Helvar kicked off an ERP renewal project in 2006. At the beginning of the following year it chose SAP, and Fujitsu to implement it. Many a thing tipped the scale towards SAP: "SAP has been on the market for ages and we believe it will continue to do so, so their is no risk to end up with outdated technology and lack of SAP specialists," says project manager and development manager Susanne Lehtinen of Helvar.

Helvar was seeking an integrated system for different functions, including not only sales and order processing but also production control, procurement, subcontracting, warehouse, maintenance, finance and reporting.

”With a centralised system we achieve uniform and efficient operational models and what is more, thanks to this comprehensively integrated system our operation is transparent and reporting versified," says CFO Markku Laine.

International service provision

Fujitsu implements Helvar's SAP platform solutions, including their availability services and support. As Laine described it, Helvar is acquiring full-scale end-to-end SAP solution services.

”We have people in our staff who have deep knowledge of the system and are able to support our end users. In other words, we do have some in-house application skills. It is the technological expertise that we buy from Fujitsu. It is our guideline to implement changes through Fujitsu, the largest of them as projects," Lehtinen says.

Helvar, which was founded almost 90 years ago to serve the oil trade between Helsinki and Warsaw, is still a highly international company. 90 per cent of its net sales is generated outside Finland, primarily elsewhere in Europe. Approximately every fifth fluorescent lamp in Europe is equipped with ballast manufactured by Helvar.

Besides Finland the SAP solution is also deployed in all other Helvar countries of operation, which are Sweden, Germany, the UK, Italy, Hungary, France and Russia. Servers and SAP support are centralised to Finland.

Guaranteed competence

Helvar knew from the start that it would purchase the SAP solution support as a service.

”We haven't had any full-time IT specialists for five years. Instead, we aim to focus on our own core competence and partner up in other areas of expertise," Laine says.

”It is a considerable cost burden for a small company to maintain a wide range of IT competence," Laine says and and Lehtinen continues: "It is impossible for one person to command versatility as wide as is needed, especially with the ever evolving technologies.”

Clear-cut responsibilities

Fujitsu has been Helvar's IT infrastructure partner for quite some time. The company, who has its head offices in Karkkila, Finland, was the very first Patja customer for Fujitsu more than ten years ago. Helvar has intentionally minimised the number of IT partners.

”Thanks to our long-standing collaboration we know each other well and our cooperation runs smoothly. The Service desk as well as other parts of the service have a face behind them,” Laine says.

”Whether there is a problem in a workstation, the network or SAP, it is Fujitsu who will take care of it. We no longer have to try to figure out the lines of responsibilities between different suppliers. This is of a huge significance to the customer," Lehtinen says.