In this already very progressive research institute in 1991, Frank Michael Kraft, our founder, laid a solid foundation for his knowledge in production control and -controlling and in the practical application of digitization in the factory of tomorrow.
As a trainee of the later Chief Development Officer Bernd Leukert, Frank began his career at SAP in 1996. He expanded SAP R/3 Release 3.1 and, in a team, built the product SAP APO - Advanced Planner and Optimizer - the most widely used logistical planning tool in the SAP world, which is used worldwide across all industries.
The focus was on developing interfaces to SAP R/3 in multiple release states, as well as so-called BAPIs (Business Application Programming Interfaces).
In an extremely steep learning curve, Frank recognized the need for coordinating business processes and integration scenarios, as well as the fundamental rules of a service-oriented architecture for clean coupling of business software components.
From 2003, Frank was one of the first architects of the new Cloud ERP project from SAP and, together with highly talented experts, built the groundbreaking new solution for medium-sized businesses: SAP Business ByDesign. The most modern techniques and methods are applied, and numerous new inventions are made, which flow into the new product. It is now used by over 9,720 customers worldwide and has the highest satisfaction rate of all SAP cloud products.
Key innovations from this time later flow into the product SAP S/4 HANA Cloud.
Long enough have business departments and IT experts talked past each other. A new common language was needed. Following this insight, Frank, on behalf of SAP, together with IBM, Oracle, Axway, MEGA International, and Unisys, specified the modeling language for business processes BPMN 2.0, which was adopted in 2011. The focus is on the aforementioned clean coupling between processes and integration scenarios of business components. It is now used worldwide and scientifically well established. Furthermore, the modeling language became the basis for the product SAP Signavio and is now the de facto standard for professional Cloud ERP transformation projects. It is also now part of the SAP package offering RISE with SAP through a Signavio license.
BPMN 2.0 is now used for all our pre-analysis projects preparing for a Cloud ERP transformation.
Frank founded AdaPro in 2010 due to growing interest in process consulting for the Cloud. The name AdaPro is program and stands for Adaptive Processes. The focus of the initial projects is supporting and training companies in building a structured process landscape using BPMN 2.0, with Signavio and the AdaPro modeling guide with best practices.
We first advised companies looking to provide their customers with the best possible IT service management support. Many companies are IT-heavy and have a high proportion of manual and inefficient processes. This leads to a high error rate and poor customer satisfaction. These problems could have a negative impact on the company, as errors are costly and customers can walk away. We helped optimize and automate these processes to reduce errors and increase customer satisfaction.
The first group of customers for whom we built and practically used our AdaPro Signavio process library for SAP Business ByDesign from 2012 were customers from the Production and Logistics industry.
Our goal was to enable our customers to design their processes as simply and effectively as possible. Through our process library, they reduce the effort and costs of introducing new processes. In the implementation projects we advised, customers were able to focus on the essentials and have more time for the truly important things.
Our customers looked at SAP Business ByDesign and were impressed by the numerous features. By producing with serial numbers and customer-specific products, they can better tailor their products to their customers' needs. The integrated financial accounting is also a major advantage for our customers.
From 2013, the next group of customers simplified their licensing agreements with SAP Business ByDesign.
Licensing agreements and subscriptions are complex, and manual management in a historically grown system landscape is time-consuming and error-prone. In these cases, companies were growing faster than they could manage.
The task was to achieve seamless integration of the SAP Cloud ERP solution into the existing infrastructure with the help of Signavio, simplifying it and making the work easier. Revenue recognition was automated.
The Best Practice AdaPro Signavio process library for customer contract management was used.
The next group of customers from 2015 faced the challenge of managing and tracking their projects more efficiently. Organizing and executing projects is complex, and there is a lack of overview. Especially for managing directors of a consulting company with international branches. The use of SAP Business ByDesign enables them to manage customer projects, projects for multiple customers, internal projects, and cross-company projects. Financial accounting is also standardized, making employees' work easier. SAP Business ByDesign is the ideal solution for consulting companies with multiple locations and educational institutions.
The AdaPro Signavio Best Practice Library has now grown to 300 reusable process components that have already been successfully introduced to customers. These are combined in industry-specific end-to-end processes and are ready for immediate use. In fact, we are surprised at how much the process library has accelerated some projects. A friend managing director says: This is disruptive.
Meanwhile, SAP has decided to acquire Signavio into the SAP family, thus setting the same strategic course as AdaPro did in 2010. Now the entire RISE with SAP strategy is being based on this. Very good!
AdPro supports two major customers from 2016 in requirements management, planning, and rollout of S/4 HANA in 25 countries. Signavio is the leading process coordination platform for the introduction of S/4 HANA. AdaPro takes over process coordination in the introduction of S/4 HANA with Signavio. The introduction of S/4 HANA is a complex undertaking involving many different processes and stakeholders. AdaPro helps with Signavio to coordinate and control this process to ensure a smooth introduction of S/4 HANA.
Industry: Pharma and Production (Pressure Printing)
Meanwhile, SAP has launched the program to use the Best Practice Library for S/4 HANA.
More to come…
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