Case Study | WÜRTH IT

BIS as an agile and strategic platform for all integration needs at the Würth Group

The Würth Group is the global market leader in developing, manufacturing and selling assembly and fastening materials. The Würth Group currently consists of over 400 companies in more than 80 countries. Around 4 million customers draw on its product range of around 125,000 products to cover their needs. They research and order these products through the renowned Würth sales force, but are increasingly using electronic procurement channels for product information and purchasing.

 

Digitalizing business processes provides flexibility for customers of all sizes

In order to meet the diverse requirements of its changing business model, Würth IT operates the SEEBURGER BIS platform in its own data centre in Niedernhall-Waldzimmern, Germany. What began 15 years ago with the integration of local B2B customers has been expanded over time to connect international business partners and new digital sales channels, as well as a variety of technically complex integration scenarios.

The SEEBURGER BIS platform supports sales & distribution activities by integrating:

  • B2B customers and partners worldwide
    across all processes, in the long term all connected to SAP S/4HANA
  • Cloud purchasing platforms for key accounts
    with real-time product and inventory information for efficient purchasing
  • Vending machines at a large number of customers’ production facilities
    to procure appropriate items whenever needed

Industry:
Retail
 

Scenarios:
BIS Suite
B2B/EDI
API & EAI
 

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From EDI to API and from master data to transactional data: Würth uses BIS for many purposes and use cases. Thanks to the wide range of capabilities on BIS, we can face any integration requirements with confidence.

Markus Worsch, Team Lead E-Business, Würth Industrie Service GmbH & Co. KG

BIS, a powerful integration platform for Würth IT

Würth‘s skilled IT team uses the versatile BIS platform for automated connections to business partners through various channels, technologies and services. They use the platform’s EDI, API, MFT and IoT capabilities for everything from B2B and cloud integration to integrating smart vending machines. BIS is provisioned both as a fully-managed service and as an infrastructure.

Following scenarios support the Würth business model:

  • Integration of an SAP ERP and related SAP applications
    in all processes during the roll out and migration to SAP S/4HANA as an ERP, including transferring master data to SAP Hybris, Retail etc.
  • B2B/EDI integration of international customers
    for standardized business processes such as transmitting catalogue data, orders, order confirmations, delivery notes and invoices
  • WebEDI connections to suppliers through the SEEBURGER Supplier Portal
    to enable digital order processing smaller, non-EDI-capable suppliers to the Würth Group and WUCATO Marketplace
  • EAI integration of internal applications and databases
    such as Stibo Systems‘ MDM system STEP, legacy applications & webcam streams
  • Managed File Transfer (MFT)
    for the automated sending of data such as catalogue data to customers
  • IoT integration of vending machines for manufacturing supplies
    for just-in-time supply and automated stock replenishment
  • API integration of cloud-based B2B procurement platforms
    such as SAP Ariba for electronic procurement
  • Customer-specific data provision through Würth-APIs
    such as prices and availability from SAP in real time

Advantages for Würth

  • Strategic expansion of digital business processes and electronic sales channels
  • Scalable services for global IT operations deployed as on-premises, full service or software as a service
  • Secure, flexible and reliable implementation of current and future integration requirements and scenarios

BIS platform supports Würth IT

  • BIS 6 comprising 34 logical systems, 7 for the global Würth IT locations in Germany, USA, China and India
  • Approx. 7 million messages per month, meaning more than 71.8 million messages per year
  • Over 4900 mappings
  • Over 75 Mapping Designer licences
  • BIS Community Management App (CMA) for B2B partner onboarding, self services and compliance checks
  • BIS Repository Management: Repository for each logical system; mappings shared between systems as needed
  • BIS Landscape Management: The Würth BIS landscape runs three parallel instances in an active-active-active cluster

Vending machines, known as ORSYmats, are connected to an ERP system via the SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite (BIS) to automate stock replenishment

SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite is used for all integration needs at the Würth Group

B2B/EDI and WebEDI integration

Würth’s Core IT team uses BIS to automate, standardize and manage group-wide sales to more than 10,000 business partners worldwide.

Provided as a fully managed service, administered by the Würth IT teams at locations in China, India and the USA, and provisioned to the other Würth Group companies as software-as-a-service (SaaS), who manage their own logical BIS systems.

The BIS Community Management App is available as a service to make B2B onboarding even easier.

Managed File Transfer

Sending individualized product catalogues is not only costly and complex, it isalso imperative that the individually negotiated prices stay confidential.

Würth uses MFT to dynamically compile, retrieve and send product catalogues tailored to the customer. This can be done in any format, efficiently zipped, securely sent and GDPR-compliant.

API integration and provision

Würth uses APIs to integrate the online procurement platforms of their key accounts in real time. Operated by the client company itself, these portals include SAP Ariba, Coupa, Meplato and others.

Würth also provisions an API for price queries. This means customers can integrate 125,000 products and their market prices, discounts and conditions into their systems and order these.

APIs enable direct and immediate data exchange in self-service.

Internet of Things

If a company needs to procure production materials at irregular intervals, this often involves an enormous amount of time and effort. In order to minimize this workload, Würth has set up a number of smart vending machines. Known as an ORSYmat, or – for a rack – an ORSYregal, production workers can immediately retrieve any of the items shown on the screen. These are then automatically reordered through BIS.

This IoT integration saves time and increases productivity.

With BIS, we have a forward-looking, permanently up-to-date, secure and compliant technology solution. The benefits are greater synergies in IT operations and lower costs of ownership.

Martin Ciupke, Departmental Manager Data Integration, Würth IT GmbH

About Würth IT

Würth IT GmbH was founded in 2014. It plays a leading role in the development of new business models and the digitalisation of existing corporate processes.

The range of services provided by Würth IT includes, in particular, SAP systems, e-business applications, service & support, sales support tools, three data centres and Würth Global Services for communication, collaboration and security in the Würth Group.

Worldwide, the Würth IT Group is active over 13 locations in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, China, India and the USA. It has more than 1,000 employees and supports customers around the globe.

www.wuerth-it.com