Accelleron turbocharges harmonized data management

In 2021, the electrification and automation corporation ABB Group announced that it was carving out its turbocharging division and renaming it Accelleron Industries, hoping the stand-alone unit could have a greater impact on the marine, energy, and rail industries.

The decision was part of a global reorganization pattern that has occurred in corporations since the pandemic, with new business divisions established to re-focus and reach their full potential.

Along with the rebranding came pressure to remain fully efficient and quickly respond to customer needs, even while detaching from ABB’s ecosystem and moving data, processes, and systems to Accelleron’s new environment. It needed a consolidated, harmonized data management process while ensuring that the newly independent company complied with local tax, statutory, and legal requirements.

But with a fragmented IT landscape, consisting of localized processes encompassing varying models and system approaches, the goal felt elusive.

The pressure was heightened by an ambitious roll-out schedule to comply with ABB’s spin-off timeline. After the September 2021 kickoff of the spin-off project, Accelleron pushed to go live with a pilot in May 2022, then continued the alterations in five phases, ending in January 2024.

In that time frame, Accelleron was expected to migrate its entire enterprise resource planning (ERP) structure – including 23 SAP ECC 6 systems in more than 40 countries – from the ABB  to the Accelleron ecosystem.

Adopting and ‘rising’

Located in Baden, Switzerland, Accelleron quickly established itself as a standalone business for the current age. As it developed, produced, and serviced turbochargers and digital solutions, the company built a reputation both for making engines more powerful and reducing emissions.

But it could only move forward with a common worldwide solution, and that would require a compressed transformation.

Irish professional services leader Accenture was selected as a participating partner in the carve-out from ABB.

Both ABB and Accenture shared a relationship with SAP, the world’s leading ERP software vendor. 

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, a ready-to-run cloud ERP program delivering industry best practices and other innovations, was a central piece of the transition. The solution had previously been part of SAP’s “Early Adopter” suite, connecting users with products to simplify, innovate, and quickly digitize.

Accelleron also adopted SAP’s Business Technology Platform (BTP), merging artificial intelligence (AI), data and analytics, automation, and application development and integration in one unified environment.

To ensure that all compliance requirements were met, Accelleron turned to Localization 
As a Self-Service for SAP S/4 HANA Cloud, a solution so extensive that it encompasses regulations for countries not covered by SAP standard solutions.

Unified visibility

The platform allowed Accelleron to provide its users with data access that was both simplified and cohesive – all within the time period required for the spin-off project.

Globally, the consolidated architecture has trimmed expenses, while reducing the number of applications.

“We have now a global end-to-end process,” observed Accelleron’s division president of service, Roland Schwarz, a system optimizing the available cloud solutions and improving communication throughout the revamped organization.

For example, regional managers report expansion of daily activities, since information retrieval has been facilitated by standardized information contained in a single system, obliterating the need to search for information via several solutions with different data models.

In addition to greater integration across human resources (HR), supply chain, finance, manufacturing, and security, users have been able to keep pace with local regulations due to continuous upgrades regarding compliance changes.  

For its rapid development of a worldwide service network operations platform, Accelleron Industries was honored as a finalist at the 2024 SAP Innovation Awards, a yearly ceremony celebrating organizations taking advantage of SAP technologies to affect change.

Within the company, the improvements have set a foundation for greater process changes, enabling users to prepare for whatever comes next with predictability and confidence. Be sure to check out their Innovation Awards pitch deck for further details.