Henkel Kenya turned to SAP Business One to help modernise its operations and conform to the Henkel culture of innovation and participation. The introduction of SAP Business One has allowed Henkel Kenya to report, in real time, on all aspects of its operations, enabling informed decision-making, improved financial controls and enhanced materials requirements planning (MRP).
Each year, Henkel KGaA's 55 000 employees, spread across 75 subsidiaries in multiple countries, are requested to submit two or three innovative ideas. Last year, Henkel Kenya's collective decision was to use information technology to modernise its operations. The aim was to replace a system that was outdated, and that required the manual generation of vital documents, such as journal vouchers and purchase orders, with a new system that would assist management decisions by giving real-time operational information and eliminate human error resulting from manual input of data.
Henkel wanted a central system powerful enough to automate its critical operations, improve its medium- and long-term planning, and give it an accurate, real-time view of its business. At the same time, it needed the system to be implemented quickly, with minimal disruption to operations. SAP Business One was able to offer all that it needed with scalability to accommodate future growth.
Henkel requested the Bluekey Kenya team to take on the project and become its chosen SAP Business One partner. It wanted to utilise all the features and functions SAP Business One offers and put in place business rules and management reports that would add value to the organisation and increase efficiency. It called on Bluekey to assist it in restructuring its chart of accounts, which in turn ensured it got accurate financial reports on time and when requested by management. The Bluekey team was also involved in the improvement of the sales and stock processes through the introduction of sales pricelists and batch management for stock.
“SAP Business One is completely integrated with SAP Business Suite (R/3) for Large Enterprises. This ability to integrate with other SAP products provides our multinational customers, such as Henkel, with the ability to use a smaller version of SAP, like SAP Business One, in their smaller branches that are spread across many different countries. It also provides parent companies using SAP Enterprise Business Suite with a full view of their global operations,” says Pankaj Pema, Head of SAP Business One in Africa.
“It was crucial that Henkel get the necessary support to provide them with the knowledge and skills to make the transition onto SAP Business One as smooth as possible. Bluekey provided a clear project plan through meetings and brainstorming sessions and kept all the people involved on each new development and progression of the project. The relationship that developed between Bluekey and Henkel allowed us to gain a greater understanding of their business and implement a successful change management plan,” explains Mala Bhatt, Managing Director, Bluekey Software Solutions Kenya.
With all financial and operational activities previously completed manually, having an automated and transparent system has saved the company significant man-hours. A number of key employees have since been reassigned to more value-adding roles within the company. On the manufacturing side, SAP Business One's sophisticated features have improved Henkel Kenya's ability to plan production and more accurately forecast procurement cycles. The Bluekey team has also streamlined business processes through the use of approvals and alerts, allowing management to manage by exception.
“From its implementation, followed by subsequent enhancements, SAP Business One has offered Henkel Kenya an up-to-date view of the business through the automation and streamlining of all critical business processes across business units, greatly enhancing our customer service. In addition, real-time information has prompted timely decisive actions by top management when specified processes and events occur through automatic alerts, approvals and workflow procedures,” concludes Philippe Huenermann, Managing Director, Henkel Kenya.
For more information about SAP Business One, visit the SAP Newsroom.
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