The Customer Magazine 1|2010

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Need to Get Users Excited About Software
Following its new mantra of solutions with instant value, SAP is transforming itself to be faster and more customer-oriented. SAP Spectrum talks with Jim Hagemann Snabe to find out how the company aims to achieve this.
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The financial crisis, the drive toward internationalization, and SAP Enterprise Support services were three topics weighing heavily on the minds of SAP user companies in Japan last year.

14.09.2009

From Garage to Global

By: Frank Voelkel

The village of Assamstadt in the heart of rural Germany is home to mobile energy manufacturer Ansmann. SAP.info took a trip into the countryside to pay a visit in person.

Ansmann in Assamstadt: Franken auf dem Weltmarkt

The village of Assamstadt in the heart of rural Germany is home to mobile energy manufacturer Ansmann. SAP.info took a trip into the countryside to pay a visit in person. The company’s many products are displayed in glass cases and on the walls in the foyer. Here, we are met by Jörg Mauz – a self-confessed pragmatist and head of Ansmann’s IT department – who spoke with us about the company’s largest and most expensive project to date.

Mauz talks mainly about the technology, but enjoys explaining details from a business perspective. And he talks just as he acts – straight to the point, without beating about the bush. During our visit, we get to know the entire company, including details such as how lunch is organized and the fact that a number of employees are currently on short-time work. As a family-run business, Ansmann traditionally has a close relationship with its staff. Since it was founded in 1991, the company has had to part with only a very few people.

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Ansmann worked its way up from humble beginnings in Edgar Ansmann’s garage to an internationally operating company. As a result, a wide variety of hardware and software was acquired over the years, with no attempts to standardize the network at system level. When Ansmann went global, the databases for the ERP system were not centrally located and had to be synchronized more or less by hand.

By 2007, this situation was no longer acceptable for the users, the IT department, or the company management. The search was on for a new ERP solution, and many different candidates were evaluated. Talks took place with Oracle, Infor, and SAP. In the end, Ansmann opted for SAP – naming its international focus and especially its market penetration as the winning factors.

Ansmann isn’t a huge company – but its logistics processes are complex. Goods are ordered through the German headquarters, while production takes place in China, and purchasing is handled in Hong Kong and Macao.