The Mainsite GmbH & Co.KG is the operating company of the Industrie Center Obernburg, Europe's largest and most diversified chemical fiber industry estate.
201 - 500
Chemical Manufacturing
Erlenbach am Main
As an IT service provider, Mainsite GmbH & Co. KG is responsible for the hardware, operation, and service of the SAP applications SAP HCM Payroll, Time, and Travel. The challenge, from a project perspective, was the requirement to integrate the companies into the existing clients and the processes of Mainsite to achieve the greatest possible synergy effects.
Even though the absolute numbers of the staff are rather small companies, the complexity of the task was extremely high. The companies are industrial enterprises with salaried and blue-collar employees, shift operations with complex time management, and COVID-19-related short-time work.
There were major differences in the wage, time, and expense types, the processing schemes and rules, and the basic settings for customizing. The master and processing data should be migrated without retroactive accounting but with a 10-year history.
"A project of this size and complexity was entirely new territory for us. Fortunately, with Triple A, we found an exceptionally customer-oriented partner with years of project experience, marked by outstanding expertise, reliability, and dedication from planning to implementation."
Tools from Accenture Software GmbH were chosen to provide technical support for the project work. The Accenture Clone & Test Tool and the Migration Pack extension were used for the migration. The Accenture Clone & Test Tool in connection with the Migration Pack supports companies in the planning of SAP release changes, SAP upgrades, the merging of different SAP systems (for example after a merger or takeover) or the outsourcing of systems in the event of the sale of parts of the Company.
With the Accenture Migration Pack, data fields can be merged quickly and efficiently during implementation / migration and converted if necessary. Complex facts can also be mapped using the conversion rules. In addition, you have the option of expanding the conversion programs generated with your own coding. With these tools you could approach the final migration via various test migrations (repeat runs) and thus guarantee a smooth GoLive.
"Sensible and practicable solutions were developed for all requirements in an extremely pleasant and trusting cooperation between the specialist departments and the project team. Thus, despite the Corona-related circumstances, the project was completed on schedule and to the fullest satisfaction."
Almost immediately at the start of the project, a new and uninvited player joined the project: Corona. This circumstance forced us to carry out the entire project via Microsoft Teams and remote access to the SAP systems, with the exception of the kick-off and a workshop in the summer.
Basically, the project was broken down into the areas of project management, technology, payroll accounting, time management and travel expenses.
Due to the pandemic situation, almost all meetings, jour fixes and steering committee meetings were carried out via MS teams. Despite all the initial concerns, this procedure has proven to be extremely practical. The usual personal contact could be compensated by the higher flexibility and faster availability.
In the area of technical migration, the project decided to use tools from Accenture. With the Migration Pack, an extension to the widespread Clone & Test, you can analyze the old data stock using specified criteria (e.g. field selection) and then transfer it to the structure of the receiving system by defining conversion tables. The migration could be improved again and again in several test runs, so that only a small part of the productive migration had to be reworked manually. In this respect, the use of the tool has brought time advantages and increases in efficiency, which have also increased confidence in the transition on the customer side.
In the area of payroll accounting, the different approaches between the two SAP systems had to be aligned in painstaking detail. To outline the complexity a little, only the most important aspects are mentioned here in brief: Averages with different evaluation bases, absence evaluation, KuG, forms, ATZ, Wage types, Modifiers, Schemes and rules, Aliquoting, and posting in different SAP systems on different instances.
The situation was similar in the area of time management. Although everyone involved is in the area of collective bargaining regulations in the chemical industry, there were still major differences in the time models, the schemes and rules, and last but not least, of course, in the time wage type evaluation. The forms also had to be adjusted. Although the companies are located on the same site, the time recording was regulated differently and had to be converted to a uniform procedure as part of the project on January 1st, 2021 at 0:00 a.m. taking new personnel numbers into account. Last but not least, the new service provider Mainsite decided to convert its vacation management to allotments as part of the project.
In the context of travel expenses, comparatively only minor adjustments were necessary, whereby the procedure was changed over to the application of lump sums and a payment as part of the payroll accounting.
"The good mix of many years of work and project experience, both on the part of the customer and on the part of the consulting partner, high personal commitment, short and direct decision-making paths and the use of practical tools have allowed us to complete the project on time and on budget despite difficult circumstances complete."
