In 2015, the company made a major decision: The software landscape was to be completely realigned. The company wanted state-of-the-art solutions that were tightly integrated, scalable, and ready for whatever technological scenarios the future held in store. With the SAP applications S/4HANA, C/4HANA, GTS, Analytics Cloud, IDM, HCM, and SuccessFactors, the choice went to a total package of ERP,CRM, foreign trade management, real-time analysis, identity management, human capital management, and human resources, all of which remain productive to this day.

There was oneproblem, however: In contrast to the previous personnel management system, adigital employee file was lacking. Thomas Henzler, Chief Information Officer atPiller Blowers & Compressors GmbH: "In any case, we wanted to use adigital employee file that was as well integrated with SAP SuccessFactors aspossible. Ideally, users should not even notice that it is a solution that doesnot come from SAP itself. And thirdly, we were looking for a solution that wasas intuitive to use as possible" – product features that Centric EmployeeFile for SAP solutions perfectly combines.

Piller Blowers & Compressors was founded in 1909 and still stands fortop products and innovative spirit. The medium-sized company already ships itsproducts to almost every country around the globe. The "hiddenchampion" finds its customers in many sectors – for example, in thepetrochemical and chemical industries, in energy and water supply, and inindustrial furnace and plant construction. 85 percent of its products areexported. Piller Blowers & Compressors employs around 400 people at its German headquarters and subsidiaries in the USA, Singapore, and China.

‍

Go-live in just afew weeks

Only a few weeks passed between the decision for the file solution at the beginning of 2018 and the go-live in the spring. The Centric team took care of all the provisioning, while Piller Blowers & Compressors did not have to sign any additional contracts with SAP to use the SAP Cloud Platform. The company simply defined the files tructure, permissions, and user roles. A few files were created on a test basis and functions such as deletion periods and document storage were runthrough – no further effort was required: As a standard solution, the system already provided all the functionalities that Piller Blowers & Compressors needed out of the box.

Once in use, the solution was convincing from the very first moment. Firstly because employees don't even notice that they are working outside of the SAP solution. Centric Employee File for SAP solutions uses the familiar design of SAP Fiori and offers employees in the HR department direct access to employment contracts, references, and HR master data from SAP SuccessFactors. A security concept based on SAP authorization management also ensures that only users who are actually authorized to view sensitive personnel data are allowed to do so. The tried-and-tested SAP procedures are also effective when it comes to dataprivacy and deadline management – keyword: European General Data Protection Regulation.

‍

Centric's Digital Employee File delivers what it promises in ourbusiness. Users don't have to jump back and forth between different systems andinterfaces and but always have the feeling of working in SAPSuccessFactors.

Thomas Henzler
Chief Information Officer, Piller Blowers &Compressors GmbH

‍

Six employees work with the solution and manage the employee files ofaround 400 employees. They took over the digitalization of the current fileinventory, while the scanning of legacy files whose retention period had notyet expired was handed over to an external service provider.

‍

New system runs 30to 40 percent faster

When the files were scanned in-house, it was immediately clear: WithCentric Employee File for SAP solutions, digitalization is much faster thanwith the previous solution, which still required a dedicated scanner. ThomasHenzler estimates that the new system runs 30 to 40 percent faster, whichrepresents a considerable reduction in time. In day-to-day work, the course isalso set for greater efficiency: particularly due to the seamless integrationwith SAP SuccessFactors, because navigation to other systems or applications isno longer necessary to look at a file.

‍

We are very satisfied with the solution and are happy to have Centric as a partner with expertise not only in the classic ECM environment, but alsoas a proven SAP specialist, says Thomas Henzler.

‍

The Data model expands with current needs

Thanks to the use of the SAP Cloud Platform, the file structures are flexibly scalable. The IT department at Piller Blowers no longer has to worryabout its own server resources and infrastructure: Everything runs on the SAP Cloud Platform and the data model grows with the actual demand. Many SAP customers are very interested in fully integrated cloud products for SAP applications. Solutions such as Centric's Digital Employee File, which are based on the SAP Cloud Platform, deliver added value to companies such as Piller Blowers & Compressors GmbH.

"Filemanagement itself is easy to handle, the training effort was negligible. Weshowed our colleagues how everything works two or three times, then theystarted scanning the current employee files on their own," says ThomasHenzler.

The file management itself is easy, the training effort was not worth mentioning. Weshowed our colleagues two or three times how everything works and then theystarted scanning the current personnel files on their own.

Thomas Henzler,Chief Information Officer
at Piller Blowers & Compressors GmbH