SAP S/4HANA ERP bridges continents for multinational firm Drylock Technologies

A flexible ERP solution that unites without restricting

“Because of Drylock’s ambitious growth strategy, we wanted a solution that would balance standardisation with flexibility,” explains Patrick Pittoors, group ERP director at Drylock. “The idea was to evolve from a scattered ERP landscape into a common platform as single source of truth. We wanted to speak the same language in terms of processes, data model, outputs, documentation – relevant to all of our core activities.”

After a pre-study launched to identify the different business needs of each different location around the world, Drylock launched a selection round for both ERP solution and partner, eventually choosing SAP S/4HANA and Flexso.

“We chose Flexso because, in addition to their strong technical competences, there was also a strong cultural fit with Drylock,” Patrick continues. “We’re both young organisations, and, like us, Flexso has short lines of communication for decision taking and the flexibility to cope with the dynamics of this challenging program.”

Easy-to-use interface, tried-and-tested SAP power

Following the requirement-gathering and analysis phase, Flexso started designing an S/4HANA template that brought all the different Drylock locations together to enable company-wide reporting, compliant with local statutory rules and regulations.

Introducing supportive tools for even better user adoption

In addition to SAP S/4HANA, we also implemented tools to enhance training and testing processes company wide. SAP Enable Now is a powerful e-learning software training platform that Drylock uses to keep all its employees up to date on the use of its many different S/4-based operational excellence tools.

“Better still, SAP’s BPMN-based Solution Manager visualises in an intuitive way the roles and responsibility workflows. Test Manager allows our users to execute different scenarios and ensure the system is working properly,” Patrick explains. “Together, these solutions give everybody a better understanding of the integration and dependency across different departments.”

“SAP’s BPMN-based Solution Manager visualises in an intuitive way the roles and responsibility workflows, while Test Manager allows our users to execute different scenarios and ensure the system is working properly. Together, the solutions give everybody a better understanding of the integration and dependency across different departments.”

SAP S/4HANA informs, empowers and stimulates collaboration

After the roll-out in two countries, Drylock was already seeing measurable benefits. Above all, global implementation means a single source of truth for all group information, leading to richer performance insights, better reporting and more efficient collaboration.

“The HANA in-memory database is powerful and can deliver heavy reports in record time,” stresses Günther Heirman, Competence lead at Flexso. “And on top of the operational benefits, Enable Now familiarises users with the system quickly and effectively – with Solution Manager supporting the process through easy-to-understand visual flows. This means quicker adoption and faster business and operational advantages.”

“Processes like month-end closing and consolidation of financial data are accelerating because people are beginning to speak the same language and using the same transactions,” Patrick adds. “We have automated and standardised end-to-end processes according to the Drylock DNA, while still maintaining flexibility to our different stakeholders. That’s another reason we chose Flexso: their speed and flexibility of execution, their ability to maintain the pace of the project, and the fact that they make a great sparring partner.”