Enabling Next-Gen SAP Assistance

It did not stop there—we also had automatic interfaces to the concrete batch computers (so the butchers did not have to manually copy over information from SAP for every load) and to the weighbridges at quarries.

Moreover from the very start we took the approach that the standard SAP screens were far too complicated for use in a high-pressure environment—especially as a lot of the frontline staff were not used to computers—and thus built custom “veneers” so that whilst standard SAP was being used in the background what the user saw was a vastly simplified version.

Ironically what we were doing back then—playing with in-memory databases and simplified front ends—foreshadowed what SAP is doing right now with HANA and UI5.

All this was our starting position—it was what we went live within the year 2000. Naturally nothing works perfectly at first but it did not take that long to get everything working OK, and from then we had put the “white space” between us and our competitors, but we could not just sit back and relax—we have had to keep innovating as fast as possible ever since to maintain our lead.

A list of the innovations we have made in that 18 year period would fill this magazine. One thing to note is that when it comes to the “build vs buy” decision often we chosen the “build” option to build up in-house expertise and not be at the mercy of third-party suppliers when it comes to needing innovations or fixes in a hurry.

Two examples of such in-house developments would be a supplier invoice verification workflow—which made life vastly easier for both accounts payable and the field staff—and the dynamic concrete BOM (ingredients) determination which speeded order entry, saved us a large amount of money in regard to raw material costs yet at the same time resulted in a better quality product, one more tailored to the individual customer order.

I would like to end by mentioning one other thing that our IT organization does which may help explain why we have been so successful.

This is the idea of plant visits—where a programmer, a business analyst and a member of IT management go to visit a concrete plant or a quarry and ask them what is wrong with our IT system. Virtually every time we find one or two little things clearly wrong which are relatively easy to fix but would never have been reported as problems. Often the staff at the field do not even recognize there is a problem and have been happily doing something the hard way, unaware that a minor tweak to the system would mean it would no longer be hard at all.

In summary, our success has been based on having ambitious ideas, building software ourselves and most importantly never forgetting our customers.