BACKGROUND
The Hörmann Group is a leading supplier of doors and gates, with over 6,000 employees worldwide, and 36 specialized plants in Europe, North America and Asia. Headquartered in Germany, the company has over 100 sales locations in more than 40 countries and is represented by sales partners in over 50 other countries.
CHALLENGE
The IT system environment in Hörmann was heterogeneous and complex. SAP was used in six production plants, while other plants used various proprietary legacy ERP systems and special applications for order entry through to production. Furthermore, in company branches, an older, adapted ERP system was used and the SAP R3 environment ran on a proprietary operating system.
To improve business development and start their digital transformation journey, the company sought to create future-proof, flexible IT systems and lean workflows at all locations. To achieve this, they migrated all SAP ERP systems used in branches and production plants around the world uniformly to SAP S/4HANA. This planned migration required the integration of SAP R3 with legacy ERP systems on IBM i (AS/400) and other system applications, as well as the connection of external authority and partner systems to the IT environment. Another major challenge was the standardization of over 200 existing AS/400 interfaces, and the replacement of several point-to-point (P2P) connections at operating system levels.
SOLUTION
Hörmann selected the Magic xpi integration platform because it offers a code-free and visual approach that utilizes innovative technology to support the integration of all external platforms and systems. Using it to implement the necessary system integration, the company renewed several P2P connections, thereby establishing the prerequisites for an SAP S/4HANA migration. In particular, the company selected Magic xpi because it:
- Enables the execution of logic, complex processes, and transformations in a single platform
- Delivers end-to-end transparency of all business processes
- Documents process dependencies combined with data consistency and transaction security
- Provides a high level of reusability
- Supports all industry standards and existing, certified standard components such as the SAP connector
- Requires no programming knowledge and is easy to use
- Includes a self-documenting configuration
- Offers a range of important features, such as Business Process Modeling (BPM), graphical modeling, intuitive configuration, usability, and a rule-based design.
“”The easy-to-understand logic and high transparency of Magic xpi enabled us to quickly familiarize ourselves and to act independently. We were very impressed by Magic’s great commitment to us as a customer and fast reaction time, as well as their profound knowledge of related systems and interfaces”. “
RESULTS
- One system that is a single point of truth and ensures data integrity throughout.
- More accurate, reliable and efficient operations.
- Elimination of costly and time-consuming in-house development cycles, leaving the Hörmann team free to focus on other projects
- Fast and seamless integration because Magic xpi connects to any system.
- Data flows for business processes between all internal and external systems can now be integrated and operated, including IBM i (AS/400) legacy systems, merchandise management, SAP R3, travel expense accounting systems and special applications within the individual production plants.
- Synchronization of all communications-relevant data such as master data, order entry & creation data, delivery bills and export, inventory management, factoring, financial accounting and travel expenses.
- Savings in time through the sharing of data with external business partner systems, as well as customs and export offices – a connection to the tariff and local customs processing system ATLAS enables direct processing and transfer of data concerning customs duties and the weight of goods.
- Integration with other government systems, enabling the easy access of blacklists and exchange data.
