The Elmer Group has implemented a new industrial solution for technical wholesale with a total of 1,200 users at 90 locations. The explicit goal was to implement the new ERP software as a holistic and integrated intercompany system and to harmonize the process landscape. The new ERP landscape now consists of the FIS/wws wholesale solution as well as the FIS/xee integration component and the FIS/edc Invoice Monitor as FIS-individual SAP optimizations. Elmer has thereby replaced its existing heterogeneous landscape of self-developed and marketable retailing systems emerged over the years due to, for instance, business acquisitions.
In the course of the implementation of the new Industrial Solution for Technical Wholesale, the new retailing system had to be connected to a series of external systems, such as to the Viadat warehouse management system, an online shop and a catalog data maintenance software solution.
Project managers Thomas Wieland (FIS) and Frank Knitsch (Elmer) were responsible for controlling the project comprising nearly 4,500 man days. After a runtime of 26 months, they put the major project into successful and smooth productive use in April 2017.
It was a silent change of systems: neither did the industry notice the changeover to the SAP system nor did the Elmer customers. On the first morning after go-live, we already received positive feedback from the warehouse: “There were no delays due to SAP this morning – Everything is just fine!”
Bastian Hördemann, managing director at the Elmer Group, explained shortly after project start in 2015: “We decided in favor of FIS as implementation partner for this SAP project because, in our opinion, it is the most qualified SAP partner and can best cover our wide range of SAP requirements with its holistic all-in-one solution.” He still sticks to this decision. FIS has proven to be the appropriate and right partner for the ERP implementation project. Both companies look back with satisfaction on a successful major project.
