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From complexity to cohesion: How CIE Automotive unified a global network of ERPs and optimized key processes from a risk and internal control perspective
A 60%–70% efficiency improvement in the data analysis and internal control automation in the Account Payable and Procurement processes. That’s the predicted expectation of CIE Automotive (CIE) on completion of its Celonis implementation. What’s more, the global supplier of automotive components sees this as just the first step in an ongoing journey of value realization with Celonis.
Priority number one for CIE and its partner Deloitte was to use Celonis to connect all their different ERP systems that the organization operates across its worldwide network of manufacturing plants, integrating it with the Global Compliance system. Consolidating global process insight was the catalyst and key for delivering significant business benefits.
The challenge: complexity, connectivity and centralization
The operational and IT systems landscape at CIE is complex. At year-end 2023, the manufacturer operates from more than 100 locations across 17 countries. It works with over 23,000 suppliers. Crucially, when it comes to optimizing and de-risking global processes, CIE runs several ERPs – including five separate SAP ECC, S/4 HANA Public Cloud and SAP GRC deployments and a Datasul platform in Brazil.
There was no single, comprehensive online repository of business data, process insight or compliance control. Even with the sophisticated governance, risk and compliance facilities within some of these ERPs, there was no means to take an online business-wide view. The CIE team wanted a centralized point not only to manage all of their business data, but to interrogate it, to learn from it and to action the insights online.
“Being unable to connect all these across our IT landscape was our biggest challenge and constraint,” said Iker Hernández, CIE Automotive’s Deputy Chief Compliance Officer. “The past way of working was difficult. Working with all these systems, working with Excel files, working with Power BI, was not efficient. So that’s why we entered the arena of process mining.”
The solution…quick wins and a clear roadmap
Working in partnership with Deloitte, the Celonis deployment with CIE launched in January 2023 with a clear roadmap and value realization in mind. Phase one of an initial three-year plan was to connect all CIE’s ERP and operational systems via the Celonis platform. CIE estimates the process will be completed in closer to two years.
But business benefits arrived a lot faster than that, as Hernández explains: “In February or March 2023, we already started seeing real value. So, it was a really quick win,” he said. Easily accessible insights consolidated on Celonis enabled global supervision of key business processes, irrespective of ERP, software or location.
As part of phase one, the CIE team used these insights to enhance internal controls and enhance compliance across procurement and accounts payable. They had all the information they needed to discover and quantify previously hidden value opportunities and address anomalies in their end-to-end source to pay processes.
This included identification of duplicate invoices, unused credit memos, late payments, and payment term mismatches. It also enabled CIE to optimize its supplier management – important when you have over 23,000 of them. “We have a lot of suppliers and supplier managers worldwide. With this tool we can show them – we can prove to them – how to improve their performance. It’s another great way of increasing efficiency,” said Hernández.
Outstanding outcomes, ongoing opportunities
CIE has already realized significant benefits from connecting its multiple ERPs. And they extend beyond the internal control / audit remit of Hernández’s team, and into the wider business.
Providing what CIE describes as a transversal point of view of entire business processes, anyone from the business accessing Celonis is able to share insights with other divisions worldwide. So, for example, real-time alerts from the duplicate invoice checker app would enable a compliance team member in Spain to flag duplicate invoices within the Accounts Payable process in any of the 16 other countries from which CIE operates.
“Celonis gives us a full view of our ERP systems and all our global business processes in a user-friendly way,” Hernández commented. “There’s no limit to the amount of business data we can process – really a huge success for us – but more than that, Celonis gives us the ability to query the data from a consolidated point of view.”
Where previously team members relied on navigating VPNs, understanding multiple systems, and extracting data to Excel, now the information is right there in Celonis. “It doesn’t matter if the company is using one ERP system or another. It doesn’t matter if it’s in Brazil or China. I just filter the data and get whatever I want. It’s a way of working I never had before. It’s crazy.”
Overall, implementing Celonis has enabled CIE to save a lot of time (and thus a lot of money), as Hernandez confirmed: “I am sure that once this is fully implemented it will improve our efficiency in the data analysis and internal control automation on the targeted processes by 60%–70%.”
In the second phase of the Celonis implementation, CIE will broaden the KPIs impacted by the platform beyond finance. For example, to satisfy growing non-financial requirements from its major stakeholders, the company will work together with Celonis to improve the report on sustainability. Combining Celonis’ process insights, CIE will not only be able to quantify its sustainability credentials, but also identify opportunities to optimize relevant workflows.
Looking forward to the future
This second phase, plus every phase of process optimization after that, will find its foundation in CIE’s work unifying its multiple ERPs with Celonis. This brings process excellence on a global scale well within reach. “Celonis enables us to add real value to the company, which is great,” concludes Hernández.
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