ABB has signed a strategic agreement with the German-based business software company, SAP, to deploy common SAP ERP (enterprise resource planning) software to help unify and simplify some of ABB’s most important business processes, and over time achieve significant savings.

In addition to supporting ABB’s various business processes, SAP will be used to bring about a high degree of standardization in the human resources, finance and administration and corporate governance functions.

“We need a solution that empowers users to maintain their local best practices but at the same time ensures alignment with our common, global aims,” said Haider Rashid, ABB’s Chief Information Officer.

Cut costs and simplify

Rashid said the partnership will help ABB cut costs and greatly simplify its global business processes. He added SAP software is also flexible enough to integrate local best practices and applications in existing business processes with mySAP’s global accounting standards and policies for governance, risk and compliance.

Léo Apotheker (seated left), president of SAP Customer Solutions & Operations, with ABB President and CEO, Fred Kindle (right). Over the next three years, SAPs ERP systems will be deployed across most of ABB’s business organizations to help cut costs and simplify global business processes.

As a result of numerous acquisitions, ABB at one time had more than 500 ERP systems and 70 different ERP brands in operation across its businesses. The number has now been cut to 225, but the target is one ERP per country, and ultimately one ERP platform per region for all of ABB.

ABB businesses in over 30 countries are currently studying the introduction of SAP software into their processes under the umbrella of One Simple ABB (OSA project).

“We will achieve efficiency gains and further strong operational improvements by simplifying our business processes. With SAP, we are on a clear path to becoming one, simplified organization, and we are doing so with the goal of achieving a significant return on the investment.” Rashid added.

New users

The agreement will make ABB one of SAP’s largest industrial customers. About 22,000 ABB employees currently use SAP software, and the global agreement will add a further 66,000 users, with an option to extend the software to all employees.

ERP software will help ABB integrate departments and functions with a single, unified integrated software program that is designed to replace stand-alone systems in finance and administration, HR and corporate governance, so departments can better share information and communicate with each other more easily.

Phase 1

The first phase of the rollout is already underway in Germany, India, Sweden, Switzerland and the entire South Asia Pacific region including Australia, to be followed by Latin America and the United States.

SAP was founded in 1972 by former IBM employees in Germany. The name stands for Systems Applications and Products in data processing.

With more than 36,200 customers worldwide, SAP is the world's largest business software company and the world's third-largest independent software provider overall, providing collaborative business solutions for all types of industries and in every major market.

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