Client:  Leading Consumer Packaged Goods Company

Client Situation

A Fortune 100 food company had been building a “best-in-class” systems environment for a number of years.  As a result of acquisitions, it also had a complex mix of business systems and disparate platforms.  After successfully implementing SAP ECC 6.0 in Europe, plans were developed to implement SAP for the North America business units.   The objectives were to have one set of system platforms, to simplify and harmonize business processes internally and with external partners, to improve decision support and financial management throughout the company, to provide cost transparency and enable growth.

The initial scope included multiple headquarters and field sales office locations, warehouses, 42 manufacturing plants in the North America and linkage to 1,500 other applications.  The program was launched and the System Integrator provided a number of consultants for the Order-to-Cash, Source-to-Pay, Material-to-Inventory and Record-to-Report process teams.  The client quickly learned the magnitude of the issues surrounding master data management and identified the opportunity to increase the functional expertise and business acumen of the process teams with alternative consultants.

Solution

The AddVantage Group partnered with the organization to build out their teams for the multi-year project with 21 consultants.  We provided a blend of seasoned SAP configuration consultants and management consultants with deep functional experience for each of the process teams.  An additional benefit to the client is that these consultants were provided at a rate that was lower than the System Integrator consultants.

Results

The business process expertise and knowledge of SAP that we were able to contribute throughout the lifecycle of the first and second Delivery Cycles enabled the acceleration of the plans over what had been thought possible.  Our consultants drove conversation during the requirements gathering and design phases that would ensure quality and meeting the future needs of the client.  Our consultant expertise also provided training for client employees who had no prior SAP experience.

Client management for both the Internal Controls and Security functions also engaged our consultants to drive those areas throughout the program duration.

As plans were made to expand the program to a total of 8 Delivery Cycles and to Latin America and South America, we continued to provide consultants who led or were members of the process teams.
We delivered more than $3 million in cost savings during the initial 2 years through rates that were lower than the System Integrator.