Working shoulder-to-shoulder with multiple stakeholders across diverse business functions, KPMG in Germany and UI charted a course for a holistic transformation that was designed to bring increased value while reducing risk. Pivoting from an initially planned big bang to a calculated phased approach, the teams embarked on:
- An initial design-thinking phase that included conducting varied workshops with key stakeholders to refocus and reformulate.
- A preliminary study to create the business case, design a roadmap and define deliverables.
- A preliminary phase that included establishing project structure and governance, designing the IT architecture, building the target operating model, and defining the implementation strategy.
Four structured and scheduled finance-focused releases followed to not only introduce, convert, integrate and/or optimize technologies, systems and processes, but to also address the inherent project complexity and risk.
The revised plan made sure to reduce operational disruption during the transition to maintain business continuity amid the introduction of new technologies, architectures and data models.
Leveraging the SAP Business Suite—a unified system integrating applications, data and AI to seamlessly connect and optimize every business function—the KPMG team also applied the key components of KPMG Powered Enterprise—an outcome-driven framework designed to help organizations transform and optimize their business functions, particularly in areas like finance, HR, procurement, and more. Built on the deep industry experience of KPMG professionals and powered by SAP technology, the KPMG Powered Enterprise methodology drove the UI transformation project with the right tools, methods and insights to modernize processes, adopt new operating models and enhance overall business efficiency.
Recognizing the challenges of any transformation, KPMG embedded change management into the KPMG Powered Enterprise framework to provide strategic guidance and change-management support to help ease the transition. For the UI project, a dedicated change management workstream helped drive user adoption, necessary organizational shifts and ongoing communication throughout the project.
The communication aspect was especially crucial between the UI team and the KPMG team when the decision was made to change course. Inspiring the client to pivot from a planned big bang to a phased approach required KPMG in Germany to step away from the status quo and ask challenging questions, prompt meaningful reflection and encourage honest responses with the aim of ensuring the project would achieve its ultimate business goals. The KPMG team demonstrated authentic business advisor qualities to patiently guide UI to design a more pragmatic yet powerful approach to transform its technology landscape. This helped to better equip UI leadership and its 4,400 employees, as well as serve its over 5 million customers with proficiency and a competitive edge.
KPMG in Germany used its keen business acumen to confidently demonstrate a clear transition approach to Union Investment—one that showed value beyond the budget sheet.
The outcome: Ready for the future
Union Investment modernized its outdated IT landscape by transforming to a standardized, streamlined and cloud-driven SAP S/4HANA and SAP Analytics Cloud architecture. Legacy systems were replaced and consolidated, reducing complexity and technical debt. This transformation enabled harmonized processes and unlocked major business benefits through enhanced reporting and planning capabilities with SAP Analytics Cloud—driving faster insights, better decisions and greater agility across the organization.
Benefits included:
- Reduced custom development, resulting in greater adoption of SAP standardized models, reducing long-term costs.
- Streamlined and efficient processes, saving valuable time.
- Modernized, consistent processes in SAP S/4HANA, generating efficiency across diverse business functions.
- Integrated solutions, creating a solid foundation for a future system landscape.
- Flexibility and scalability, resulting in integration of business and IT, thereby enabling agile operations with SAP S/4HANA and SAP Analytics Cloud.
The success of this complex project has laid the groundwork for continued business evolution for Union Investment, providing the baseline for further innovations including SAP Datasphere and SAP Business Data Cloud, as well as SAP Analytics Cloud for planning capabilities such as P&L planning and investment planning.
