SAP Financial Consolidation at BayWa

Our Services for BayWa

The SAP specialists from Arvato Systems supported the BayWa Group in replacing its legacy systems (including SAP EC-CS, Lucanet) with SAP Financial Consolidation and introducing an integrative approach for statutory corporate reporting pursuant to IFRS, management reporting, and financial planning. This allowed BayWa to achieve a greater degree of flexibility in its corporate reporting in terms of changing statutory provisions, acquisitional growth, and active portfolio management.

The Finance department can react with greater autonomy and more independently from service providers and the management can now make decisions based on facts. Restatements and simulations no longer present a particular challenge. Interfaces between corporate reporting tools and accounting systems are largely automated. BayWa can now also reap the technological benefits of the S/4HANA base system combined with planning tools and S/4HANA finance applications.

Customer Benefits

Financial Statements...

...and IFRS stock exchange reporting was sped up

Data quality was increased...

...financial compliance was improved, and audits can now be performed more easily by financial auditors

The tasks of the Finance department were re-focused...

...towards value-creating analysis activities, for example through the automation of interfaces

Flexibility in the financial reporting...

...was increased (acquisitional growth and more)

Technical benefits...

...of the S/4HANA base system were leveraged

The autonomy of the department...

...was expanded

"Arvato Systems accompanied us through the implementation project as a reliable and competent partner and used a participative approach to ensure knowledge was transferred to the Accounting and Controlling departments early on."

Franz Seidl | Project Manager for BayWa AG and Head of Corporate Finance & Accounting Projects

Background Situation

The BayWa Group faced the challenge of updating its SAP systems for corporate reporting oriented towards the capital market. The legacy systems in use lacked flexibility, meaning adjustments relating to acquisitional growth, changing accounting requirements (IFRS), statutory provisions, and federal stock exchange laws could not be made as a consequence. The old systems were unable to map an integrated corporate management in the interplay between IST, forecasting, planning, and simulation. In terms of future viability, the existing system landscape was also incompatible with the new generation of SAP S/4HANA ERP products. Last but not least, SAP also announced an end to support for the old systems.

Vision

The aim of the requested project was to introduce SAP Financial Consolidation on HANA in the BayWa Group. SAP Financial Consolidation is intended to replace the legacy systems (including SAP EC-CS, Lucanet) and introduce statutory corporate reporting pursuant to IFRS, management reporting, and financial planning using an integrative approach. Classic SAP ERP systems, S/4HANA financial accounting, and non-SAP ERPs are automatically and efficiently connected through SAP Financial Information Management. This interface approach significantly reduces the amount of manual data processing and improves data quality and financial compliance enormously.

Solution

For SAP Financial Consulting projects, Arvato Systems puts together hybrid teams made up of business data processing specialists and businesspeople, creating a combination of in-depth technical SAP intelligence, specialist expertise, and project management experience. The client’s and the BayWa CFO’s demands of the departments involved were fully understood and then “translated” into technology and processes. Agile and traditional approaches were combined in the project, meaning the connection of highly cooperative elements for the transfer of knowledge in the early phases and traditional customization with the help of a consultant. It goes without saying that Arvato Systems, as a business partner, will also be available to the BayWa Group after the launch for the entire lifecycle of the technology and will manage technological modifications and transformative processes together with the client.

"The now Group-wide use of SAP Financial Consolidation helps us to significantly shorten the amount of time it takes to create statutory financial reports, to benefit from modern interfaces in an S/4HANA context, and also to operate management reporting via the new reporting platform integrated with financial information."

Dr. Michael Seifert | Head of Corporate Accounting

BayWa

About BayWa

BayWa is a globally active group with the core segments of Agriculture, Energy and Building Materials, as well as the development segment Innovation & Digitalization. As a global player, it develops leading projects and solutions for the basic human needs of food, energy, and building. The headquarters of the parent company, which was founded in 1923, are in Munich, Germany. The company originated in the area of agricultural cooperative trading, with the mission to provide rural regions with everything they require for agriculture. The cooperative spirit and regional connectedness are still immensely important for the company. Traditionally, the core markets are in southern Germany and Austria, but BayWa’s international expansion has increased significantly in recent years, as part of our growth strategy. However, BayWa has since grown to become the largest agricultural trader in Germany and is one of the leading agricultural commodities trading companies in the world. The Renewable Energies business unit has become an important mainstay. BayWa r.e., which pools all activities in the field of renewable energies, has been very successful in advancing its project business worldwide.

Company Website BayWa

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