Success Story

Nexeo Solutions’ Data Archiving Strategy Ensures Security and Improves Performance Distributor’s Phased Approach Lowers TCO of SAP Systems and Sets Groundwork to Absorb Future Growth by Ken Murphy, Editorial Director May 8, 2018

Serrala | Success Story Nexeo Solutions Inc.

1

Nexeo Solutions – worldwide distributor of chemicals, plastics, and environmental services – needed to ensure reliable and timely same-day or next-day deliveries to roughly 28,000 customers worldwide after divesting from its parent company in 2011. To continue creating and tracking purchase orders in the most efficient and effective manner, Nexeo Solutions underwent a phased data management journey over the course of several years. The first phase involved copying the parent company’s SAP ERP system and securing non-proprietary customer, supplier, and material data by scrambling that data; while the second phase consisted of archiving data to improve performance and lower the total cost of ownership of SAP systems. Learn how Nexeo Solutions methodically removed scrambled data that cluttered screens improving performance of key user transactions, by carving 171 company codes, 147 sales organizations, one manufacturing plant, nine purchasing organizations, and two bills of material out of the system.

About Nexeo Solutions, Inc. Headquarters: The Woodlands, Texas Industry: Chemical and plastics distribution Employees: 2,600+ (December 2017) Revenue: $3.6 billion (December 2017) Company details: • Established April 1, 2011 as an independent chemicals, plastics, and environmental services distribution company • On June 9, 2016, became a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: NXEO) • Offers approximately 24,000 products from 1,400+ suppliers • Touts a 95% on-time delivery rate with private fleet and same-day/next-day service to 99% of customers • www.nexeosolutions.com SAP solution: SAP ERP Third-party solution: Dolphin Accelerated Carve Out application

Serrala| |Success SuccessStory StoryNexeo NexeoSolutions SolutionsInc. Inc. Serrala

22

A Phased Approach

initiative, using some lessons learned

cial documents, more than two million

from the first project to develop a

sales orders and billing documents,

solution that played a key role in the

roughly one million product costing

company’s eventual successful data

runs, and around one million POs. “It’s

Because of the drastically compressed

migration project. During the first phase,

a method of targeting data that we no

database and data masking solution,

manual processes were used to carve

longer needed,” Falb says. “We built a

Nexeo Solutions could focus on key

out the scrambled data so that Nexeo

criterion for specific sets of date ranges,

transformational projects before it

Solutions could become operational

organizational entities, customers, ven-

tackled the data archiving piece, which

quickly; however, this labor-intensive

dors, and materials.”

was the second phase of its data ma-

strategy would not be acceptable to

Building parameters is usually done

nagement journey.

the company in the long term. With

in consultation with the business to

time constraints not being as much of a

identify the data that needs to be

The dual purpose of data archiving was

factor in the data archiving phase, Dol-

carved out. Business requirements are

to carve out the non-Nexeo Solutions

phin eyed a solution to automate many

then mapped to data objects in the SAP

data — both business complete and not

of the manual processes for a more

system and variants are automatically

complete (uncleared) — and to archive

effective, risk-free method of carving out

generated to remove data from source

historic Nexeo Solutions data. With an

functional data.

systems. When the variants are run, the

eye toward increased user efficiency

system is then tested and carve-out re-

and performance of key user trans-

This led to the introduction of the Dol-

sults are listed for easy review. By using

actions, the project would also reduce

phin Accelerated Carve Out application,

the solution, a traditionally manually

database size and establish a sustaina-

an SAP add-on software solution that

intensive project is shortened to just a

ble and secure archiving strategy that

enables organizations to carve out

few weeks depending on the complexi-

would accommodate future growth.

material, customer, and vendor master

ty and amount of data to be carved out.

Since Dolphin was Nexeo Solutions’

data from SAP systems while retaining

partner for the successful project, the

the complex connections that exist

certified SAP solutions provider was the

between master data and transactional

logical choice to lead the data archiving

data. Dolphin developed the application

initiative as well, chosen from a short

specifically for projects like these that

list of vendors that met the company’s

are necessitated by an acquisition or

comprehensive business requirements.

divestiture and involve both transactio-

In addition to possessing an in-depth

nal and master data archiving.

Tackling Master Data The second phase — a master data carve-out — increased the project’s

knowledge of archiving according to SAP best practices, Dolphin specializes

In the case of the Nexeo Solutions pro-

complexity for many reasons. Much

in the type of data carve-out project

ject, the solution broke down the overall

of the complexity in this stage of the

that Nexeo Solutions needed to per-

data archiving exercise into two distinct

carve-out was due to Nexeo Solutions

form. (For more details about Dolphin’s

phases, the first of which was mass

and the legacy parent having the same

solutions and services, refer to the

archiving of related transactional data

company code, meaning that prior to

sidebar at the end of the article.)

that the solution selected according to

the separation they shared master data.

conditions the company required. To

For this reason, analyzing this data took

facilitate the archival of master data that

more time than standard archiving; the

would come later, Nexeo Solutions — in

project team had to constantly engage

consultation with Dolphin — identified

with functional users to investigate what

171 company codes, 147 sales organizati-

was preventing a certain customer or

ons, one manufacturing plant, and nine

organization from being archived.

Risk-Controlled Archiving

purchasing organizations to be carved out of the system. The business also

“You never want to archive master data

Dolphin honed this specialty in the

carved out non-Nexeo Solutions data

if anything related to the data, such as

interim between Nexeo Solutions’ data

it had received from its former parent

a material that’s part of a PO, wasn’t

scrambling project and the archiving

company — comprising 40 million finan-

part of the original criteria. For example,

Serrala | Success Story Nexeo Solutions Inc.

3

if you archive material master data

Some of the built-in checks and monito-

for which subordinate data (a PO) still

ring tools that Falb says proved helpful

exists, the PO may not display correctly,”

include an archiving throttling tool that

Falb says. “It’s very customer specific

allows a project owner to ramp up or

and requires both a lot of technical

down the number of processes that

experience and functional experience.”

access the system according to a preset time or day. There is also an automated

This technical experience, says Falb,

user sign-off tool to help isolate and

was one reason Nexeo Solutions

detect an anomaly, such as if there was

chose Dolphin for the archiving project,

a posting to an archived company code

an attribute that Dolphin cemented

or vendor.

with the development of the Dolphin Accelerated Carve Out, which returned its greatest dividends during Nexeo Solutions’ master data archival. The scope of work involved in the master data archival underscores

Primary Improvements

Nexeo Solutions’ need for an automated solution. In the first several months of

Nexeo Solutions completed its data

what turned out to be an 18-month pro-

archiving project in September 2017,

ject, the solution was used to run more

successfully carving out 91% of targeted

than 10,000 archiving jobs before even

customers, 88% of targeted vendors,

getting to the master data. At the start

and 72% of targeted materials. The com-

of the master data phase of the project,

pany also achieved a 500GB reduction

those jobs must be run concurrently

in the size of its database. By being able

with master data jobs multiple times

to control the growth of its data volume

each month as records are being upda-

over time, with ongoing archiving

ted — a workload virtually impossible to

activities, Falb anticipates a demon-

handle using manual processes.

strable lower total cost of ownership of SAP systems. Other project benefits

“The solution handles what a schedu-

include an increase in productivity and

ler would normally do, but it also has

a reduction in data volume, enabling

built-in checks so we don’t inadvertently

faster transaction processing and simpli-

archive duplicate data, which is absolu-

fied administration, which ultimately

tely critical,” Falb says. “The accelerated

result in efficiencies in how the com-

carve-out tool provides auditable risk

pany delivers products and services to

control and gave us confidence that

customers. “From the user’s perspective,

we weren’t introducing risk into the

the primary benefit is they no longer

archiving project.”

see scrambled data on the screen,” he

With the database size now reduced, Nexeo Solutions expects to maintain a sustainable archiving strategy with minimal support needed. “We are now in a position for future growth, and we will continue to work with Dolphin on archiving moving forward,” says Jerding.

says. “And that has a direct impact on improved performance.”

Serrala | Success Story Nexeo Solutions Inc.

4

A Step-by-Step Approach to Data Management Success

Dolphin helped Nexeo Solutions lower platform costs, decrease database size, accelerate performance, and stabilize growth by implementing a solid and robust data archiving strategy for its SAP system. Consultants took a phased approach to the implementation, which involved getting project sponsorship and buy-in from the business. The solution included assistance in defining data scrambling and encryption parameters based on business criteria for transactional and master data and then in managing and reviewing the automated archiving progress. Additionally, our consultants helped Nexeo Solutions ensure successful archiving of transactional and master data based on data dependencies as well as troubleshoot unique issues related to customer, supplier, and material data.

We are proud to announce our evolution from Hanse Orga Group, including Dolphin, and welcome you to Serrala. Our new name is inspired by the Sierra Serrella, a powerful mountain range in Spain symbolizing confidence and security. Driven by our enterprising nature, we constantly challenge ourselves to bring relevant innovation to market. With a suite of future-proof end-to-end payment solutions, we provide efficient and secure optimization of financial processes partnered with experienced first-class cash visibility and treasury consulting services. Focused on improving business performance through

The ideal ILM strategy improves database performance, increases control over data retention and destruction policies, addresses regulatory compliance and mitigated risk, and lowers costs by aligning the type of storage and access delivered with the value of the data to the business. For SAP users, we offer an agile set of solutions for data archiving, retention management, and legacy decommissioning for efficient management of data and documents across all SAP systems. For more information, email [email protected] or visit www.serrala.com.

information lifecycle management (ILM) and transformative business process management (BPM) solutions, Dolphin has been helping SAP customers like Nexeo Solutions with SAP data and document archiving solutions and strategies for SAP HANA, SAP S/4HANA, SAP ERP, and SAP Business Warehouse systems. Dolphin became part of the Hanse Orga Group in 2017.

Serrala | Success Story Nexeo Solutions Inc.

5

Serrala Brings Clarity to Complexity Serrala is a global B2B fintech software company. We optimize the Universe of Payments for organizations that seek efficient cash visibility and secure financial processes. As an SAP Partner, Serrala supports over 3,500 companies worldwide with advanced technology, intelligent automation and personalized consulting. Our comprehensive end-to-end portfolio automates inbound and outbound payment processes as well as the management of related data and documents. With offices in Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East and over 600 employees, we are proud to be a trusted solution provider to customers of all sizes and in all industries.

[email protected] serrala.com

© Copyright 05/2019 Serrala. All rights reserved.