Brenntag China Wellstar SAP Roll-Out: Harmonize business processes across units to drive synergy

Brenntag acquired Chinese specialty chemicals distributor Wellstar Group to strengthens footprint in Asia Pacific.

Project Challenges

Wellstar group used U8 ERP system to manage their business rather than the SAP system which used by Brenntag globally. To adopt a standardized data and process model with strong governance across the Brenntag group to enable compliance and reduce organizational risks, the Brenntag SAP roll-out project was initiated. The goal of this project is to roll-out Brenntag APAC SAP template to Wellstar group. The scope includes three legal entities and with limited project timeline and budget.

We also need to work out the solution for China legal requirement and migrate the master data and transaction data from legacy system.

Our solution approach

First, Convista consultants participate the knowledge transfer from Brenntag China team to learn the Brenntag APAC SAP template include the business process, existing customized system function and Brenntag data template. Then Convista team drive the project from preparation till system go-live.

During the preparation, we define the SAP organization structure for the three legal entities and set up the foundation for the following business definition. During the discovery phase, we went through all the template process and identified 65 processes and 52 gaps for the three legal entities. All these gaps have been fitted with the proper solution. All these processes have been properly configured during the realization phase. Apart from the SAP development, Convista consultant also enabled the integration system for Wellstar includes TMS, BPM and golden-tax system to support their transportation, business approval and China legal invoice printing business.

Highlights of the project

First of all, Convista has the mature implementation and roll-out methodology. Based on this methodology in addition to the Breentag SAP template, we clearly defined the detail phase, tasks and exit criteria for each phase to ensure that quality of the project. Secondly, Convista has the experienced team and we completed the successfully knowledge transfer from Brenntag SAP.

The successful knowledge transfer ensure the consultant fully understands the Brenntag and did the comprehensive gaps analysis for business process, which make sure the roll-out processes and gaps can fully cover Wellstar business operation in Brenntag SAP system. Finally, we did the trail data migration before we did the final cut-over.

This significantly reduce the risk for the production cut-over. We involve business do the trail migration so that the business and consultant can familiar with steps and data quality during the data trail.
Most of the data or operation issues were resolved
in trail migration, which make the production cut-over is smooth and successful.

Benefits for Wellstar

This project is to make sure Wellstar business can adopt standardized data and process model with strong governance across the Brenntag group to enable compliance and reduce organizational risks. In the meantime, we also need to harmonize business processes across units to drive synergy, bring efficiency and reduce cost. After this project. the Wellstar business could operate the Breentag SAP system instead of using U8, which improve the operation efficiency and reduce the manual effort for the finance reconciliation.

Why choose Convista?

Convista was already convincing in the bidding phase with a very well prepared and equipped team. Apart from this, convista delivered successful project in German before and built the trust with Brenntag.

A big congratulations to all for this successful go live! Thank you all for working on this very, very hard to make it happen smoothly and on time. Thank you for all the effort you’ve put!

Hua Liu President Specialties China & Hong Kong

Brenntag is the global market leader in chemicals and ingredients distribution. The Germany based international company manages complex supply chains for both chemical manufacturers and consumers by simplifying market access to thousands of products and services. Brenntag operates a global network with about 600 locations in 72 countries. With its global workforce of more than 17,500 employees, the company generated sales of EUR 19.4 billion in 2022. Wellstar is 100% owned by Brenntag. Headquartered in Hong Kong and with subsidiaries
in Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Shanghai, Wellstar Group distributes high performance pigments, effect pigments, resins and kaolin used in a broad variety of industries including coatings, inks, plastic and cosmetics.