Flender transforms IT organization into a business leader with Bee360

Overview

About Flender

"We move the world" – this motto has been Flender's guiding principle for over 120 years, ensuring that customers worldwide have access to "the right drive." As a premier international manufacturer of mechanical and electrical drive systems, Flender offers an extensive array of gear units, couplings, generators, and related services. The company's primary focus spans key industries including wind energy, cement, raw materials processing, oil and gas, power generation, water and wastewater management, marine operations, cranes, and materials handling. Globally, approximately 9,000 employees contribute to Flender's operations across 33 locations.

A key characteristic that has consistently characterized Flender's success over the decades is their remarkable ability to successfully adapt to ever-changing market environments and evolving business requirements. For example, the company recognized the takeover by the US investor Carlyle and the associated challenging carve-out process from the Siemens Group as an opportunity to act more agilely as a completely independent entity, to develop innovative solutions, and to react more quickly to the dynamic shifts within the industry.

The seamless view of the entire IT organization made possible by Bee360, gives us the orientation we need to successfully transform our IT into a global matrix organization that acts as a business enabler for the entire company.Dr. Stefan Heizmann, Group CIO, Flender GmbH

The Challenge

The challenge of lack of transparency

The prerequisite for this initiative is to take a thorough and comprehensive look at the entirety of IT operations, with the aim of identifying and addressing optimization potentials in a sustainable manner. Dr. Stefan Heizmann emphasizes the lack of transparency in this regard thus far. Expanding on this, he illustrates, stating, „For example, there was a service and project structure with PSP elements in SAP, but planning was predominantly conducted using Excel. Additionally, the planning process overlooked the dimension of cost types, and there was a conspicuous absence of integrated resource and staff planning. Moreover, the involvement of service and project managers in this Excel-centric planning process was limited, resulting in significant planning gaps."

Transforming IT into a business enabler

In this context, Flender developed the vision to further evolve IT into an independent, global organization that acknowledges the increasing interaction between business and IT strategy. „IT is transitioning from being a mere service provider to a business enabler capable of making a significant value contribution to Flender," says Dr. Stefan Heizmann, Group CIO of Flender.

„Therefore, our goal is to establish a cross-border matrix organization that is highly agile, enables flexible collaboration, and ensures efficient resource utilization, thus driving the development of innovative products and services at Flender. In doing so, we faced the challenge of both filling emerging gaps and optimizing existing processes due to the carve-out."

„IT is changing from a pure IT service provider to a business enabler that can make an important value contribution for Flender."Dr. Stefan Heizmann, Group CIO Flender GmbH

The Solution

Bee360: A Proven Key to Success

In search of the optimal solution to enhance transparency within the IT structure and support the transition to a matrix organization, Christian Kather didn't need to look far. Drawing from his previous experience at Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, he had excellent encounters with Bee360 – then known as Bee4IT – as a software for holistic IT management.

As the Head of IT Financials at Flender, Christian Kather validates this assessment: „The comprehensive approach of Bee360 enables complete transparency regarding costs, investments, and personnel deployment in projects and IT services – precisely what we need as IT for an agile IT governance, as well as efficient business process and IT architecture management."

4 month project run time

Due to the existing product expertise of Christian Kather, Dr. Stefan Heizmann, and Andreas Polak, Head of IT Infrastructure and Delivery at Flender, as well as the trust in the consulting expertise of the Bee360 team, Flender set a ambitious goal for the project implementation: Within four months, in time for the start of the new fiscal year on October 1, 2023, the previous Excel-based planning for both external material costs and internal resources of the global organization was to be replaced with Bee360.

With combined efforts, a successful achievement was made. „Especially the extensive SAP knowledge of Bee360 was invaluable to us; we have a total of three SAP systems in Germany, China, and India, which are gradually being connected," says Christian Kather.

„Bee360's holistic approach enables complete transparency regarding the use of costs, investments and personnel in projects and IT services."Christian Kather, Head of IT Financials, Contract and License Management Flender GmbH

Through integrated global resource and cost planning by cost types for services and projects, transparency is achieved regarding cost structures and resource usage that was previously unavailable.

Through integrated global resource and cost planning, categorized by cost types for services and projects, a previously unattainable level of transparency regarding cost structures and resource usage is realized. This facilitates the identification of short, medium, and long-term optimization potentials. With global resource planning now a prerequisite for billing, inefficiencies in international collaboration are brought to light. Notably, shortly after the implementation of Bee360, three employees were identified who were fully dedicated to IT tasks but had not yet been assigned to an IT cost center.

„And Bee360 has also provided us with excellent support in customizing the dashboards and reports."

Bee360 is utilized by approximately 30 department and team leaders within the new international IT matrix organization, all of whom hold responsibility for various IT services and projects. Moreover, around 170 employees within the IT organization benefit from Bee360 for time tracking purposes, experiencing notably simplified time tracking procedures compared to those offered by SAP.

Comprehensive View of the IT Organization

The greatest value that Bee360 offers to Flender lies in the newfound transparency achieved across the global IT organization. „All parties involved are constantly informed regarding the budgets and IT providers we utilize across various companies, understanding their purposes and outcomes, as well as the available resources," states Christian Kather. This fosters trust among management and is favorably received by department and team leaders. They now enjoy enhanced integration and direct insight into global planning and control processes. Additionally, they assume greater responsibility for their respective areas, typically resulting in heightened motivation and engagement," explains the IT finance manager. Concurrently, the decentralization of planning and budgeting tasks alleviates the burden on IT controlling and management.

Bee360 as a Tool for IT Leadership

„In having a 360-degree view of the IT organization, we're able to swiftly and directly pinpoint areas requiring attention," notes Christian Kather. „Moreover, this alignment consistently considers our business objectives. Within Bee360, the linkage between IT projects and services to Flender's value chains, processes, data models, and system architectures is seamlessly established. Our overarching aim with Bee360 is to bridge the gap between the technical facets of IT and our business goals - laying the groundwork for effective and value-driven IT leadership."

Outlook

Most recently, the integration of SAP systems in India and China has been completed. Subsequently, the next project phase will involve the integration of applications utilized at Flender into Bee360. Additionally, the gradual implementation of further Bee360 modules, such as those for cost allocation and supplier & contract management, is planned.