Molex Uses SAP Central Finance on RISE to Build a Composable Finance Architecture

Global manufacturer Molex is using SAP Central Finance (CFIN) on RISE as a bridge between its legacy SAP ECC environment, multiple non-SAP ERP systems, and a longer-term SAP S/4HANA transformation to deliver finance value before a full ERP migration.

During an SAP Sapphire customer session presented with KPMG, Somer Arroyo, Director of Financial Systems and Transformation at Molex, described a finance landscape shaped by an outdated, highly customized SAP ECC system, 17 ERP systems across 40 countries, and recent acquisitions that only added complexity. The result was a finance environment that remained accurate but distributed, with fragmented reporting, inconsistent master data, limited visibility across entities, and rising compliance demands.

“We’re not just trying to upgrade our system,” Arroyo said. “We’re trying to build a composable architecture that will support both SAP and non-SAP [systems].”

Molex is not treating SAP S/4HANA as a single big-bang replacement project. Instead, it is using SAP Central Finance on RISE to create a phased path toward SAP S/4HANA while standardizing reporting, integrating acquired businesses, and preparing finance teams for a new operating model.

CFIN as the Bridge to SAP S/4HANA

Molex began the transformation journey in the second half of 2022 and selected SAP Central Finance on RISE after defining what Arroyo described as the company’s North Star. The goal was to establish CFIN as the single source of financial truth, support SAP and non-SAP entities, improve reporting, address global tax requirements, and create a more flexible architecture for future acquisitions.

Molex selected KPMG as its system integrator, but Arroyo said the company was looking for more than implementation capacity. It wanted a strategic partner that could challenge decisions, explain future implications, and help the company avoid simply replicating old SAP ECC processes in a new environment.

Bhanu Mittal, Managing Director of Enterprise Solutions at KPMG LLP, said the relationship worked because Molex brought a challenge culture to the project. The teams worked through issues together, challenged assumptions, and allowed Molex decision-makers to make the final call based on what was best for the business.

Early Value from Phased Release Model

Molex started its CFIN journey in July 2023 and structured the work around phased releases rather than waiting for a full SAP S/4HANA implementation to produce value.

Release One focused on building the CFIN foundation and standardizing statutory reporting. Before the project, Arroyo said statutory reporting at Molex was highly disparate. Some teams used specialized software, others relied on third-party consultants, and others assembled offline data in Excel.

Molex replicated US GAAP data from ERP systems into CFIN as a starting point, enabled statutory teams to book GAAP-to-statutory adjustments directly in the platform, and built the financial statements needed for regulatory reporting on the back end. That gave the company standardized statutory reporting across ERP environments.

“This allowed us to not only get standardized reporting at the push of a button from the CFIN platform, but to also deliver statutory reporting to our owners on a monthly basis, which we have never done at Molex before,” Arroyo said.

Molex is now in Release Two, targeted to go live later this year. This phase is designed to move US GAAP reporting into CFIN and make CFIN the source of financial truth for finance reporting. “This is where it starts to get exciting for us [because] this is where we start to change how we do finance at Molex,” Arroyo said.

The move allows the organization to shift into CFIN while the rest of the business continues day-to-day work in SAP ECC. Arroyo described that as one of the values of CFIN. After the Release Two framework is in place, Molex expects to be able to integrate a non-SAP system into Central Finance in six to nine months.

Data Discipline as the Pace for Finance Transformation

The Molex session also reinforced this prevalent theme across many Sapphire discussions: Data is where transformation plans meet operational reality. Arroyo called master data one of Molex’s biggest challenges, citing quality issues and siloed ownership. “The lack of quality in master data, the lack of ownership, and just getting around the master data is probably one of the hardest challenges that we’ve encountered,” she said.

The complexity is amplified by Molex’s fragmented ERP estate. With 17 systems, each system brings its own mapping challenges, with data quality, lineage, customization, and master data owner buy-in as central lessons from the project. Arroyo said one master data team initially estimated that cleanup could take 10 years, but with dedicated resources, Molex reduced that work to 18 months.

That same pragmatism shaped decision-making. Arroyo said KPMG helped Molex understand which design choices would matter later in the SAP S/4HANA journey while avoiding decision paralysis. “There are very few decisions you make today that you can’t unwind,” she said. “As a project team, we agreed to make decisions the best we can with the knowledge we have today.”

The sequencing also explains Molex’s AI roadmap. The company is not presenting AI as an overlay that fixes fragmented finance systems; it is using CFIN to bring SAP ECC data, acquisition data, and non-SAP ERP data into a standardized foundation first. Release Three is where Molex expects to begin realizing the broader North Star, including future AI agents through SAP Business Data Cloud.

What This Means for SAPinsiders

CFIN can create value before full SAP S/4HANA migration. Molex’s phased approach shows how SAP customers can use CFIN to standardize reporting, support compliance, and prepare finance teams for SAP S/4HANA without waiting for a complete ERP replacement. For SAP program owners, the model offers a practical bridge between legacy SAP ECC realities and longer-term clean-core ambitions.

Composable finance depends on non-SAP integration discipline. Molex’s goal of integrating non-SAP systems into CFIN reflects the reality of acquisition-driven enterprises that no longer operate in a single-vendor ERP estate. For enterprise architects and finance leaders, the key lesson is SAP S/4HANA transformation must account for heterogeneous ERP landscapes rather than assume all entities can be forced into one system at the same pace.

Master data is the transformation accelerant or the constraint. Molex’s experience shows that master data cleanup, ownership, and harmonization can determine how quickly finance transformation delivers value. CFIN, AI readiness, and future SAP S/4HANA value depend on dedicated data work that starts early, has accountable owners, and is treated as core transformation scope.

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