The partnership has continued to this day with a mission to make great wines and spirits that bring people together. Now, the company has over 2,000 hectares of vines under cultivation in 12 wine-growing regions of Spain, Chile, and Mexico, where the producer deploys sustainable agricultural techniques to bring indigenous vines back into production.

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Running a Responsible Business

鈥淔or us, everything revolves around sustainability,鈥� said Elisabet Braza Valle, head of 麻豆原创 Supply Chain and Finance at Gonz谩lez Byass, during an interview at 麻豆原创 Sapphire Barcelona. 鈥淥ur goal is to be a reference in the wine sector and also in the field of sustainability, and we鈥檙e using technology to do that.鈥�

Valle explained that digitalization is helping to drive efficiency by improving processes and that people are already noticing a more expeditious service. 鈥淎ll the processes are connected,鈥� she said. 鈥淐lients notice that we are preparing their packages and managing their invoices faster than before. That鈥檚 because, thanks to 麻豆原创, we have all the data in the same place.鈥�

In addition to its core 麻豆原创 ERP system, Gonz谩lez Byass recently implemented , a solution that helps enterprises calculate extended producer responsibility (EPR) obligations and define corporate commitments to optimize material choices. It鈥檚 also designed to help address all the requirements of the new plastic taxes in Europe.

To help promote a more circular economy, for example, Spanish law mandates an indirect tax levied on plastic in packaging. Calculating the taxable amount is particularly complex and burdensome. Companies must know how much non-recycled plastic is in the non-reusable plastic packaging contained in the shipments they receive. This information should be furnished by the suppliers that now find themselves in a challenging situation as they did not have to comply with this type of requirement before. Collected data must be reliable and verifiable to ensure accuracy when sharing with customers or if it should be questioned by the Spanish tax authorities.

鈥溌槎乖粹�檚 solution not only helps us comply with the law, but it also helps us manage our materials more efficiently,鈥� said Valle, who believes one of the greatest assets of the solution is the visibility it provides into the company鈥檚 supplier landscape. 鈥淲e are encouraging all of our suppliers to commit to being more sustainable, and we assess them every year. We also work together to improve our environmental behavior.鈥�

Valle cited several examples of collaborative engagement, such as reducing the weight of glass bottles and using recyclable packaging materials. The company has already substituted some materials with more sustainable alternatives and is buying cardboard boxes and wood sourced from certified forests.

鈥淲e have all the information about our materials in 麻豆原创 Responsible Design and Production, so we can see how much plastic we are using and how much of it is recycled. That determines the amount of tax we pay,鈥� Valle explained. 

All these improvements are part of the company鈥檚 People and Planet program that is designed to ensure a nature-friendly, energy-efficient foundation for future generations. The efforts are paying off.

Simplifying a Complex Landscape

According to its sustainability report for 2022, Gonz谩lez Byass already reuses or recycles 99% of the waste it generates and 79% of the energy it consumes comes from renewable sources. Water conservation efforts include using rainwater for irrigation, underground irrigation, and satellite-controlled irrigation.

Gonz谩lez Byass has already reduced carbon emissions by 20% and is committed to a 55% reduction by 2030. Besides managing its own regulatory obligations in Spain, the company must also be compliant with other regulations in the EU and the UK that impact its business. For example, recycling glass packaging waste is mandatory in all EU Member States. In Spain, this process is driven by Ecovidrio, a non-profit entity managing the Collective System of Extended Producer Responsibility (SCRAP).

鈥淥ne of our next projects is to set up Ecovidrio in the 麻豆原创 Responsible Design and Production solution, where we manage all our tax declarations and reports,鈥� Valle said. 鈥淎nother critical report is the declaration for the Ministry of Ecological Transition. Technology is helping us become a global reference in the sector because now we鈥檝e integrated all relevant information needed for compliance.鈥�

Four of its wineries have received the Wineries for Climate Protection certification, the first of such credentials specific to the wine industry targeting environmental sustainability. The certification recognizes sustainability activities in wineries in four key areas: reducing greenhouse gas emissions, managing water, reducing waste, and increasing energy efficiency.

Valle is confident that with the aid of technology Gonz谩lez Byass will not only be a leader and a reference in the sector, but, most importantly, it will secure its place as an exceptional winemaker for posterity. After all, since its most iconic wine , it鈥檚 a good thing Gonz谩lez Byass is doing everything to continue producing the best wines and spirits for future connoisseurs. 

鈥淲e started six years ago in the basement,鈥� explains Peter Brezani, Be Lenka鈥檚 chief operating officer, 鈥渨ith seven in the office and only two collections of shoes.鈥� Dedicated to high-quality craftsmanship, innovation, and sustainability, Be Lenka now has more than 100 employees, offers 250 collections of shoes, and delivers products to over 70 countries.

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Transforming to the Next Level

With production now based in three European countries 鈥� Portugal, Czech Republic, and Slovakia 鈥� and in Vietnam, Brezani says the biggest challenge is 鈥渢o change into a bigger company.鈥� He says 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition was a natural fit to help the young company 鈥渟cale new processes and new brands.鈥�

Be Lenka continues to grow rapidly and needed a software partner to help it transform to the next level. Brezani says the key to this transformation is harmonizing local solutions and local ERP systems, which is why Be Lenka chose GROW with 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.

Best Practices and Benefits

Brezani鈥檚 advice for fast-growing organizations like Be Lenka is to 鈥渇ocus on the business, focus on the product, and focus on the added value鈥� and not get distracted by processes that are not core to the business or do not add value to the customer.

Be Lenka is simultaneously managing rapid growth and is on track for a rapid implementation of GROW with 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. 麻豆原创鈥檚 best practices tailored for global scalability will help Be Lenka harmonize its ERP landscape and automate key processes while still remaining true to the Be Lenka mindset that is keenly focused on adding value to its customers.

颅颅颅鈥淲e are a local club in Bavaria, but have fans around the globe,鈥� says Stefan Mennerich, the club鈥檚 director for digital media and communications. In addition to its 1,200 employees in Munich, New York, Shanghai, and Bangkok, the club has around 175 million followers on its social media and its own media platforms.

Mennerich says the club鈥檚 digital and media platforms are very important because fans expect to be able to interact with their club wherever they are. 鈥淭hey want to send us their feedback and they want to receive feedback.鈥�

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Fans Are Everything

The fans are at the center of everything FC Bayern does, Mennerich confirms: 鈥淥ur aim is to optimize all the processes for them, so they have the best user experience. Technology helps us with personalization, with the sales processes, with content 鈥� with everything.鈥�

He says the club chose 麻豆原创 as its technology partner for several reasons, including the fact that FC Bayern has different businesses. 鈥淲e have ticketing, we have merchandising, we have fan experience, we have digital platforms, and 麻豆原创 is able to deliver the best solutions for all these areas.鈥�

He also cites 麻豆原创鈥檚 commitment to continuously develop its cloud-based platforms and says this makes the digital experience 鈥渂etter and better every day.鈥�

The club uses the 麻豆原创 Emarsys Customer Engagement solution to capture fan data and create newsletters and personalized content for them, and the 麻豆原创 Customer Checkout application for point-of-sale management and real-time sales and stock updates.

鈥淲e have around 50,000 transactions every match day in the Allianz Arena, and we use 麻豆原创 Customer Checkout for that,鈥� Mennerich explains. 鈥淔ans can buy their merchandise articles, they can buy food or beverages, they can walk into our restaurants and pay there with 麻豆原创 Customer Checkout.鈥�

Separately, 麻豆原创 Event Ticketing software handles ticketing at FC Bayern; not just for football fans, but also for its basketball team and museum. The club also uses 麻豆原创 tools for its employees. For example, the AI-infused 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors HCM suite gives employees and managers access to an expanding array of human capital management tools.

Personalization

Looking ahead, Mennerich says he believes personalization will become even more important.

鈥淲e want to become better and better and better with personalization. We want to be able to really contact the people one by one, and not to speak about target groups in the future. We want to interact in a truly personal way with the fans.鈥�

He believes that embedding artificial intelligence capabilities in 麻豆原创 solutions will help achieve this aim and that overall, AI will help FC Bayern become more efficient, lower costs, and meet the expectations of the fans.

鈥淥ur biggest aim for the future on the horizon of FC Bayern is to meet every single expectation of any single fan around the globe, be it in Tokyo, be it in Rio de Janeiro, or be it in Munich,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e want to meet the expectations of the fans, and this expectation should be met in real time. This is our big aim for the future.鈥�

Lessons Learned at FC Bayern

If other organizations want to learn from FC Bayern, Mennerich says one lesson is that with a good technology partner like 麻豆原创, even midsize companies with broad business activities like FC Bayern can cover all the bases and be able to be competitive.

鈥淚 think what we are good at is meeting fan expectations via digital platforms,鈥� he says. For that, interactive communication is very important. 鈥淵ou always have to take into account what the fans, other organizations, and customers really expect and want from you. You have to be able to deliver that via digital platforms.鈥�

Its efforts didn鈥檛 go unnoticed: in 2021, the United Nations and Bloomberg named BayWa one of the 鈥�50 Sustainability and Climate Leaders鈥� worldwide, thanks largely to the company鈥檚 big push into renewable energies, which now make up more than half of BayWa鈥檚 annual earnings.

The Challenge of Transformation

BayWa鈥檚 journey with 麻豆原创 began in 2000 when the company implemented the on-premise ERP system, 麻豆原创 ERP Central Component聽(麻豆原创 ECC). However, as the business evolved it became apparent that their processes and technology could no longer keep pace. BayWa鈥檚 four business units operated in silos, which became unfeasible for a company striving to become more streamlined.

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鈥淲e want to move to a process-oriented company, so that means we want to implement one ERP template,鈥� Lars Pischke, global enterprise architect at BayWa, explains. 鈥淲e have to transform all four business units into a single ERP template, which is a significant challenge.鈥�

To address this, BayWa set out to migrate from 麻豆原创 ECC to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud, the foundation of its new . This transition marked a critical step toward unifying the company鈥檚 operations under one streamlined template. Additionally, BayWa implemented a digital platform, with 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP) as a key component.

“A clean core strategy for BayWa means we leave our ERP solution, 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud, as standard, and we implement BayWa鈥檚 specific requirements on our digital platform side by side, where we rely heavily on 麻豆原创 BTP as our main module,” says Pischke.

Lessons Learned and the Value of a Clean Core

The concept of a “clean core” is central to understanding the benefits of BayWa’s transition. Imagine a shared grain silo system on a farm. If each farmer keeps their grain in separate, uncoordinated silos, tracking quality, utilizing storage space efficiently, or distributing the grain becomes a cumbersome task. However, when all the grain is stored in a unified system, it becomes significantly easier to manage, access, and maintain quality. Similarly, having a clean core in business processes ensures that all parts of the organization work harmoniously, preventing inefficiencies and missed opportunities that arise from working in silos.

For BayWa, establishing a clean core was crucial. The standardized, non-differentiating functions 鈥� such as accounts payable, tax, and treasury operations 鈥� constitute approximately 75% of business processes across companies, regardless of industry, size, or location. These functions are essential but do not differentiate one company from another.

In the past, over-customization in these areas led to inflexibility and slowed down business operations. But in today’s fast-paced, competitive environment, agility is key and maintaining a clean core is vital to achieving this agility.

“Keeping the core clean is also key when it comes to security issues. BayWa is part of the critical infrastructure in Germany,” Pischke explains. “To use a standard software like 麻豆原创 BTP allows us to rapidly adapt to new business models and technologies.”

Gaining a Competitive Edge with 麻豆原创 BTP

With BayWa鈥檚 clean core firmly in place, the focus shifted to building a competitive edge around their operations. This is where 麻豆原创 BTP comes in. The platform lets businesses create extensions and innovate in areas that really set them apart. Pischke says, 鈥淎 shift toward standard also means simpler processes for our employees. This allows us to reduce training costs and speed up onboarding.鈥� BayWa is leveraging these efficiencies to direct more resources toward innovation.

These days, companies need to know what makes them unique and lean into those strengths to stand out. While core functions are standardized and crucial for running smoothly, the elements that drive customer choice often come from the innovative, customizable features built on top of this clean core. By optimizing these standard processes, companies like BayWa can channel more energy into innovation and long-term success, keeping them ahead of the curve.

Looking Ahead: The Role of AI in BayWa鈥檚 Future

BayWa鈥檚 forward-thinking approach doesn鈥檛 stop with ERP transformation. The company is already exploring the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to further enhance its operations.

Pischke says BayWa has started piloting AI use cases, focusing on 麻豆原创 BTP鈥檚 Business AI. 鈥淲e believe AI should be integrated into the applications and business processes where the data is located,鈥� he explains. This integration is central to BayWa鈥檚 strategy, and the company has a growing list of AI use cases it plans to implement in the near future.

Attending industry events like 麻豆原创 Sapphire in Barcelona provides BayWa with valuable insights into the latest technologies and trends. Pischke acknowledges the accelerating pace of technological change, noting that each year brings new ideas and innovations that could be applied within BayWa. While not every use case or 麻豆原创 module is a perfect fit, these events offer inspiration and guidance for selecting the right tools to meet BayWa鈥檚 unique requirements.

Through partnership with 麻豆原创 and the switch to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud, BayWa has not only streamlined its operations, but also set itself up to keep leading in sustainability and innovation. The clean core approach has allowed BayWa to focus on what truly sets the company apart, helping it continue its mission to meet the essential needs of people worldwide.