Sapphire 2025: BASF evolves enterprise with transfer to SAP S/4Hana
Chemical trade large BASF is transferring its SAP IT property to the provider’s S/4Hana enterprise useful resource planning (ERP) system as a part of a enterprise modernisation technique, it was introduced at its Sapphire person and accomplice convention in Madrid.
Petra Scheithe, senior vice-president of digitalisation of providers and ERP platforms at BASF Enterprise Providers, outlined the newest growth within the firm’s long-standing relationship with SAP.
BASF, which employs round 112,000 folks, has been an SAP buyer for 40 years. Its headquarters in Ludwigshafen are a half-hour drive from SAP’s in Walldorf.
In keeping with a joint SAP/BASF assertion, the chemical agency “adopted a hybrid system panorama to combine SAP S/4Hana Cloud into BASF’s huge system and scale back the complexity of on-premise administration. With a clear core technique in place, any new customisations and purposeful extensions shall be cloud-ready, permitting simplified system upkeep and operations in the long term.”
BASF additionally intends to make use of SAP’s synthetic intelligence (AI) and sustainability software program.
The primary of its new techniques on S/4Hana, in its coatings enterprise, is already stay.
BASF has 4 “core companies”, in chemical substances, supplies, industrial options, and vitamin and care, and 4 standalone enterprise items in agriculture and floor applied sciences, catalysts and metals, battery supplies, and coatings.
BASF can also be utilizing SAP’s Joule copilot for preliminary use instances in SAP’s SuccessFactors HR system, and is different instances for core enterprise processes.
“We signed a brand new strategic partnership with SAP in December 2024,” mentioned Scheithe, in an interview at Sapphire. “This consists of Rise [with SAP], which we didn’t have earlier than.”
Rise is a so-called enterprise transformation as a service programme that’s basically about cloud migration, and getting clients, new and present, onto a cloud-delivered model of its S/4Hana ERP system primarily based on its in-memory database, Hana.
BASF’s present SAP property is one single international occasion. “That has introduced some challenges with it as a result of during the last decade, now we have actually grown that system to a degree the place we mentioned ‘that is troublesome to handle’,” mentioned Scheithe.
“We have now a really broad product portfolio, from our agricultural enterprise, our coatings enterprise, catalysts, battery supplies, and copper and metals,” she mentioned. “Combining all of these necessities in a single SAP system led to the purpose that now we have greater than 300,000 customized objects within the system, so it’s enormous and monolithic. The transition to S/4Hana is an opportunity to clear that up.”
The thought is to again up the BASF technique, known as Successful Methods, with a modernised ERP system. The general company technique has the aim of BASF being “the popular chemical firm to allow our clients’ inexperienced transformation”.
It features a €10bn funding in what the corporate calls a Verbund web site in Zhanjiang in China. At these websites, manufacturing crops, vitality and materials flows, logistics, and web site infrastructure are all built-in, in response to the corporate. There are presently six worldwide.
In relation to the SAP setting, Scheithe mentioned they determined to separate the one occasion into a number of business-related ones. The brand new firm technique, minted in 2024, means there’s a pillar devoted to “differentiated steering with completely different market necessities”, she added.
BASF began to construct an S/4Hana occasion in 2022 for the coatings enterprise, with “a greenfield method utilizing clear core technique”. This went stay in March of this yr, “on time and on funds, which I’m tremendous pleased with”, mentioned Scheithe. The agency is now implementing S/4 for the battery supplies division and piloting for the agricultural enterprise. “Clear core” in an SAP context means protecting the core system as normal as potential, with minimal customized modifications.
Additionally they opted for SAP’s Rise programme in order that their techniques are as shut as potential to straightforward SAP and to leverage the IT provider’s improvements in AI.
Scheithe mentioned she’s very to discover the usage of the expertise from SAP’s 2024 acquisition, WalkMe. This can be a digital adoption platform expertise that’s more and more related to the usage of SAP’s GenAI assistant, Joule.
WalkMe sits on prime of an organisation’s IT purposes layer and determines the place customers may expertise difficulties comparable to getting caught when performing a course of or process. WalkMe then supplies steering and automatic processes that assist the person full the duty. BASF just isn’t utilizing it as but.
It’s utilizing Joule for HR duties, in SuccessFactors, and Sheithe is very desirous about its use for builders. “We aren’t so naïve as to imagine now that with implementing S/4 we are going to cowl all our enterprise necessities that we had up to now,” she mentioned. “We have now greater than 300,000 customized objects in our system, and people weren’t accomplished simply because builders prefer to develop, however for enterprise necessities. If we will’t eliminate these, we don’t need them in our core system, so it will likely be useful if now we have instruments readily available that make our builders extra environment friendly. This why I’m so enthusiastic about Joule for builders.”
Thomas Saueressig, a member of the chief board of SAP for buyer providers and supply, mentioned: “We’re proud to accomplice with BASF on this transformative journey.
“By selecting SAP S/4Hana Cloud, BASF is laying a robust basis for future progress and innovation,” he mentioned. “The power to leverage a clear core and standardised processes will present BASF with the agility and resilience wanted to thrive in right now’s dynamic enterprise setting.”
