Berner Group develops SAP architecture for a digital future

Berner Group planned to modernise its IT landscape, with the explicit aim of taking a broader perspective rather than focusing solely on IT.

Berner Group has a defined target architecture, a roadmap for its implementation and an established architecture management function firmly embedded within the organisation – known as the Customer Centricity Architecture (CCA).

The challenge

The objective set by Berner Group’s Executive Board was to define a flexible and adaptable target architecture capable of meeting the demanding requirements of a technical wholesaler with complex logistical challenges, global procurement operations and production facilities around the world. At the same time, the architecture needed to provide sufficient strategic options and operational excellence to compete with increasingly digital market players in the future.

The Executive Board therefore redefined IT, traditionally regarded as a support function, as a core function of the trading company. Its primary role would be to automate and optimise existing processes, define new processes and enable the rapid development of data-driven services.

During detailed workshops, consenso was introduced to the existing IT architecture. The key questions included:

How can the business requirements of the field sales team – including route planning, product presentation and pricing – be optimally addressed within a holistic IT architecture?
How can information on product availability and order status be made accessible to customers across all channels?
How can future information requirements be met? How should different tools be used in this context?
What should the long-term architecture of the financial systems look like?
In logistics, action is needed regarding the warehouse management system (WMS). Should the WMS be considered in isolation or integrated end-to-end into the process landscape?
Do supplier and freight forwarder management require greater transparency and opportunities for optimisation?
What would a comprehensive, future-proof approach to master data management, including product data, look like?

The approach

consenso adopted a state-of-the-art approach to establishing business demand-oriented architecture management, ensuring that the focus for the digital future was driven by business requirements rather than existing IT functions and shortcomings.

Based on an integrated methodology, the business departments define their requirements in detail, while IT designs the systems to meet them. This ensures that business requirements and IT development are closely aligned. IT effectiveness is maximised by focusing on high-priority business demands. At the same time, IT efficiency is improved through faster decision-making and the avoidance of redundancies and misguided developments.

As part of establishing architecture management, the future roles and processes were introduced and put into practice, ensuring that they would be fully integrated into the organisation and function effectively after the project was completed.

The approach was divided into the following phases and deliverables, which formed the outcomes of Demand-Oriented Architecture Management:

Definition of the strategy and derivation of the business domain model
Development of business capabilities in collaboration with the business departments and documentation in the form of a capability map
Design of a business architecture with an associated business object model
Definition of a target IT architecture aligned with the strategic objectives
Development of a high-level roadmap towards the target IT architecture
Fit-gap analysis of the existing architecture and project portfolio
Project preparation, including a project plan covering timelines, scope and budget

The results

As part of the project, business requirements were captured and documented in the form of capabilities. A target architecture was defined to support these capabilities as effectively as possible, and a roadmap was developed for its implementation. Capabilities were also mapped to architecture components, with these mappings continuing to be updated. As a result, Berner Group now has an established, ongoing architecture management function firmly embedded within the organisation – known as the Customer Centricity Architecture (CCA).

In close collaboration with Berner Group, the implementation approaches (greenfield vs. brownfield) for the architecture components were discussed and evaluated, and the implementation sequence was defined. The resources and other efforts required for the project were estimated, while the project management methodology and programme governance were also finalised as part of the project preparation.

About BERNER

Berner Group, headquartered in Künzelsau, is an international family-owned business and B2B trading partner for customers in the mobility, construction and industrial sectors. Since its foundation in 1957, the company has grown into an internationally established trading group.

Through its brands BERNER, BTI by BERNER and CCS, the group offers a range of more than 100,000 products for repair, care and maintenance. Today, Berner Group operates in 21 countries, employs more than 8,000 people and serves over 500,000 customers.

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