{"id":37620,"date":"2024-11-27T19:29:09","date_gmt":"2024-11-27T19:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trintech.com\/?post_type=case-study&p=37620"},"modified":"2026-01-26T19:08:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T19:08:54","slug":"bayer","status":"publish","type":"case-study","link":"https:\/\/www.trintech.com\/case-study\/bayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Bayer’s Strategic Migration to SAP S\/4HANA and the Integration of Trintech for Enhanced Financial Close Efficiency"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bayer’s Strategic Migration to SAP S\/4HANA and the Integration of Trintech for Enhanced Financial Close Efficiency<\/h1>\n

Case Study<\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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Business Drivers to Automate<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Bayer, a global leader in the life sciences industries, has always been at the forefront of innovation and emerging technologies. In 2019, Bayer began initial conversations around migrating to SAP S\/4HANA which prompted them to start evaluating the financial solutions they had in place. \u201cOur previous solution was self-developed and integrated with SAP through custom ABAP programs, tables, and a WebDynpro UI,\u201d said Marc-Oliver Deinert, from the GPO General Ledger Team at Bayer. \u201cManaging manual work on disparate solutions on each system led to increased workload and complexity that wasn\u2019t sustainable for our team long-term. It became clear very early on that our self-developed solution would not scale with the migration to S\/4HANA which is where our conversations with Trintech began.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


With an initial focus on streamlining and standardizing their balance sheet reconciliations, Bayer decided to implement Trintech\u2019s Cadency Platform in 2020. \u201cOne of the main reasons we decided to implement Cadency was because it is a holistic platform that can address the full financial close process, including journal entries,\u201d continued Deinert. \u201cOur external auditors had heightened their scrutiny on manual journal processes (like a documented 4 eyes principle and audit trail for content and formal aspects including ICS), increasing our need to deploy a more robust and compliant solution. Additionally, cost pressures reduced our flexibility to develop and maintain self-developed solutions, making it imperative to find an effective and efficient alternative solution,\u201d continued Deinert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Criteria for a Financial Close Platform<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When putting together the solution criteria, Bayer prioritized compliance, transparency and comprehensive workflow management. \u201cCompliance would ensure that we have a clear workflow with defined approvals to ensure there is no possibility of working outside the solution,\u201d continued Deinert. \u201cWe also needed transparency to identify the origin of journals to prevent those that bypass the workflow.\u201d The solution would need to maintain audit trails, approvals, documentation, and custom fields for documents. The support of a full workflow throughout the entire process chain was critical, including the division between country and Global Business Services (GBS) organizations. \u201cOne additional requirement we had was the ability to provide transparent and traceable input from non-accounting functions,\u201d continued Deinert. \u201cWe use ServiceNow for our non-accounting functions, so finding a solution that could integrate into that system was a game changer.\u201d
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By implementing Trintech\u2019s Cadency Platform, Bayer aimed to enhance efficiency, compliance, and overall financial management in the face of significant technological and business changes.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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One additional requirement we\r\nhad was the ability to provide\r\ntransparent and traceable\r\ninput from non-accounting\r\nfunctions. We use ServiceNow\r\nfor our non-accounting\r\nfunctions, so finding a solution\r\nthat could integrate into that\r\nsystem was a game changer.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/blockquote>\n\n

\n Marc-Oliver Deinert<\/span>\n \n GPO General Ledger Team<\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n\n <\/figure>\n <\/div>\n\n
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Migration to SAP S\/4HANA<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Bayer\u2019s approach to migrating to S\/4HANA emphasized sticking to standard processes and minimizing development within S\/4HANA. To address specific needs and complexities, they decided to shift those requirements to solutions that could integrate into SAP S\/4HANA. This strategy aimed to streamline the core system while leveraging external tools for more specialized functions. \u201cOur finance landscape has undergone significant consolidation with the SAP S\/4HANA project,\u201d continued Deinert. \u201cPreviously, our company operated across five similar SAP systems, along with an additional acquired system with a distinct setup. The future ERP landscape will streamline into two main systems differentiated by division. While many core aspects will remain
consistent, there will be tailored processes to accommodate division-specific needs, particularly concerning production and sales,\u201d said Deinert.
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By fully integrating Trintech\u2019s Cadency Platform into their new S\/4HANA environment, traditional configuration concerns were minimized. Instead of focusing on extensive configuration changes within SAP itself, Bayer opted to rely on Cadency for managing financial close processes.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Bayer’s SAP S\/4HANA implementation was strategically planned and executed as follows: <\/h4>\n\n\n\n