steda: Supporting millions of product variations with half the manual effort
How to keep up when individual customer needs come first
steda GmbH is a leading online provider of terrace roofs, glass systems, carports, and garden structures. As its online business grew, steda needed a way to handle increasing order volumes, product variations, and customer demand without adding manual effort. By connecting processes across e-commerce, procurement, production, and logistics in an SAP Cloud ERP application, the company reduced manual work and gained transparency across production operations.
| Industry | Region | Company Size | Partner |
| Wholesale distribution | Meppen, Germany | 80 employees | BA Business Advice GmbH |
fewer orders requiring manual work preparation.
less administrative effort for fast-lane orders.
transparency across production activities.
Technical Director, steda GmbH
| Industry | Region | Company Size | Partner |
| Wholesale distribution | Meppen, Germany | 80 employees | BA Business Advice GmbH |
fewer orders requiring manual work preparation.
less administrative effort for fast-lane orders.
transparency across production activities.
Technical Director, steda GmbH
Managing large-scale product customization while maintaining speed
Every customer imagines their outdoor living space a little differently.
Giving customers the freedom to customize terrace roofs, glass systems, and outdoor structures has always been part of steda’s company culture. But that freedom created extraordinary complexity. For a single product category alone, the company could calculate millions of possible sales variants, before customer-specific dimensions are even considered. What customers experience as flexibility translates into a complex network of product rules, purchasing requirements, production processes, and fulfillment activities.
Founded in 2011 by two entrepreneurs who started the business in a garage, steda grew steadily by bringing traditionally offline purchases into the digital world. As more customers embraced online configuration and purchasing, the company’s e-commerce business expanded alongside its product portfolio. But changing market conditions, particularly during the global health crisis, exposed the limits of paper-based workflows, email-driven collaboration, and disconnected business systems. Rising demand for customizable outdoor living solutions made it clear that a more scalable operating model was needed.
Sales, purchasing, logistics, warehouse operations, and finance each worked in separate systems with limited visibility across the business. Both leadership and employees recognized that continued growth would require more than incremental improvements. The company needed to connect all aspects of the business while supporting its highly configurable product portfolio. As steda evaluated possible solutions, it also sought a strategic IT business partner that understood its unique combination of e-commerce, manufacturing, and product complexity.
Managing Director, steda GmbH
Connecting the business with SAP Cloud ERP
Finding the right solution was not straightforward. Initially, steda viewed SAP Cloud ERP as being designed primarily for large enterprises. So the company evaluated other market offerings, finding each solved only part of the challenge. Some supported manufacturing but not commerce. Others handled trade processes but lacked the capabilities required for highly configurable products. The company needed ways to support its entire business model.
SAP Cloud ERP ultimately stood out because it provided features to combine sales, procurement, production, logistics, planning, and reporting within a single unified system. Equally important, the SAP GROW offering made enterprise-grade capabilities accessible for a midsize company seeking a foundation to support future growth.
A key part of the transformation was mastering product complexity at scale. With steda working closely with BA Business Advice, the companies developed a configuration framework that connects product configuration, pricing logic, and business rules across steda’s highly customized portfolio. This allows product data, pricing logic, and operational requirements to be maintained centrally in SAP Cloud ERP, enabling consistency from online configuration through fulfillment.
The implementation approach itself became an important success factor. Working alongside BA Business Advice, steda assembled a highly engaged, business-led project team with decision-makers, key users, and SAP experts working as one unit. Together, they focused on solving operational challenges and enabling future growth. Jendrik Tabken, SAP project manager at BA Business Advice, comments, “This wasn’t just an IT project, it was a business-led transformation supported by highly engaged users who genuinely wanted to change the way steda works.”
The team established the company’s digital backbone on SAP Cloud ERP, connecting its Shopify-based online business directly with operational processes across the organization and replacing disconnected applications with a shared data foundation. The collaborative approach helped accelerate decisions, resolve challenges quickly, and keep the project on track from kickoff to go-live in just eight months.
Managing Director, steda GmbH
Turning complexity into a competitive advantage
Since the transformation, the same product complexity that once strained operations has become a source of competitive differentiation.
With a digital backbone, steda can manage millions of potential product combinations through a single, connected cloud ERP landscape. Supported by a configuration framework, the company has established 75 configurable materials and can manage more than 3.6 million potential variants for a single terrace-roof product family while maintaining standardized downstream processes. What was once a significant operational challenge is now a scalable foundation for growth.
The impact is measurable. The number of orders requiring manual processing has fallen by 50%, significantly reducing preparational workload and enabling teams to focus on higher-value activities. Administrative effort for fast-lane orders has dropped by 90%, allowing many online orders to move from purchase to fulfillment with little to no manual intervention. By automating configuration and order-processing activities, steda can support continued business growth without adding operational complexity and resources.
The company has also replaced paper-based production workflows with digital processes, creating full transparency across production activities. Managers can now monitor production progress, workloads, inventory levels, and order status in real time using a single source of data in SAP Cloud ERP. As a result, teams no longer spend time debating which numbers are correct and can instead focus on making informed business decisions based on consistent data across the organization.
Technical Director, steda GmbH
Exploring AI-supported innovation for the next phase of growth
With SAP Cloud ERP firmly established as part of its digital foundation for innovation and growth, steda is looking to the next stage of its transformation.
The company is exploring the Joule solution to further improve efficiency and reduce manual effort. By combining AI with structured product and configuration data, steda sees opportunities to accelerate tasks such as product configuration, document processing, and decision-making while providing employees with faster access to business insights.
As customer expectations continue to evolve, steda aims to simplify the journey from inquiry to configuration, quotation, and fulfillment while preserving the product flexibility that defines its brand. With a connected cloud landscape already in place, the company is well positioned to continue growing without adding complexity.
Want to know more about steda?
Moving to the Public Cloud in Just Eight Months: How steda Restructured Its Business Processes (SAP News Center)
Featured partner
With no established blueprint for steda’s unique combination of e-commerce and operational complexity, BA Business Advice GmbH worked closely with the company to develop practical solutions and keep the project on schedule. Approaching the project as a business transformation, BA Business Advice led master data preparation, integrated Shopify with SAP Cloud ERP, and developed a tailored configuration framework. This enables millions of potential product combinations while maintaining streamlined downsteam processes.