KPS AG: Centralized Payments and the Successful Move to SAP S/4HANA

KPS AG

Company: KPS AG 

Industry: Consulting 

Sales: 166 million euros (2020)

Employees: 1200+

Headquarters: Unterföhring / Munich, Germany

Business Need

"The move to S/4HANA marks the beginning of a new era for us" according to Hartmut Schmidt, Managing Partner & Practice Lead Finance and Analytics, KPS AG. The consulting firm, which operates on an international level, is both a customer and partner of Serrala. The end of maintenance for SAP ECC and R3 in 2027 presented KPS AG with the same challenges as many of its customers:
 

• How can data and processes such as payment transactions be imported quickly and securely into SAP S/4HANA - preferably on time for the year-end closing?
   
• Which approach should you take, greenfield, brownfield or transformation?
   
• How does the changeover work for all employees - and especially in a remote working situation during the pandemic?
   
• How do you achieve more transparency for all processes in the company, including financial processes, while ensuring a smooth transition of centralized payments to the new system?

Solution

KPS was able to take care of the change management to SAP S/4HANA with its own consultants who used a greenfield project approach. The Serrala FS² Payments solution was easy to move along in the change management process for SAP S/4HANA ensuring a smooth transition of centralized payments:

• 100% integration of FS² Payments with SAP S/4HANA eliminated the need for specialized migration tasks
• The payment transactions were seamlessly imported into S/4HANA via FS² Payments and could be used by all employees as usual from day 1; there was no need for a complex transition of the centralized payments solution
• Bank communication was set up with FS² Payments via EBICS
  - After approval, a payment is sent directly to the bank
  - The signature is attached
  - The bank reports the payment status directly back to SAP
  - Account statements in SAP are retrieved, converted, allocated and centrally stored all with FS² Payments​​​​
• All payment and bank statement processes as well as processes from the human resources, contract management and controlling areas now converge in S/4HANA

Results

Thanks to the complete integration of FS² Payments in SAP S/4HANA, KPS AG was able to master the move of centralized payments to S/4HANA quickly and cost-efficiently, achieving an end-to-end process. 

"We have moved away from a specialized solution to a much more comprehensive, integrated process landscape. For payments management, we chose Serrala. The charm of this FS² solution is that it is scalable as required." Katharina Väth, Manager, KPS AG

• Transparent: Payment status and account statements for international payments and cash flows can be viewed in real time
• Flexible: FS² Payments can be implemented flexibly at any time in the transition process to S/4HANA
• Efficient: The seamless transition of the centralized payments solution saved time, costs and training
• Future-proof: The solution provides scalability, is continuously optimized by Serrala, and fully compatible with other FS² solutions
• Know-how: KPS AG passes on the experience gained from the successful project and the integrated solution from S/4HANA and FS² Payments to customers
• Outlook: KPS AG plans to extend its centralized payments solution with an in-house bank with Serrala solutions.

For more details on the project, also watch the recording (in German language) of the roundtable with KPS AG  at Structured Finance.