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Evatec is a Swiss company with branches in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. It develops, manufactures, and distributes high-tech thin-film coating systems for the semiconductor, optics, and optoelectronics markets. The business is international, technologically sophisticated, and highly project-oriented. A system is sold, then planned, procured, assembled, and tested in Switzerland, after which it is installed at the customer\u2019s site and supported beyond the warranty period.<\/p>\n
Evatec wanted to map this entire value chain end-to-end in the future. Although the system landscape\u2014which had evolved over time\u2014offered a great deal of flexibility, it consisted of disparate applications, custom solutions, interfaces, and manual processes. Knowledge was, in some cases, tied to specific individuals or local practices. Information was available, but it was difficult to combine it into a consistent overall picture.<\/p>\n
This was particularly evident in the project business. Production, delivery, installation, and warranty services were previously managed in part through different orders or systems. As a result, it took considerable effort to determine which costs had been incurred over the entire lifecycle of a system and what margin had actually been achieved.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to create a foundation that would allow the company to be better managed from a management perspective,\u201d says Nicolas Wenger, Enterprise Architect at Evatec, summarizing the objective.<\/p>\n
The decision to undertake the transformation was made during a period when the market was performing relatively poorly. Management wanted to use this window of opportunity to position Evatec for the next phase of growth. At the same time, it set an exceptionally ambitious deadline: there were just ten months between the signing of the contract and go-live.<\/p>\n
During this time, business processes had to be defined, master data prepared, roles and permissions established, interfaces set up, data migrated, tests conducted, and users trained. External specialists supported Evatec with design, configuration, migration, testing, and cutover. The go-live was followed by six months of hypercare.<\/p>\n
The project was therefore not a system implementation in the strict sense. Virtually all operational areas were affected: finance, sales, purchasing, production, and project business.<\/p>\n
Evatec chose SAP Cloud ERP Public Edition as its central operational core. The decisive factors were its international orientation, coverage of end-to-end business processes, and the platform concept. The solution was intended not only to meet current requirements but also to serve as the foundation for further digitalization.<\/p>\n
By choosing the public cloud, Evatec made a conscious decision against a new generation of extensive in-house developments. SAP sets numerous standards and limits customizations at the core. Wenger sees this as a particular advantage: \u201cEverything you build yourself creates effort, risks, and points of failure. Every interface can lead to problems if it isn\u2019t standardized.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evatec therefore follows the Clean Core principle. The digital core should remain as close to the standard as possible; necessary extensions are implemented specifically outside the ERP core. Instead of adapting the system to every existing work method, the company defined binding processes that apply across functions and countries.<\/p>\n
This also raised business management questions: Which process variations are actually necessary? Where can workflows be standardized? Who is responsible for a process or a data record? The ERP implementation thus became a comprehensive business transformation.<\/p>\n
Standardization often required employees to change their mindset. In the previous environment, individual steps could be bypassed, data could be entered freely, or errors could be corrected manually afterward. In the new system, entries must be complete, roles must be adhered to, and process steps must be documented in a traceable manner.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur process used to be simpler in some respects,\u201d says Wenger. \u201cToday, there\u2019s a process that must be followed. It hasn\u2019t necessarily made things easier for the business, but it has certainly made them more transparent and manageable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The benefits are particularly evident in controlling. Material withdrawals, reversals, production output, purchasing costs, installation expenses, and warranty services can now be allocated to a project. Incorrect or implausible entries become visible instead of disappearing into manual corrections.<\/p>\n
Evatec can thus analyze a system sold and installed abroad in conjunction with subsequent service and warranty projects. The individual phases can be viewed separately or across the entire life cycle. This provides a more realistic picture of the project margin and creates a more robust basis for costing and management.<\/p>\n
The next step moves from retrospective analysis to forecasting. Once high-quality data is available over an extended period, Evatec plans to investigate how product type, market region, installation effort, and warranty services influence profitability. This would enable the company not only to explain what a project cost but also to forecast future margins more accurately.<\/p>\n
Despite the fast pace, the go-live was successful without any operational disruption. Production, purchasing, sales, and financial processes continued uninterrupted. Nevertheless, during the first few months, numerous questions had to be clarified, access permissions adjusted, process gaps closed, and users supported.<\/p>\n
The hypercare phase, lasting several months, was therefore an integral part of the program. Today, the solution is running stably. Responsibility and expertise are being gradually transferred from the implementation partner to internal teams. At the same time, support structures, governance rules, and a backlog for continuous improvements are being established.<\/p>\n
Looking back, Wenger would, above all, invest more time in organizational and data-related preparation. \u201cTwelve months for implementation is realistic if the company is ready. Anything less is feasible, but it\u2019s painful.\u201d<\/p>\n
The transformation is not complete once the ERP system is running stably. SAP S\/4HANA Cloud forms the core of a more comprehensive architecture. With SAP Datasphere, a component of the SAP Business Data Cloud, Evatec aims to semantically link information from SAP and legacy systems. SAP SuccessFactors complements the HR processes, and a more tightly integrated CRM environment is set to follow.<\/p>\n
SAP LeanIX is intended to serve as the architectural backbone. This will enable applications, interfaces, and dependencies to be transparently documented. SAP Signavio supports the mapping and further development of processes. The goal is an integrated landscape in which fewer disconnects occur and changes to systems and processes remain traceable.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Evatec is laying the groundwork for artificial intelligence. The company is testing features related to SAP Joule, embedded AI, and agent-based applications, but is proceeding cautiously when it comes to releasing them to end users.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf an AI agent processes data that is incorrect, the result is confusion at best and an error at worst,\u201d warns Wenger. Data quality is therefore not merely a technical preparatory step that is completed at some point, but rather a strategic success factor.<\/p>\n
A first concrete use case involves the approximately 200,000 items in the system. This volume of data can no longer be fully checked manually. An AI agent could recognize patterns and flag data records whose classification, unit, or attributes do not match those of comparable items. Initially, the AI should not make corrections on its own, but rather alert responsible parties to potential errors.<\/p>\n
In the long term, the greater benefit for Wenger lies in the automation of process steps. AI should not only find information across various applications but also independently trigger actions in the system based on reliable data, rules, and authorizations.<\/p>\n
The SAP implementation has thus done more than simply provide Evatec with a new ERP system. It has standardized processes, increased transparency regarding the global project business, and created a common database. The price paid for this was an exceptionally intensive transformation program. But it is precisely this foundation that will now enable the next step in development: better forecasts, fewer disruptions, and a controlled, economically sound use of AI.<\/p>\n
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