise with goal-oriented tasks, making for easy management of the conversion requirements. The Conversion Factory enhances planning reliability thanks to its sophisticated methodology, speed, and fixed prices. After a successful go-live, the newly established, intelligent system landscape now excels through modern technologies, process stability, and effective functions. Prepared to fulfill any business requirements, the business processes have been optimized along the entire value chain and a stable IT landscape has been established for further digitalization at the company.