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SAP HANA: In Practice

Thanks to SAP HANA, German company KAESER KOMPRESSOREN is reporting significant performance increases in its logistics processes. KAESER also uses the Mercoline M.TransportCommunicator add-on for processing its shipping orders to shipping companies and CEPs directly from its SAP system. 

SAP HANA migration at Kaeser Kompressoren

KAESER KOMPRESSOREN is a family-run operation and one of the world’s leading manufacturers and suppliers of products and services in the compressed air industry. An SAP reference customer, the company has used SAP since 1993 and integrated logistics processes into its SAP system early on. KAESER has accrued more than a year’s worth of experience since its conversion to the SAP Business Suite on HANA. KAESER IT organizer Peter Schmidt reports, “Our logistics processes have benefited greatly from the conversion to SAP HANA. It provides much better possibilities for analysis and major increases in performance. Goods Received processing is now around 20% faster, we have 40% more picks, and we’re twice as fast at packing.”

SAP-integrated add-on for connecting with transport service providers

Converting the central database to HANA also migrates add-ons such as “M.TransportCommunicator”. Peter Schmidt explains why KAESER values this SAP add-on feature, which was introduced to process shipping orders to shipping companies as well as to courier, express, and parcel services (CEPs) directly from the SAP system. M.TransportCommunicator for SAP ERP is based on SAP standard structures, which means there’s no need to update the add-on separately when upgrading to a new SAP version. The add-on makes CEP interfaces available to all relevant transport service providers that might otherwise be missing from SAP. “We didn’t want to have to work through data interfaces individually with each transport service provider and then set them up in the SAP system. Now Mercoline takes care of it all, and having one partner for coordination and is a major advantage,” says Mr. Schmidt.

Challenges in converting to SAP HANA

KAESER has clear expectations for its service providers. The add-ons have to work perfectly with SAP HANA, and the service providers must have HANA expertise in order to seamlessly transition all links and interconnections from the old system to the new. Peter Schmidt describes the challenge: “The migration of an existing, evolved system to SAP HANA and then to S/4HANA is no picnic, and must be executed with the greatest care. That being said, the integration of the M.TransportCommunicator under SAP HANA went quite smoothly, and it was implemented without delays. Mercoline’s experts know their code and brought the application completely up to date.” The application runs in the background for the packing employees, who continue to automatically receive the right labels to attach for each shipper. The system dialogs and analyses demonstrate the actual performance benefit of the add-on. In summarizing the company’s experience, Schmidt says, “We see very positive performance increases with SAP HANA in this regard.”

Next Step – S/4HANA migration

As KAESER prepares to transition to S/4HANA, the S4/HANA version of M.TransportCommunicator is already on hand, and Mercoline has carried out the necessary tests and adjustments to the new ERP generation. IT organizer Peter Schmidt anticipates even more improvements in this respect. He says, “With Mercoline, we have a partner who offers us quick, uncomplicated guidance along the way to S/4HANA.”

M.TransportCommunicator

Mercoline’s SAP M.TransportCommunicator add-on depicts shipping processes with courier, express, and parcel services (CEPs) as well as with shipping companies directly in the SAP system. Its integration into SAP means that all shipping orders are transparent at all times, and transparency is provided regardless of which transport service provider is executing the shipment. The input and processes are the same for all shippers, reducing the potential for errors and increasing data security. It can also be combined with other Mercoline add-ons in SAP to achieve additional process improvements in the packing process, dispatch accounting, Entry Certificates, and IT connections to customs authorities.

Logistics processes can be depicted directly in SAP with SAP add-ons. Data registered for shipping processes can also be used for the packing process, dispatch accounting, Entry Certificates, and IT connections to customs authorities. SAP and SAP add-ons build upon one another.