How Emballator is building a future-proof business platform in the cloud

Emballassor Group is on a clear growth journey in Northern Europe. In order to grow long-term, work more coordinated and create a more modern digital foundation, the group is now gathering its operations around a common cloud-based business platform from SAP. The ambition is to create a more cohesive Emballator, where common processes and better data provide new opportunities both internally and in collaboration with customers.

Emballator is part of the family-owned industrial group Herenco and manufactures packaging solutions for a range of industries and products – from metal and plastic buckets to tubes, caps and other packaging that many people encounter in their everyday lives. The group has around 900 employees, headquarters in Ulricehamn and operations in several markets in Northern Europe.

For a long time, several of the companies in the group had been working in an older SAP system that was originally installed back in 1999. Over the years, the system environment had become increasingly locally adapted. Various companies had developed their own ways of working, new companies had been added through acquisitions, and some operations were working in older systems with limited support.

For Emballator, it became clear that the group needed a common and more future-proof platform.

– We needed to get away from a situation where the companies worked as islands. The goal is to work cohesively as one Emballator with shared processes, better transparency and a system that can grow with us, says Thomas Ekström, IT and ERP manager at Emballator Group.

A cloud strategy for a growing group

The decision to move towards a cloud-based solution was made back in 2021 as part of Emballator's overall IT strategy. For the group, it was both about reducing the vulnerability of an older system environment and about creating better conditions for growth, security and ongoing development.

The choice fell on the cloud-based business system SAP Cloud ERP. They already had extensive experience with SAP and saw a sense of security in building on a global platform with support for future regulations, standardized processes and new digital opportunities.

The work is done together with the SAP partner Implement. For Emballator, it has been important to work closely with a partner who both understands the technology and fits the group's way of working.

The project initially covers seven companies in the group. Two companies are already in operation and further rollouts are planned in stages. During the journey, it is also being analyzed how smaller companies in the group can best be connected to the platform without the administration becoming too burdensome.

From local working methods to common standard processes

The new platform covers key parts of the business, from sales and production to invoicing. For Emballator, an important principle has been to follow standardized processes to the greatest extent possible. This represents a major change for organizations that previously had many local working methods, manual solutions and shortcuts alongside the business system. At the same time, this is where much of the value is created.

– In a cloud-based solution, you need to follow the processes. If you do things on the side in Excel, for example, you also lose traceability. But when you stick to the system, you get better transparency, better analysis data and less dependence on knowledge that previously only existed in the heads of individuals, says Thomas Ekström.

For Emballator, the change is therefore not just about technology. At least as important is creating common working methods and getting people from different companies to collaborate more across company boundaries.

– This is an important part of our long-term development. We want a modern, safe and future-proof environment that helps us work more collaboratively and supports our ambition to grow sustainably in Northern Europe, says Maria Backlund, Head of Marketing and Sales Processes at Emballator Group.

Better collaboration with customers

In the long term, Emballator also sees clear opportunities to create greater benefits for customers. Several of the group's larger customers themselves use SAP, which opens up more efficient connections between systems, better information flows and increased transparency in collaboration. This can involve everything from simpler integrations to better inventory overviews, faster forecasting and more accurate decisions in joint flows.

For Emballator, the goal is for the business platform to contribute to a more cohesive, data-driven and scalable way of working. It will also lay the foundation for future use of AI in areas where there is a clear business benefit, such as forecasts, financial statements, supplier invoices and other recurring administrative processes.

Building the foundation for the future

Emballator's slogan is "Always create future." For the group, this means working long-term and future-proof, both with products, sustainability work and digital development.

The new business platform is part of that direction. Before taking the next steps in areas such as AI and more advanced automation, the foundation needs to be stable, shared and reliable.

– We are still building the foundation. When data, processes and systems are connected, we have completely different opportunities going forward. But we want to do it step by step and focus on things that create real business benefit, says Maria Backlund.

About SAP

As a global leader in enterprise applications and business-driven AI, SAP (NYSE:SAP) is the bridge between business and technology. For more than 50 years, organizations have relied on SAP to succeed by unifying mission-critical operations such as finance, procurement, HR, supply chain and customer experience.