Replacing multiple legacy
systems with a standard SAP platform

Solar A/S operates under a clear growth strategy and works strategically to gain the position as leading technical wholesaler.

Today, the company represents one of Northern Europe’s leading and most modern companies within its field as international, technical wholesaler of electrical, heating, plumbing and ventilation components and products.

Since its foundation in 1919, Solar has remained headquartered in Kolding, Denmark; however, today is represented through companies in Norway, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and the Faroe Islands by a total of 3,000 employees.

Continuous efforts to expand led Solar to purchase an SAP system platform a couple of years ago, as their former ERP systems were no longer geared for the type of growth experienced by the company.

In consequence, an effective, integrated platform was perceived as more conducive to obtaining more streamlined and struc- tured workflows, rooted in a fundamental desire to continue to serve customers in most efficient and optimal way.

Many of Solar’s various offices in multiple countries around the world ran their own legacy ERP systems and, therefore, needed to migrate all of their data into the new SAP platform. In order to achieve a successful mi- gration, Solar purchased data services and liaised with Infotrust to gain sufficient exper- tise to handle the tasks at hand.

Scope

“We did not have the necessary in-house expertise to ensure consistent master data throughout our organization, so we pur- chased SAP BusinessObjects’ software as our tool for loading and migrating master data from our legacy systems into SAP”, says Team Manager Erika Ludwig, SOLAR.

“We also chose Infotrust as our implementation and sparring partner in the process, aiming for them to support our overall corporate SAP implementation strategy to migrate each country as well as to support a fully automatized process in which data would be taken from the legacy systems and brought into the SAP system via a carefully controlled and monitored environment”, Erika Ludwig continues.

Later in the process, the decision to load data from each country one load at a time would be modified, as Infotrust was requested to continue to run only one load at a time, but to work on multiple country sites simultane- ously, so as to accelerate the process.

Efficiently turning data into
valid business information

“After successfully migrating the legacy ERP data from the Solar office in Norway, Infotrust moved on to our local facilities in the Netherlands. Bearing in mind the experience gained from the Norwegian pro- cess, Infotrust was able to re-use many of the workflows established, ensuring proper clean-up and validation of data as well as non-duplication.

This best practice process would also prove beneficial for the implementations at other Solar offices in other countries going for- ward”, Erika Ludwig emphasizes.

“The de-duplication and merging strengths of SAP BusinessObjects data services, combined with Infotrust’s high level exper- tise within the overall field of deploying business intelligence, have allowed us to search for and fix duplicate records much easier and faster, and have saved us a lot of valuable time”.

“The Solar company tagline is ‘stronger together’, and the partnership between us and Infotrust has been a true showcase thereof. We are, indeed, stronger together, because their profile was a natural match to the challenges we faced. From day one, they have delivered top knotch consultants and added valuable insights and experience to the process, bringing the exact skill set to the table that we required and requested. Our relationship with them is more than a co- operation. It is a true partnership“. Erika Ludwig, SOLAR A/S

“That type of efficiency in turning data into valid business information has been a regular eye opener. Although we still need to work our way from old-school business intelligence to the high-performance business tools from SAP BusinessObjects, we are on the fast track to utilizing the suite and taking internal ownership.

Whichever way we choose to look at it, Infotrust saved us. Their well documented and transparent process has left a clear and very positive mark on our organisation’s use of business intelligence”, concludes Erika Ludwig, Team Manager at Solar A/S.