Sovanta: Improving productivity and supporting business growth with integrated cloud solutions
Enhancing user experiences through process innovation
In support of its ongoing business expansion, SAP partner Sovanta AG decided to take the same approach that it recommends to its customers: using SAP technology to automate and streamline workflows. To achieve this, the company deployed a future-ready IT architecture based on SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) and an SAP Cloud ERP application.
| Industry | Region | Company Size | Partners |
| High tech | Heidelberg, Germany | 250 employees | Walldorf Consulting AG and |
reduction in invoice processing effort.
fewer errors, thanks to better data access.
savings in IT costs, thanks to reduced system maintenance tasks.
Chief Operating Officer, Sovanta AG
Building a global business by pioneering AI-enabled solutions
As an SAP gold partner, Sovanta AG has been at the forefront of innovation with SAP BTP for more than 15 years. With operations in Europe, Africa, South America, and the United States, the company is seeing rapid global expansion driven by demand for its AI-enabled solutions based on SAP software.
Sovanta’s focus has always been on taking a human-centered approach to using technology to help people work smarter. Now, to help support ongoing growth, the SAP partner decided to take the same approach internally.
The company wanted to unify a scattered IT landscape consisting of SAP S/4HANA and multiple third-party solutions, integrating processes to create a single source of truth and increase operational efficiency. It also wanted to take advantage of the latest AI-enabled innovations to make employees’ lives easier by automating routine tasks and delivering timely business insights.
To achieve this, the company looked for future-ready cloud ERP that could meet the specific needs of its staff to help them work more productively.
Chief Operating Officer, Sovanta AG
Harmonizing business processes on centralized cloud ERP
Already a champion of SAP technology for its customers, Sovanta felt that an IT infrastructure based on cloud solutions from SAP would also be the right fit for its own growing business. Fellow SAP partner Walldorf Consulting AG helped the company migrate finance and controlling processes from Sovanta’s existing on-premises SAP S/4HANA software to an SAP Cloud ERP application to meet a tight year-end deadline. Meanwhile, an internal Sovanta team took a phased approach to deploy project and resource management functionality in SAP Cloud ERP across the business.
As well as moving to SAP Cloud ERP, Sovanta implemented SAP SuccessFactors solutions, enabling the company to standardize global HR processes. It also deployed the Employee File solution from SAP partner Centric Cloud Solutions GmbH. Working with SAP SuccessFactors, this solution brings together documents and data for each employee in a single digital record.
To integrate processes across SAP Cloud ERP and SAP SuccessFactors, Sovanta used SAP Integration Suite. It also used the suite to link to the SAP Analytics Cloud solution to report KPIs, as well as connect third-party solutions for time tracking, resource planning, and revenue reporting with SAP Cloud ERP.
Reducing manual effort and improving operational visibility
With the cloud solutions from SAP in place, Sovanta is seeing significant benefits from process automation. For example, by replacing manual processing, the company has cut the time spent on invoicing by half.
Establishing a single, centralized cloud ERP foundation has also resulted in improved data quality. Previously, order data was maintained in four different systems; now, it is entered only once. This has eliminated around 70% of data-entry errors and inconsistencies and provides employees with a single source of trusted data.
Integrating processes across SAP Cloud ERP and SAP SuccessFactors has resulted in better access to reliable information, which has significantly improved decision-making across the company. For example, more-detailed reporting about resource utilization enables staff to manage projects more closely, helping ensure optimal service delivery while deploying resources with greater efficiency.
Self-services in SAP SuccessFactors are providing a smoother user experience in areas such as booking time off. Access to HR processes using any device, rather than using an office-based PC, makes it quick and convenient to submit requests wherever people are, saving time and effort that can be spent on other tasks.
Meanwhile, the move to managed ERP means the IT team can focus more on strategically supporting the business than on systems administration. The move to the cloud has freed up two to three days each month, as well as reducing IT costs by 20%.
Creating a foundation for AI-enabled innovation
Sovanta will be reviewing the possibilities offered by embedded AI-based functionality in SAP Cloud ERP to further enhance processes and provide more-timely business insights. Meanwhile, the company is exploring AI-enabled features in SAP SuccessFactors, such as parsing CVs, generating job requisitions, and creating interview questions tailored to individual candidates.
To support its future travel management processes, Sovanta is looking into deploying SAP Concur solutions, which will introduce several AI‑enabled features. These include, for example, AI-enabled functionality to speed up expense submissions and automate the scanning and uploading of travel expense documents. Implementing SAP Concur solutions and using their integrated AI capabilities will be one of the company’s key initiatives, helping ensure a more efficient and user‑friendly experience for employees.
Thanks to regular, automatic updates of the cloud solutions from SAP, Sovanta can take advantage of the latest technological innovations as and when they become available, enabling the company to continually optimize its operations. What’s more, the clean core approach enabled by SAP BTP allows the company to scale and adapt its IT infrastructure in an agile way to support ongoing growth and meet new business challenges.
Featured partners
With over 200 experts worldwide and customers in the professional and financial services, high-tech, and medical technology sectors, Walldorf Consulting AG is a leading specialist in the value-oriented transformation of business processes in the cloud. The SAP partner provided support and expertise in the deployment of finance and controlling functionality in Sovanta’s implementation of SAP Cloud ERP.
Working with more than 120 companies in 25 countries, Centric Cloud Solutions GmbH develops extensions based on SAP BTP for HR document processes for SAP SuccessFactors. Sovanta deployed the SAP partner’s Employee File solution to consolidate and manage employee information.