In collaboration with McCoy, CWD is continuing to build on its SAP foundation.
Croonwolter&dros gets more out of SAP: from digital foundation to smarter working
How do you ensure that an SAP go-live is not the endpoint, but rather the beginning of smarter working?
Croonwolter&dros, one of the major technical service providers in the Netherlands, was ready for the next step after implementing SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud and SAP Field Service Management. The digital foundation was in place. Now it was time to further leverage that foundation: standardize processes, automate more, and better support employees in their daily work.
Together with McCoy, Croonwolter&dros is therefore continuing to work on the SAP landscape. Not by changing everything at once, but by looking step by step at where processes can be made simpler and smarter.
First the basics, then build further
In 2023, Croonwolter&dros began the transition to SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud. In 2024, the new environment went live. The implementation had to take place in a short period because the previous system was nearing its end.
With a lead time of twelve months, Croonwolter&dros had to make sharp choices. The first priority was therefore on the basics: registering orders, making purchases, monitoring finances, and sending invoices.
"We had twelve months to go live. You have to make very sharp choices about what is needed first. The foundation had to be in place. After that, we continued to develop. Now we are looking at how we can make processes smarter and how the system can do more work for the user," says Floris Huizeling, program manager of Strategic Projects at Croonwolter&dros.
After the go-live, the focus shifted to further development. Croonwolter&dros is now using the new digital core to make processes simpler, smarter, and more consistent step by step. The focus is primarily on processes that affect employees every day, such as service orders, maintenance, project information, planning, and invoicing.
From various methods to more standardization
Before the transition, Croonwolter&dros worked with a wide landscape of different applications. Excel also still played a major role in many areas. Departments partly operated outside the systems, causing processes to vary by team or department.
The arrival of SAP helps Croonwolter&dros to bring more structure to it.
"Our biggest challenge was standardizing and improving processes. SAP helps us with this because it enforces a clear way of working. We remain an inventive organization, but we want to move towards more control and consistency," says Floris.
Finance and control are now performing better on the new basis. Within maintenance and service, the focus is now on further automation. The goal: to have employees perform fewer actions and move through processes more quickly. In certain purchasing and maintenance processes, for example, the number of required clicks has already been reduced from ten to five.
"Employees want the system to work for them. They don't want to constantly tell the system what to do. That takes time, but there's a lot of gain for us in that," says Floris.
The business determines what can be improved
Which processes will be improved next is not determined solely by IT. Croonwolter&dros organizes further development from business teams, including service managers, planners, contract coordinators, and project staff.
They bring in practical bottlenecks and ideas. Every six weeks, it is discussed which improvements deliver the most value and what capacity is available for them.
IT primarily plays a facilitating role in this. The business determines where the priorities lie. McCoy then supports Croonwolter&dros with knowledge, capacity, and execution. New ideas are developed, assessed, built, tested, and ultimately rolled out.
"Croonwolter&dros clearly demonstrates that the value of SAP continues to grow after go-live. The organization actively gathers ideas from the business and translates them step by step into better processes. We help to make these improvements concrete, from further automation in service and maintenance to applications on the SAP Business Technology Platform," says Frank van de Pas, Senior Sales Executive at McCoy.
The right information for technicians and project teams
A concrete example of this further development is the customer card on the SAP Business Technology Platform. This will be a digital overview that allows technicians to access the correct customer and project information more quickly.
Consider safety regulations, required safety equipment, involved subcontractors, contract agreements, and information about additional work.
This brings information closer to the employee at Croonwolter&dros. This is important in an organization where much work takes place outside the office, and technicians, planners, and project teams rely on up-to-date information to make the right decisions.
Croonwolter&dros is also looking at further automation within SAP Field Service Management. Currently, employees still plan many service orders based on their own knowledge and experience. The organization is exploring how the system can support a larger part of that planning, enabling planners to arrive at a good plan more quickly and reducing the amount of manual work required.
Ready for the next step with AI
Together with McCoy, Croonwolter&dros is also working on the upgrade to the latest version of SAP S/4HANA. This brings new possibilities within reach, including Joule, SAP's AI copilot.
Croonwolter&dros sees opportunities for AI agents that can support employees with recurring tasks, such as checking invoices, closing projects, and preparing time-and-material billing.
The premise remains the same: technology should support employees without making processes more complicated.
At the same time, Croonwolter&dros is explicitly focusing on governance, data security, and authorizations. Especially with customer data, contract information, and project details, it must be clear who is authorized to use which information. Therefore, AI must be safely and controlledly integrated within the organization.
Smarter working begins after go-live
For Croonwolter&dros, the SAP go-live was primarily the beginning. Now that the digital foundation is in place, there is room to continuously improve.
That does not happen through technology alone. The improvement agenda comes from the business and focuses on the daily work of technicians, planners, and project teams. From fewer actions in maintenance processes to better information provision and support in the planning of service orders.
Together with McCoy, Croonwolter&dros continues to build an SAP landscape that increasingly takes work off their hands. And with the next steps in automation and AI, that ambition is getting closer: technology that supports employees instead of the other way around.
That is exactly what Work Smart, Be Happy is all about for McCoy.
Would you like to derive more value from your digital foundation after an SAP go-live? Feel free to contact Frank van de Pas to discuss the next step for your organization.