Widened Market Access / Expanding Strategic Position
Stuttgart, 19 July 2006 – The AC Group is gearing up in line with its strategy of offering the entire IT value chain as a one-stop IT provider and thereby comprehensively responding to the IT needs of defined segments in countries where German is spoken. ProServ, the mySAP All-in-One industry solution of the AC Group company Process Partner AG, which is already well positioned in Switzerland, is set to be marketed in Germany under the designation All for Service as a part of All for One GmbH's product portfolio. All for One has been a member of the AC Group since February 2006. It was on this new basis that All for One GmbH, with the support of Process Partner AG, won the contract for a comprehensive SAP implementation project at Formel D GmbH in Troisdorf. This worldwide operating high-tech services provider, which develops concepts and solutions for complex tasks involving production processes in the automobile and mechanical-engineering industry, has a total of some 1000 employees and 9 locations abroad and will be using this SAP project to gradually replace its entire IT landscape. This landscape currently consists of separate, isolated country-specific solutions based on Navision in connection with numerous customised programs. The choice of an integrated mySAP All-in-One solution for services companies that can be universally deployed worldwide went hand in hand with the selection of an implementation partner that not only perfectly understands the enterprise processes of companies like Formel D, but those of its customers as well. In addition to the industry solution All for Service (Services Companies), All for One also has market-leading mySAP industry templates that combine exceptional industry expertise for such fields as machinery and equipment manufacturing (All for Machine) and the automotive industry (All for Automotive). This compelling combination of solution and comprehensive know-how resulted in Formel D dropping the preliminary choice it made a long time ago for a competing product in favour of All for One.
The centrepiece of Formel D's new IT landscape is ProServ (in Germany All for Service), a mySAP All-in-One industry solution that was developed specifically for people-intensive business processes by the AC company Process Partner AG headquartered in St. Gallen, which experts rate as one of the best SAP-based solutions for services companies. Some 4,500 users in Switzerland already benefit from using this solution. In 2001 a much-noticed world record was set at the Swiss Technical Inspection Association (SVTI/Swiss TS), which is comparable to the German TÜV, in which a mySAP solution was launched in only 24 hours. It was during extensive auditing procedures in early 2003 that ProServ became one of the first solutions to earn the qualification as a mySAP All-in-One industry solution under the new EMEA guidelines. This qualification was validated by SAP during a recertification in 2006. SAP recognised a rollout of the solution at a Swiss IT service provider with its Global Business Partner Award 2004 in the category "Best Performance Worldwide". This award underscores the kind of tremendous business benefits that services companies can reap with ProServ. Now that All for One GmbH has joined the AC Group, plans call for actively marketing ProServ in Germany under the brand name All for Service. "With the choice of this mySAP industry solution we now aim to achieve the universal, worldwide integration of our services processes. We expect it to serve as the basis for exhaustive information on all projects and clients throughout the entire Formel D corporate group and deliver up-to-the-minute project, market-segment, management and corporate figures," reported the Formel D general managers Viola Metzner and Hans-Josef Orth.
Operation from within the Managed IT Service Center saves time for the implementation project
The worldwide rollout of this new business solution will be preceded by successfully implementing it for all the German facilities of Formel D, which, besides Troisdorf, are also located in B�blingen, Munich, R�sselsheim, Wolfsburg, Bremen and Regensburg. In addition to the launch of the mySAP All-in-One industry solution All for Service and the provision of an initial 350 mySAP licences, this project also includes a special new implementation service. During the implementation phase the provision, operation and maintenance of the systems needed for running the SAP application will be made from within AC-Service's Managed IT Service Center. Pre-tailored systems and application platforms; development, test and productive systems; and infrastructures such as WAN, LAN, Firewall and storage media are immediately available and require no special planning or procurement. This means that the implementation project can start sooner. What's more, the systems in AC-Service's Managed IT Service Center are fully integrated into an all-encompassing system management. Faults and problems are recognised early on and corrected proactively so that the project team can fully concentrate on implementing the application.
Broadened Market Access
The AC Group wants to further expand its strategic position within the SAP services market in line with its plans to market the mySAP industry solution ProServ beyond Switzerland and into Germany under the brand name All for Service. Sales activities with partners play an important part in accomplishing this. The Munich-based Mobile Consulting & Services GmbH helped support the Formel D project. The solutions portfolio, expanded through the addition of All for Service in Germany, should create excellent conditions to move beyond engineering companies and automotive suppliers and tap into additional market potential along their supply chains. Like Formel D, these would include diversely operating high-tech companies engaged in staff-intensive service processes for which All for Service is so superbly suited.
About Formel D
The Formel D corporate group is a globally aligned service provider for the automobile and related supplier industries. The company offers innovative solutions covering all aspects of the production process through its five business lines: FLOWing. × Supporting the service process; KNOWing. × Training employees and business partners; QUALIFYing. × Quality work for the production process; CARing. × Working on vehicles; and CREATing. × Audiovisual knowledge and image transfer. The Formel D corporate group's international subsidiaries work in a variety of different professional and technical fields - all of whose content is fully networked. Formel E * E-Business Solutions and Providing, Formel K × Staffing Services and Design. www.formeld.com