With its Fressnapf and Maxi Zoo brands, the Fressnapf Group is now represented in ten other European countries in addition to Germany. In the coming years, the franchise company plans to expand its brick-and-mortar presence significantly with more than 800 new stores. The online shop will also be gradually rolled out internationally. The company headquarters in Krefeld sees itself as a service provider and link for local partners.
HR relies on an efficient SAP standard environment
The headquarters introduced SAP HCM for human resources management in 2012. Quality assurance for payroll accounting with the SAP solution was initially still carried out manually. However, it was clear that regular payroll accounting checks would have to be automated, if only because of the rapidly growing number of employees. Once those responsible in the HR and IT departments had familiarized themselves with the new SAP system, the next step was to select to provide an Internal Control System (ICS) solution for SAP HCM.
Centric was already known to the company. Since the user-friendly, easy-to-implement add-ons for SAP HCM exactly met the requirements of the HR department, the Centric ICS tools PLK and PLX were initially introduced in 2013 for quality assurance of payroll accounting.
The digitization measure came at just the right time: since Centric Tools was launched, the number of payroll statements checked by German companies has doubled from 2,000 to around 4,000 today – and further growth is foreseeable due to the declared growth strategy.
Step by step towards a comprehensive Internal Control System (ICS) for SAP
Together with PLK and PLX, the Master Data Audit Program MADAP PA was also introduced to check the plausibility of personnel master data before each payroll run. Further expansion steps included the addition of the comparison and calculation tool VBT2, the extension of the Master Data Audit Program to include the OM component, and the audit tool PLK_AT for the Austrian locations. The introduction of further Centric tools is already being considered. Janine Thiele, responsible for SAP HCM at Fressnapf, notes:
“Since all Centric tools can be integrated with each other, we can use them to build a comprehensive modular ICS for SAP HCM step by step.”
Sustainable data quality management
With Centric Tools, the HR team in Krefeld has established regular quality assurance and reporting processes for payroll accounting. A total of up to 20 users work with the tools on a regular basis. While the monthly payroll audit with PLK, PLX, and PLK_AT covers the German and Austrian locations, the MADAP and VBT2 tools are used to analyze data from all national companies that work with SAP.
MADAP is now used to check the master data records of around 10,000 employees every month. The heterogeneous organizational structures of the various national subsidiaries have also been harmonized with the help of MADAP OM. As the source system for downstream systems, organizational management now ensures uniform naming of organizational units across countries and topics, as well as reliable data quality.
Flexible personnel controlling
HR controllers use the VBT tool to create monthly standard reports. Flexible ad hoc analyses also enable them to answer spontaneous questions from the group at any time. HCM manager Janine Thiele sees the simple evaluation of various SAP data sources in one tool as a significant advantage:
“Instead of using complex SAP queries and Excel, our HR controllers can use VBT2 to link all SAP data with a click of the mouse and evaluate it in combination.”
Among other things, employee and payroll data can be consolidated in VBT2 and analyzed and processed using stored formulas, predefined queries, and filters. HR controllers use VBT2, for example, to simulate bonus calculations, report international key figures for financial controlling, or simulate the financial impact of contract changes on the forecast and annual plan.
Tangible benefits in various areas of HR work
By automating payroll accounting, reporting, and data maintenance, Fressnapf saves considerable time on routine tasks with Centric tools. Error-prone manual processing of Excel lists has also been eliminated in many areas. HR managers can now rest assured that payroll accounting is accurate and data quality is high. Another important advantage is reliable international reporting as a result of the high data quality in organizational management and master data.
The IT department also appreciates the ease of use of Centric tools, both during implementation and ongoing operation. Control and administration are handled entirely in-house, and Centric is available to answer any questions. Thanks to regular updates provided by Centric, Fressnapf's ICS is always up to date, both technically and functionally. Janine Thiele adds:
“By importing the transport orders provided into our SAP systems, Centric Tools are easy to implement and can be used immediately. Since we were provided with test versions in advance, we were able to put the applications through their paces beforehand and specify our requirements for customizing Centric Tools in detail.”
