As SAP SE has moved to end-of-life SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) software come 2025, along with its ECC 6.0 system by 2027, many customers have been caught in the crossfire. One such customer pushed to make a switch to the cloud is Austrian energy and service company, Energie Steiermark. Across its 29 operating locations in the southern Austrian state of Styria, a sales company in Vienna, and a 600,000-strong customer base reaching across Austria, Slovakia, Germany and France, Energie Steiermark prides itself on delivering energy efficiency. Offering services across electricity, natural gas, heat and mobility, the firm also looks to “think green” when generating energy and relies exclusively on renewable energy sources such as water, wind, sunlight, and biomass.Expectantly, procuring green energy becomes that much more challenging when your software support is scheduled to come to an imminent end. With SAP SRM no longer a lasting solution for the firm, a new system was required to continue to support Energie Steiermark’s purchasing, reservation and replenishment processes. Moreover, the energy firm saw a silver lining in the push to upgrade - offering an opportunity to further integrate with its suppliers’ facilities, including its catalog content, purchase orders and confirmations, and invoices. Its catalog management tasks, for instance, had been manual, with supplier catalogs used by requestors and also used to update purchasing conditions for ERP-based replenishment processes. The SAP Ariba path with CNT Management ConsultingLooking to remain with SAP, the firm landed on the cloud-based SAP Ariba as its system of choice as a full replacement for the expiring SRM module, with Ariba Guided Buying in combination with SAP Business Network Commerce Automation best matching these requirements. For an implementation partner, the energy company chose the SAP consultant firm, CNT Management Consulting to support the project with a “ready-to-use package” to “minimize complexity cost-effectively”. Over eight months, CNT assisted the SRM replacement to Ariba, without any interruptions to Energie Steiermark’s operations. For solution architect Richard Wagner, CNT, the shift has enabled the firm to move away from its own server infrastructure and in-house management of software releases to a cloud-hosted solution with “automatic” access to new features when available. Across the 1,900 Energie Steiermark employees, procurement approvals can be carried out via SAP Ariba Guided Buying, integrated in SAP Fiori, via a smartphone app, or through Outlook email. Almost 850 employees are now active users of the Ariba software. “The guided buying digital marketplace brings together compatible buyers and suppliers,” explained Wagner, “with the segmentation into catalogs helping users find, build and maintain sustainable and trusting business relationships.”The system is also designed for extensions, such as service procurement or various Request for X (RFx) processes. Following the project, all necessary processes for requestors using all variants of catalog content is supported, as well as digital integration with suppliers’ facilities. Plus, the catalogs and SAP ERP conditions are now automatically updated with new prices for regularly purchased products, with no need to create, load, and verify data manually. Jannina Weber, project manager, purchasing, Energie Steiermark said: “For us, the biggest advantage lies in the time saved thanks to the easy-to-use system, the mapping of our portfolio value limits, the inclusion of our internal postings, and the integration into Fiori for our mobile approvals.” With the cloud system successfully in place, Energie Steiermark has been able to overcome the hurdle of SAP SRM obsolescence while also squeezing out extra manual tasks in the upgrade process - continuing on its efficiency mission.
⇨ Energie Steiermark transitioned from SAP Supplier Relationship Management to SAP Ariba due to the end-of-life support for SRM, ensuring continued support for purchasing processes.
⇨ The implementation of SAP Ariba, facilitated by CNT Management Consulting, resulted in a cloud-hosted solution that improved operational efficiency and automated catalog management tasks for Energie Steiermark.
⇨ The new system allows for streamlined procurement approvals across various platforms, enhances digital integration with suppliers, and significantly reduces manual data handling, aligning with Energie Steiermark's commitment to energy efficiency and sustainability.
Looking to remain with SAP, energy company Energie Steiermark chose the cloud-based SAP Ariba to replace its expiring SRM module, and partnered with CNT Management Consulting for the task.
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