Freudenberg: Supporting new reporting requirements in a diversified, heterogeneous technology group with a business data fabric
Explore Freudenberg’s journey with SAP
Family-owned global technology group Freudenberg & Co. KG manages 10 independently operated businesses, each with heterogeneous data sources. To improve groupwide reporting and planning with a connected data landscape, the company adopted the SAP Datasphere solution as the foundation of its business data fabric together with the SAP Analytics Cloud solution for planning.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Chemicals | Weinheim, Germany | 51,462 employees |
global businesses’ data accessible in one data fabric.
of targeted data silos replaced by exposed data models.
solution for central access to dozens of systems across the enterprise.
Director, Process and Digital Technology Management, Freudenberg & Co. KG
Simplifying data management and accelerating analytics
A global technology group, Freudenberg & Co. KG makes the world cleaner, healthier, and more comfortable, setting standards in technology, innovation, and quality. Working together with partners, customers, and the world of science, Freudenberg’s 10 business groups develop advanced technologies, products, solutions, and services for more than 30 market segments and thousands of applications.
As a family-owned company for more than 175 years and currently owned by some 360 heirs to the founding father Carl Johann Freudenberg, Freudenberg is passionate about innovating in new areas to stay competitive. To do so, this diversified organization’s heterogeneous business groups operate independently, with distinct business setups and operating environments.
As such, Freudenberg’s entities are organized separately, often with their own controlling function, finance operations, and IT department. This made compiling reporting for planning processes and internal auditing a considerable undertaking, requiring data replication and translation tables to be built for each distinct business’ company data.
With demands for consolidated reporting growing beyond internal audits—and necessary for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors and the OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) Pillar 2 framework—Freudenberg needed to dismantle data silos. The company wanted to avoid the need for extensive data replication, instead smoothing access to meaningful data across its diverse data ecosystem with business context and logic intact.
Head of Data Strategy and Governance, Freudenberg & Co. KG
Harmonizing a diversity of data sources and systems
Seeking to maximize the value of data in its organization, Freudenberg had to consider the complex ESG and European Union taxonomy requirements that needed a centralized data solution. There were also the complex demands of the OECD BEPS Pillar 2 framework across its 10 heterogeneous business groups.
Seizing the opportunity to create a unified, integrated data layer that would sit atop and connect to the multitude of on-premise sources held across its businesses, Freudenberg sought to establish a business data fabric landscape. This would allow it to retain key metadata and semantic definitions and associations across its organizations and corporate functions in both cloud and on-premise environments.
To get there, Freudenberg selected SAP Datasphere in concert with planning capabilities of the SAP Analytics Cloud solution and worked with SAP Services and Support to configure the solutions. Commenting on the decision, Andreas Hass, head of data strategy and governance at Freudenberg, says that his team was impressed with the native integration qualities offered by the solutions. The team also liked how the next-generation data management solution eliminated the need for data replication and building tables. As an integral part of SAP Datasphere, SAP HANA Cloud also offers sophisticated data processing and modeling capabilities that go far beyond a standard solution. It also allows for easier and more secure integration of third-party solutions on the database level.
“Our primary use cases for the business data fabric focused on simplifying and accelerating the process of data management, analysis, and discovery across our data ecosystem for internal auditing, ESG, and realizing Pillar 2 framework processes. We wanted to avoid the significant effort involved in data replication and modeling while retaining valuable metadata and business context. Integration with SAP S/4HANA and other SAP applications often mitigates the need for data replication and building tables from scratch, as tables are automatically populated with information from the ERP. And by implementing the business intelligence and planning capabilities of SAP Analytics Cloud, we can visualize the data in dashboards and take advantage of robust planning functionality.”
The diagram below illustrates the data ecosystem at Freudenberg using SAP Datasphere, SAP Analytics Cloud, and SAP HANA Cloud.
Head of Data Strategy and Governance, Freudenberg & Co. KG
Breaking new ground in data management across diverse environments
In such a heterogeneous organization, Freudenberg’s strategic move to a centralized and harmonized data landscape forms the foundation for a strong data governance structure and data-driven ecosystem.
Where there used to be data silos, limited integration, and sometimes disparate data knowledge, Freudenberg’s business data fabric connects to sources across its business ecosystem of cloud and on-premise systems from SAP and third parties. This simplifies users’ access to this data without the need for duplication, helping retain valuable metadata, semantics, and business context.
By integrating data sources and applications, Freudenberg’s business data fabric landscape reduces the time and resources spent on manual reporting and integration tasks, streamlining internal auditing across the organizations. And with access to data from a multitude of sources readily available in the right formats, Freudenberg can easily integrate and model new regulatory requirements, such as the OECD BEPS Pillar 2 requirements. Hass explains, “By centralizing data access and semantics in SAP Datasphere and processing it through the SAP Profitability and Performance Management application within the same ecosystem, we have streamlined compliance efforts while enhancing transparency and accuracy.”
Where Freudenberg uses SAP Datasphere, it acts as a translation layer between its business groups and entities so it can report across the company. This integrated business data fabric architecture is now serving as the backbone for critical initiatives like ESG and sustainability reporting, where disparate data sources must be harmonized and analyzed. Taking such an approach not only breaks down data silos but also fosters collaboration and efficiency across the organization.
Elsewhere, Freudenberg has realized inherent value by using SAP Analytics Cloud for planning in operational areas for cost center and project budgeting. With its operations teams now adept at performing complex analytics and planning tasks and creating visually appealing reports, the company aims for the solution to be adopted across its diverse business entities.
Head of Data Strategy and Governance, Freudenberg & Co. KG
Harnessing deeper data insights
Freudenberg’s move toward a centralized data landscape delivers a closed loop for planning and reporting processes by integrating data from cloud and on-premise sources from SAP and third-party solutions. This setup allows it to meet increasingly more complex reporting requirements more efficiently and underpins growth in a rapidly evolving business landscape.
Freudenberg sees SAP Datasphere as instrumental in its AI strategy, and it’s already planning to trial new generative AI and data governance features. This includes further enhancing decision-making capabilities by automating the creation and development of reports, dashboards, plans, and more. Additionally, Freudenberg is looking into SAP HANA Cloud vector engine to allow for deeper insights of combined structured and unstructured data by using the same technology and interface for its internal users.