The company had been operating on a country and regional model, using 27 different IT architectures in over 90 countries. When management identified the need for a re-organization shifting responsibility from regions to global product lines, significant emphasis was given to the ability to exchange information using a common language.

The only common point was a reporting chart of accounts. The company was starting the planning process to implement an enterprise resource planning system on a worldwide basis. It was necessary to understand how such a system could be designed to carry the data requirements of both the local operations and the global product lines.

Our principal conducted the project as assistant controller of this company.

A worldwide multi function team was assembled to identify the information content needed at local, regional and global level, and to review the usage and meaning of key entities and attributes in all 27 legacy architectures. The company needed to agree on common data elements, their definition and their valid values. These elements were then modeled to the selected Enterprise Resource Planning system, SAP R/3. The SAP hierarchy was defined on a worldwide basis.

The project was completed. The company has been able to build multiple instances of its enterprise resource planning system whilst keeping the integrity of information. The initial SAP hierarchy was used without modifications in such different environments as the USA, Australia, Singapore, France and Brazil.