Case Ahlstrom

Data driven decision making boosts Ahlstrom’s global business

_{Images: Copyright © Ahlstrom}

Ahlstrom is one of the leading operators in sustainable and innovative fiber-based solutions. Creating and executing a coherent SAP-based architecture for a large group’s financial and sales reporting was a years-long project. Etlia was responsible for the solution’s data architecture and operated as the project manager.

Ahlstrom has tens of factories and approximately 8000 employees worldwide. Tuukka-Juhana Ukkonen oversees maintaining and developing the group’s data analytics. The Data & Analytics team involves six people. External consultants and partners are used in development projects when needed.

SAP-analytics solution was built step-by-step

The project of unifying the financial and sales reporting started in 2018 and lasted for about four years. The goal was to harmonize and simplify the processes in the areas of financial, sales, stock and purchasing reporting. In addition to creating a unified data architecture, the data collection and integration were automized in a strong association with the Controlling organization.

Such a project involves several data sources since the units in different parts of the world use various financial management and ERP systems. There’s also constant evolution: new businesses and factories are being bought as the project goes on and others may be sold or run down.

The harmonizing project was conducted in several phases:

1. Form a unified data architecture based on a general architecture design
2. Define business requirements for data warehousing
3. Integrate systems one by one to the SAP data warehouse
4. Test and implement integrations and ramp down old systems

The first phase was to set the foundation for a unified reporting model and data architecture: what data does business reporting need and in which form is data available from different sources. Based on the requirements from Ahlstrom Controlling, Etlia designed a data warehousing solution on top of SAP and oversaw the execution in the roles of the product owner and project manager, meaning that Etlia was responsible for the whole project. 

After the data-architecture solution was validated by the Controlling team, systems producing financial, and sales information were integrated into SAP one by one. In total there were seven systems to integrate.

The technical execution and maintenance of the solution took place in a multi-vendor-environment with Etlia, Bilot and Tech Mahindra, the outsourcing partner of Ahlstrom.

The end result was approximately 25 prioritized and near real-time financial reports in SAP, with the help of automized data collection and integration.

The solution-oriented approach in a multi-vendor-environment

Tuukka says that the role of the lead consultant in different data and analytics projects is essential. Choosing a consultant for an SAP technology project naturally depends on the experience and competence to execute such ventures.

Understanding the customer’s operating environment and the technology in use is a big plus. The timing and pricing of the consulting must also match the timeframe and budget of the project.

When a project that lasts for years involves multiple internal and external parties, managing the whole is essential to proceed and in terms of the result. Etlia’s way of bringing up and constructively questioning decisions if needed helps the customer to make functional decisions in the long term. 

Tuukka also finds it important that Etlia ensured the solution would work in the future. In practice, this meant carefully familiarizing the system to the partner in charge of the maintenance and development. 

Etlia has an in-depth understanding of SAP-integrations

Etlia has also been a part of another smaller project. Ahlstrom needed expertise in integrating AecorSoft software with SAP and Azure. Etlia could provide the needed solution-oriented know-how also to this project.

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