How SAP and Pentos help fast-growing mid-sized company prepare to scale: the story of SEEBURGER

IT company SEEBURGER lays the foundation for further growth by implementing SAP SuccessFactors as core HR system, with the help of implantation partner Pentos. Not only in employee count and turnover, but also in accomplishing more with the same amount of people by optimizing HR processes. Patrick Frauenheim, Head of Business Application Management at SEEBURGER: “In the end, there is a huge ROI”.?

?

A couple of years ago fast-growing company SEEBURGER was looking for one tool for all its HR processes. The German IT company wanted to cut down on paperwork and no longer wanted to continue using different HR tools side by side. SEEBURGER aimed at one tool to cover the whole employee lifecycle. Therefore, it needed to digitalize itself and the HR processes.?

“We wanted not only to make the life of our HR professionals a bit easier, but also the life of our employees in general”?

Patrick Frauenheim, who joined SEEBURGER in 2018 as a Project Manager for customer projects, is since the beginning of 2024 Head of Business Application Management. His team takes care of collecting requirements from the business, selecting new tools, helping with the implementation and configuration, setting up and testing the integration with other tools, evaluating potential consolidation options and implementing new features and updates. Furthermore, his team helps the Board with pursuing the overall digitalization strategy.?

As SEEBURGER was looking for a global HRIT system it was clear that the vendor or a cloud-based, agile, scalable integration platform was looking for a cloud-based solution. “Since we have a big development department ourselves, we made our own creations in the past. But in the end, you must maintain, support and update all the time. In addition, it's getting more and more important to protect your data, be compliant and manage your security nowadays”, Frauenheim explains.?

Sleep much better? Other goals were more transparency, full documentation in one tool and making the life of the employees of SEEBURGER a bit easier, not only the life of HR professionals. For instance, SEEBURGER had different tools for absence data and vacation requests. With one integrated solution, once a request gets approved, it gets spread and synced to any other tool where employees and managers might need it. It helps that SEEBURGER is an integration company itself.?

After an extensive vendor and package selection, SEEBURGER chose SAP SuccessFactors as global HRIT system and Pentos as implementation partner. Frauenheim: “First of all, SAP is a big and known European company, which is beneficial since HR cloud applications concern the most sensitive data. We know our data is in good hands. Our servers are hosted in Frankfurt within the EU. Therefore, we can sleep much better.”??

Pentos led SEEBURGER through the HR digitizing project step by step - module by module. While the global HCM-suite offers a ton of functionality, the employees don’t get overwhelmed, and don’t have to configure everything at once. This is useful, especially for fast-growing medium-sized companies like SEEBURGER. Especially the scalability.?

Find the right implementation partner? Pentos brought in a lot of knowledge and experience. “Pentos doesn’t just want to sell us stuff. They ask us what we need and where we want to start. They advised us on the best approach, and they picked the right framework.” According to Frauenheim it is very important to look for the right match when you’re searching for an implementation partner.?

“In order to make all the preparations to scale, you need to be open and willing to be guided and challenged”?

Andreas Riemann, Project Manager at Pentos, joined the SEEBURGER-project early 2020 as a Project Manager. His HR background makes him more than just a technical counterpart. He also challenges ideas and processes, which makes him a business consultant as well. According to Frauenheim people make the difference in such projects, not IT. Riemann stresses that it’s important that companies that implement an HCM-suite are open and willing to be guided and challenged. “This is a unique opportunity for companies to make all the preparations to scale. And there is more than scalability. We do it only when there's an ROI at the end. With SAP SuccessFactors with standard processes, that’s absolutely the case.”?

End-to-end onboarding process ? In the last four years the modules Employee Central (EC), TimeOff, Recruiting and Learning Management were implemented. The last module SEEBURGER and Pentos deployed together was Onboarding. Before, recruited candidates were not offered an end-to-end process. For example, the pre-boarding was not streamlined. “SEEBURGER invests a lot of time and money in the recruiting process, but after signing the contract there is an empty space until the actual first working day. A crucial, optimistic time you can use”, Riemann says.?

They dove deeper in the requirements in different countries to provide an end-to-end process. From now on, new hires can access data easily, manage the paperwork, read the safety instructions, watch videos about the company, do online trainings, et cetera. So, at their first working day, employees are already engaged and they can immediately start meeting the team, and do fun activities instead of doing the paperwork of wait for their laptop.?

Pentos organized workshops before implementing the module. They investigated the current situation and the ideal situation for Seeburger. This was very crucial for the success of the project.?

Re-evaluate your processes? At this moment the last module is being implemented: Performance & Goals Management. SEEBURGER deliberately took ample time for a phased implementation, Frauenheim: “When you implement a standard tool with extended processes, you must ask yourself: do you fit your processes into the tool, or do you try to customize the tool until it fits your processes? In the last case, you will not have that much fun with SAP SuccessFactors, since many customizations make it tricky and complex.”?

“Especially if you are growing fast, you don't necessarily think of documentation and processes first. You have other stuff to worry about”?

Do it the other way around: challenge your own processes, says the Head of Business Applications at SEEBURGER. “Don’t think you have the best processes in town. Especially if you are growing fast, you don't necessarily think of documentation and processes first. You have other stuff to worry about. When you implement the tool, you are challenged to check your processes since you can’t put everything that you’ve customized and what’s in your brain into a tool. It is all about priorities. Get rid of or re-evaluate some of your processes.”?

By modernizing and streamlining the HR processes Seeburger can enhance overall efficiency, accuracy, and employee satisfaction and ensure that HR processes comply with local and international labor laws and regulations. As an IT company its most important assets are its employees, so it’s important to support them with better processes, less manual work and automations. This way, they can focus on their daily work and contribute to the company’s success.??

Futureproof? Companies on the eve of a global HRIT implementation should know very well what their requirements are upfront, since SAP SuccessFactors is a candyshop – the sky is the limit. Furthermore, map how far developed you are as a company and seek help to fill the gaps. Then decide who is going to do what in every phase of the implementation.?

SEEBURGER is more ready for the future than ever before. The company is not only located in Germany but spread around the world. In 2023 it opened an office in India, which is growing very fast. It was crucial that SEEBURGER laid the foundation to scale with a global HR tool, so that it was not total chaos in there. “The compliance and all kinds of localizations were already available. As a fast-growing company the scalability is not only about modules and processes”, Frauenheim says.?

?

About SEEBURGER?

SEEBURGER AG is an IT company, founded in 1986 in a small town called Bretten, in the south of Germany. It offers a cloud-based integration platform, called BIS Platform, for any kind of integration purposes, including the software of SAP. The platform helps companies accelerate their digital transformation, optimize data exchange, and automate business processes. SEEBURGER has over 14.000 customers, such as Puma, Henkel and Samsonite, and employs around 1200 people worldwide. The company has offices in various countries, most of them in Europe, including the Benelux, but also in China, Japan, India, and the United States.?