BY Jan Pedras, Head of Automotive APAC, proaxia

With proaxia VSS, which complements migration tools and services from proaxia and SAP, the way is paved for the transformation to an intelligent dealer management system for automotive sales and aftersales. SAP DBM customers in APAC and MENA are preparing for future requirements.

SAP DBM customers preparing for SAP S/4HANA and proaxia VSS

Since last year, we have been presenting our transition concept as part of our roadshow to numerous IT managers of SAP DBM customers. During discussions about their strategic roadmap for the next few years, we learned that converting their ERP systems to SAP S/4HANA is an important topic for them. For some, the conversion is already firmly planned and the preparations are underway.

Whatever driving force may be in the foreground – the switch to SAP S/4HANA as part of strategic planning, or the intention to immediately optimize sales and after-sales processes and use the functions for business intelligence purposes – ultimately, proaxia VSS is the key that enables automotive retailers to tackle the challenges arising during periods of change, transition and possibly disruption.

Different approaches according to strategic goals

For many customers, the strategic roadmap foresees the conversion to SAP S/4HANA in order to redesign business processes and to have maximum flexibility for digital transformation and integration of intelligent technologies and applications. Ultimately, using proaxia VSS paves the way for automotive customers to enter the world of SAP S/4HANA and proaxia VSS, which makes for best-in-class daily operational excellence and adds strategic planning.

What this will actually look like in practical terms depends on the situation of the company concerned – SAP and proaxia provide the right tools and services for the transition.

• A major customer from the heavy equipment/agriculture equipment sector has chosen to start with a technical conversion from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA. In the first step, the conversion is carried out without changing the business processes and functions. In phase two, processes will be redesigned and new procedures integrated.
• Multiple national sales companies of a large Japanese automotive manufacturer have put the transition on their strategic roadmap and defined a fixed schedule. They have already started the evaluation of business impacts and the required preparatory projects.
• Some customers start with the implementation of platform-neutral components like proaxia VSS MSA and proaxia VSS SRS so that they can benefit immediately from proaxia VSS functionalities and reduce the gap for the transition.
• And some customers have already started the transition project by going for the new implementation using a greenfield approach.

The question is not whether you should do the transition or not, it is rather about when the best time to do it is, along with the planning and the execution of the defined steps.

Technical insights and proof of concept for the transition from SAP DBM to proaxia VSS

Many customers have confirmed that it was very important and informative for them to gain a deeper insight and greater confidence by investigating the technical details of the transition. With this in hand they could assess its feasibility and the adoption of new business models for their companies. Furthermore, our partner NTT Data realised a proof of concept plus the transition of a customer-specific system on their own IT environment in a short time – demonstrating not only that it works, but that it works almost seamlessly.

NTT Data Business Solutions in Malaysia operates a Managed Services and AMS center and serves multiple customers from the Europe, MENA and APAC regions. They even have a migration factory for rapid, repeatable and predictable transitions from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA. Recently, migrations from SAP DBM to proaxia VSS have been included in the services they offer.

“Our team performed a test migration of our internal SAP DBM system, covering our automotive retail best practices and including custom developments that enhance the capabilities of the standard SAP DBM. Thanks to the migration tools provided by proaxia and our proven approach to transition from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA, we were able to successfully migrate the system while preserving our existing configuration, customisations, and more importantly our historical data.”

Azah Aziz, Head of Automotive, NTT Data Business Solutions Malaysia

Transition tools and services

SAP and proaxia have designed a concept and tools that allows SAP DBM customers to reliably transition to proaxia VSS based on SAP S/4HANA. These are integrated into the SAP Software Update Manager (SUM), enabling the transition to proaxia VSS to be implemented within an SAP S/4HANA transition project. The data and code conversion tools support the transition of SAP DBM to proaxia VSS, including customization and digital innovations.

proaxia Vehicle Sales and Service (VSS)

proaxia VSS, the innovative dealer management solution based on SAP S/4HANA, is being developed in co-innovation with SAP and is seamlessly integrated into the ERP. The all-in-one solution combines the performance of a best-in-class ERP solution with the processes and user interfaces specific to vehicle retail and with a seamlessly integrated BI.

proaxia VSS seamlessly integrates and makes a significant contribution to improving sales and aftersales processes, leading to increased efficiency and customer satisfaction. The combination of best-in-class, daily operational excellence and strategic planning analytics makes the solution unique.

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