NUMEN: Delivering on international expansion plans with a future-oriented ERP solution
The transformative power of technology
SAP partner NUMEN believes technology should empower people, not complicate their lives. Having nimbly deployed SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, it has redesigned its own ERP landscape, reducing manual work, cutting costs, and enhancing reporting and compliance. This allows finance teams to focus on adding value while the business focuses on growth.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Professional services | São Paulo, Brazil | 1,200 employees |
faster monthly financial closing.
reduction in manual effort during closing.
FTE reduction in the finance back office.
CFO, NUMEN International LLC
Preparing for growth with a finance-led ERP transformation
SAP partner NUMEN International LLC brings people and technologies together to help clients modernize their systems and processes and achieve better results. With NUMEN’s assistance, companies unlock the potential of their data in the cloud and optimize operations to minimize waste and become more competitive.
NUMEN prides itself on being both young and bold and audacious yet responsible. In keeping with these values, having already achieved steady and consistent growth, it recently embarked on an internationalization journey by expanding its operations from Brazil to the United States and Portugal.
Recognizing that its current ERP system was not robust enough to support this growth and enable compliance with the requirements of different markets, the company set out to rebuild its IT foundation. It needed a solution that could optimize diverse operations across the business, starting with financial processes.
With more than five million hours of SAP software project work under its belt, NUMEN knew where to turn.
CFO, NUMEN International LLC
Embracing standards, tools, and change management for a smooth project
Having witnessed many times the significant improvements SAP S/4HANA Cloud has brought for its clients, NUMEN decided deploying SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition was the right next step. The solution would provide the flexibility to support international expansion while safeguarding compliance. It also offered preconfigured processes that would speed implementation.
NUMEN decided to use SAP Business Technology Platform to help integrate different systems and solutions efficiently and smoothly. And it deployed the outbound invoicing option for Brazil (nota fiscal eletronica) of the SAP Document and Reporting Compliance solution to help increase automation and minimize noncompliance risks.
The company set itself an ambitious goal: going live within 15 weeks in Brazil, Portugal, and the United States. Based on its extensive experience of such projects, NUMEN knew adopting the best practices provided by the solution would be essential for a successful implementation. Using the tools and accelerators provided by SAP, embracing standards where possible, and adopting robust change management practices would also be critical.
For example, the company used the SAP Activate methodology and offerings such as the digital discovery assessment toolkit, the SAP Cloud ALM solution, and SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit. It also took advantage of SAP Learning Hub, “boot-camp” training for partners on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, and the various tools and scripts available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition itself for testing processes.
NUMEN ensured company leadership fully understood the benefits of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, from reduced maintenance effort and constant updates of new functionality to less regression testing effort. In terms of standardization, the company limited extensions to tasks such as determining the calculation of taxes based on the gross price, adding fields to an invoice, and adjusting the layout of the bank remittance file.
An extensive change management strategy centered on inclusivity and transparency was also key to a smooth project. This strategy included continuous feedback, training and enablement sessions, clear communication and regular meetings, continuous stakeholder feedback, and rigorous postimplementation support and follow-up.
Building an efficient, nimble, and scalable global company
Speedily completing its ERP transformation, NUMEN now has a robust support system for operational growth as well as the compliance reports and tools a global company needs.
It can run lean operations, thanks to automated and optimized processes. It has also realized substantial cost savings, with the move to the cloud reducing on-premises infrastructure, hardware maintenance, and related costs.
And the company has gained invaluable experience with methodologies and products that it can use to help its own customers run equally successful cloud projects.
On the finance side, a better user interface and functions that automate previously manually run processes have improved the efficiency of day-to-day operations. NUMEN needs fewer full-time-equivalent (FTE) employees for back-office operations, freeing its team to focus on analytical work. The company can produce both fiscal and managerial reports more quickly, and financial closing is faster. And automated and centralized processes aid robust compliance in a global marketplace, while enhanced security features give the company confidence that sensitive data is well protected.
Other key benefits include the solution’s scalability and flexibility. As NUMEN grows, SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition can smoothly accommodate new companies, new users, higher transaction volumes, and additional services. Employees’ ability to access systems remotely has also made a big difference, especially in terms of enhancing collaboration across departments and locations.
Future-proofing both internal operations and those of clients
NUMEN is now building on its ERP landscape to support an ambitious growth trajectory. Next, it plans to implement project control and management functionality for professional services in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. Also in the short term, the company intends to implement the SAP Analytics Cloud solution to improve its reporting capabilities.
A medium-term plan involves exploring how the company can take advantage of artificial intelligence by automating tasks using SAP Business AI. NUMEN sees AI as a true game changer. These explorations will not only improve its own processes but also underpin exciting new offerings that can help clients meet the digital challenges ahead.