Polumana to S/4HANA

With more than 100,000 workshop, assembly and fastening items, Förch is one of Germany’s leading suppliers of products for craftsmen and industry. The family-owned company currently has 3,500 employees who serve more than 300,000 customers worldwide. In addition to 34 sales locations in Germany and more than 55 representatives in each country, FÖRCH relies on an efficient multi-channel sales approach and a successful e-commerce strategy.

The FÖRCH Group of Companies is a modern family business with subsidiaries in 55 countries with a 60-year history. During this time, the company has grown steadily and now generates annual sales of more than half a billion euros. This growth is due in part to strong internationalization and the associated increasingly complex IT infrastructure. Combined with the growing need for digitization, this has led to a decision at FÖRCH to view the growing challenges as an opportunity – one example being the step-by-step standardization of ERP systems used in different countries.

Another special feature of FÖRCH: in the sales area, the company successfully relies on a multi-channel sales approach that combines the advantages of human relations and digital solutions in the most optimal way possible
. In practice, this means that the company’s success in the sales area is based primarily on three pillars – direct customer relationships established by some 2,000 field employees, expert advice provided at numerous points of sale, and the reliable operation of the company’s online store.

External factors have made the project uniquely challenged by the global coronavirus pandemic, the collapse of supply chains and the war in Europe with soaring transportation and supply prices.

In 2019, FÖRCH has decided to replace its self-developed ERP system with SAP S/4HANA, first in Germany and then successively with corresponding systems in other European national companies. “The unification of the system environment is not only financially advantageous for us in the medium to long term, but it is also a prerequisite for future digital solutions with which we support our customers and employees and with which we want to continue to grow as a company." says Steffen Federer, head of IT and digital business at FÖRCH.

By future digital solutions, Steffen Federer means contemporary tools such as an efficient and customer-friendly online store and a modern and reliable sales application. In the latter case, FÖRCH opted for a solution based on BLUE-ZONE’s POLUMANA® application. Combined with a modern ERP system and a revamped online store, a future-proof digital infrastructure was to be created and tools were to be applied that would effectively support FÖRCH’s sales team in their work in the area of customer relations, some of which had already been developed for decades.

In order not to overburden staff in the office and IT department, and to give long-time field sales staff the opportunity to get used to the new tools and processes through slow implementation and use, the new online store and sales application were to be launched initially on the old ERP system as early as spring 2021 – less than a year before the launch of SAP S/4HANA in early 2022.

The commissioning of the new SAP system – including the conversion of the online store and the POLUMANA® sales application to S/4HANA – went without major complications: FÖRCH’s approximately 700 field employees in Germany processed more than 70,000 orders per month via the new sales application right from the start.

The early introduction of the new online store and sales application led to a low number of support requests from field staff. During the first few weeks, an average of only five requests per day were processed.

Steffen Federer concludes: “It is clear to me that BLUE-ZONE GmbH played a major role in ensuring that we were able to successfully implement the project in such a short period of time, despite the parallel implementation of the ERP system and the extremely complex external conditions. Even several months after the productive start, I greatly appreciate the exceptionally flexible and always solution-oriented approach of the BLUE-ZONE team."

Large project intelligently implemented

Due to the earlier launch of the online store and sales application in the old ERP system, the project team was able to focus 100% on technical and process issues during the S/4HANA launch, as the online store and application only required conversion and were not additionally restarted.

The concept for other countries is already ready

After a successful launch in Germany, implementation in other national companies is planned. In this case, country specifics, such as individual price or commission calculations, as well as historically shaped conditions, should be taken into account.