The packaging machine manufacturer Syntegon from Stuttgart Bad Cannstatt is starting its digital transformation with RISE with SAP and moving to the SAP Cloud. In the previously rugged IT world, the goal is primarily standardization.
The world’s leading provider of process and packaging technology Syntegon has taken a decisive step in its digital transformation with RISE with SAP.
Within just five months, the company migrated its three previously used ERP systems, the business warehouse, content servers and around 400 interfaces to the cloud – thereby laying the foundation for a standardized and future-proof IT landscape.
To date, Syntegon has relied on the ERP system SAP ECC with Oracle databases operated in its own data center – without using SAP S/4HANA technology. The system now runs in the SAP Cloud based on the powerful SAP HANA database.
“It is the largest SAP project in the history of our company,” says overall project manager and senior manager Orson Heueck.
“With RISE@Syntegon we are now creating the technical basis for our digital future.”
Orson Heueck, overall project manager and senior manager
Felipe Groh, Senior Manager for Digital Enablement and technical project manager of the RISE project, also emphasizes the importance of the project: “This is one of the most exciting challenges for our SAP landscape in recent years.”
The “RISE with package” supports companies in switching from traditional on-premise systems to a modern cloud ERP solution. It is a holistic SAP offering consisting of software, cloud infrastructure, accompanying services and tools that Syntegon has successfully used.
Standardization as a goal
Syntegon from Stuttgart Bad Cannstatt, with around 6,900 employees and annual sales of around 1.6 billion euros, has grown significantly since it was separated from Bosch Packaging Technology five years ago.
There was no real process consolidation, the existing IT landscape was largely retained,” says the overall project manager. Through acquisitions and self-developed applications, a heterogeneous system landscape with numerous individual adjustments was created. “The system landscape at Syntegon was fragmented,” says Heueck succinctly.
“A single plant could have its own processes and customizations,” he explains. “Over the years, we have continually optimized our systems in order to achieve maximum efficiency in the processes. However, we have moved further and further away from the SAP standard. Each update therefore involved considerable effort.”
By moving to the cloud, Syntegon now wants to use the opportunity to clean up its IT world in order to reduce this complexity. “Our goal is a maximally standardized ERP system,” says Heueck.
“In the future, we will define a central template with standard processes from the SAP S/4HANA portfolio.”
Orson Heueck, overall project manager and senior manager
After struggling with the challenges for a long time, now is the right time to move step by step towards SAP S/4HANA.
This will standardize sales and production processes in all 40 manufacturing plants and service and sales locations worldwide. The previous isolated solutions and encapsulated systems should be merged into a harmonized process landscape. In the future, the company only wants to make expansions in exceptional cases if they are absolutely necessary and offer clear added value.
Technical implementation in record time
Over 60 external employees from numerous partners worldwide were involved in the implementation of the RISE project on the way to consolidating the processes. Around 20 came from SAP itself, and experts from Bosch India also helped. Around 400 colleagues at Syntegon worked together across teams. Dedicated coordinators within the company ensured that the changeover went smoothly at all locations.
“The kick-off was at the beginning of March, go-live in August,” reports Groh.
“The methodology and tools that SAP provides for migrating ECC data to the cloud worked very well for us.”
Felipe Groh, Senior Manager for Digital Enablement and Technical Project Manager of the RISE project
SAP took over the transfer of the SAP systems including data into the new IT world. At the same time, Syntegon took care of adapting around 400 interfaces after moving them to the cloud – one of the biggest challenges of the project.
“Simple connections were changed quickly, some in just a few minutes,” says Groh. “Complex cloud connections with site-to-site technology as a connection, on the other hand, required detailed concepts and close coordination with external partners.”
Successful start in the cloud
Before the go-live, the migration was extensively tested in Syntegon’s three-part system world – in the development, test and production environment. Additional adjustments were made after each step.
The duration of the transfers was also precisely calculated in order to keep the time during which the systems had to be shut down as short as possible. Syntegon then only needed a long weekend for the actual move, from Friday afternoon to Sunday evening.
After the go-live, operations are stable and with significantly improved transaction times. “We now have a high-performance, professional platform that we no longer have to operate ourselves, but rather obtain as a standard service from SAP,” says Heueck.
Server operation has accelerated and network performance has greatly improved – thanks to the SAP HANA database and centralized infrastructure.
“The SAP HANA database helps us manage data more efficiently and perform analysis significantly faster,”
Felipe Groh, Senior Manager for Digital Enablement and Technical Project Manager of the RISE project
Next step: SAP S/4HANA
Through the cloud strategy and the subsequent consistent standardization, Syntegon has set the course for the digital future. The company is now looking at the SAP S/4HANA world. Heueck: “We wanted to standardize the process side in order to benefit from SAP S/4HANA. Moving the SAP system we operated locally to the SAP Cloud was the logical prerequisite for this.”
The RISE conversion has now created the ideal starting point for the next step: Syntegon wants to convert the SAP clients of all plants to SAP S/4HANA by the beginning of 2029, after which the non-SAP world will also follow.
The official project kickoff for SAP S/4HANA took place on November 10, 2025 and includes the worldwide introduction at a total of 47 production, sales and service locations. The start of the first plant is also planned for November this year.
