Case Study
PKP Cargo Group
PKP CARGO Group is the logistics leader in freight transport in Poland, and one of the largest operators in Europe, providing professional management of an integrated chain of logistics services.
Client overview
PKP CARGO Group was established in 2001 and it has developed massively ever since. They provide optimized logistics solutions covering land, air and sea transport for the largest companies on the Polish market. With a presence in nine countries of the European Union, PKP CARGO Group debuted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2013 and it was recognized as the largest and most successful IPO of a State Treasury-owned company.
The success of PKP CARGO Group rests on three pillars: know-how on large-scale operations, qualified personnel, and Poland's largest, continuously upgraded rolling stock.
Challenge
PKP CARGO Group wanted to streamline its business processes, making them faster, more agile and to allow for more flexibility in their reporting and analysis of business data. This required external specialized support with upgrading their SAP ERP ECC 6.0 version to the highest stable version of SAP ERP EHP 8.0.
PKP CARGO Group found in SE16N a reliable partner, with a competent and experienced team of consultants that was able to deliver the desired outcomes and ensure minimum business disruption across the company.
The goals set by PKP CARGO Group in the context of the project:
Access to new functionalities and innovation.
To be up to date with the latest technologies and to keep up with the ever-changing market trends, the company needed to get access to new functionalities.
Increased security and performance.
The company needed to improve the security measures for its critical systems while ensuring increased levels of performance.
Reduced maintenance costs.
In addition to making the system easier to use, the company wanted to optimize its maintenance costs incurred when performing additional operations on the system.
Key project activities
The main activities that ensured the successful upgrade to SAP ERC EHP 8.0 were:
- Pre-implementation analysis with actionable recommendations;
- Preparation of project documents and technical concept;
- Technical preparation for the upgrade;
- Upgrading the SAP system (Upgrade) to the latest version of the SAP ERP EHP 8.0 system (Development, Test, and Production) while keeping all current interfaces used to/from external systems, including upgraded portability databases, delta configuration, ABAP customization, permission customization, customization interfaces, testing the prototype;
- Reconfiguration and testing of SAP Solution Manager and SAP PO for systems after SAP ERP upgrade to EHP 8.0;
- Test support and resolution of problems reported under the project;
- Providing a notification system to support acceptance tests in the upgrade project;
- Backup / restore tests for an upgraded system - SAP ERP EHP 8.0;
- Modular adjustments and programming work for the one modified during the upgrade programming code;
- Technical workshops for administrators and workshops for business administrators system in terms of new functionalities; -Post-implementation support for users.
The Benefits
The collaboration between PKP CARGO Group and SE16N was carried out for 6 months, from July through December 2019. The technical upgrades to the highest stable version of SAP ERP EHP 8.0 have significantly improved the performance of the company’s business processes. The outsourced design tasks met PKP CARGO Group’s expectations and were aligned with the SAP requirements.
Achieved Goals
Access to new functionalities and innovation.
Following the upgrade, the company now has access to top performant technologies and innovations features provided by SAP that make it more digital-savvy and able to keep its competitive edge on the market.
Increased security and performance.
By simplifying the code securing process, the upgrade allows for application protection against security, compliance, and data loss prevention gaps while ensuring code quality.
Reduced maintenance costs.
Following the upgrade to the latest version of the system, the extensions implemented by external consultants are no longer needed to perform additional operations on the system, which optimizes significantly the company’s maintenance costs.
