As a result of its strong growth, SAP consultancy company Expertum ran into the limits of its own administrative systems. The group therefore decided to move to SAP Cloud ERP, the technology it also implements for its customers. The result is a more efficient organisation, but at least as valuable are the lessons Expertum took from the project. “We now understand even better what a digital transformation requires of an organisation,” says COO Ilse Brock.
In twenty years Expertum has grown into an international SAP specialist with around 300 employees and activities in Belgium, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Croatia. Growth accelerated in recent years, with three acquisitions nearly doubling the size of the group. That expansion brought new challenges. The companies within the group each had their own systems and processes, while customers were increasingly served by consultants from different entities.
“Our growth made clear that we needed a uniform way of working,” says Ilse Brock, COO of Expertum Group. “Registration and invoicing were not efficient enough, and our reporting needed to be faster and better. To professionalise the group further, we had to standardise both our administration and our reporting.”
Standardising with SAP
As an SAP partner, the technology choice for this digital transformation was obvious. Expertum brought its administrative processes together on SAP Cloud ERP for Professional Services, a cloud platform developed specifically for service companies. For the implementation the company followed the same methodology it applies at its customers: first the existing processes were analysed and compared with SAP’s standard processes. Configuration of the system, workshops, testing and the conversion of existing data followed.
“We deliberately chose to follow SAP’s standard processes,” says Ilse Brock. “Over the years SAP has developed them on the basis of best practices, so they have proven their value. Rather than adapting the system to the way we work, we standardised and integrated our processes as much as possible. The result is that everything now connects: from the time registration of our consultants to project follow-up, reporting and invoicing.”
Immediate results
The consultancy company deliberately opted for a phased implementation. In a first phase Belgium, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Croatia migrated, a project that took about five months. Early 2026 the other companies in the group followed. And that produces an immediate result, says Ilse Brock:
“In the past we had to bring data from various systems together for our financial reporting. Today that data is processed automatically and the information is available much faster. There is also less chance of mistakes, because there is less manual work. That gave our administrative staff room for other tasks.”
International collaboration also runs more smoothly. When a consultant from one country works on a project for another entity, internal invoicing is processed automatically. At the same time the implementation brought the entities closer together.
“When you go through such a project together, you start working in the same way. The system supports our international collaboration and therefore also helps us to grow further.”
Sitting on the other side of the table
The project was a particular learning experience for Expertum. As an SAP consultant the company guides customers through such implementations every day.
“We have now experienced for ourselves what our customers go through during such a project,” says Ilse Brock. “That gave us new insights that we can take into our guidance. Think of the conversion of data from legacy systems to the new platform. That is to an important extent the customer’s responsibility. We have now experienced how much work that involves and realise even better that we can relieve our customers further in that area.”
Yet the most important lesson, according to the COO, was that a digital transformation goes far beyond choosing new software.
“You have to collaborate intensively, question your processes and guide people in a new way of working. The software does what it has to do, but everything around it is at least as important. That is why we paid a lot of attention to communication, training and data conversion. One of the most important success factors turned out once again to be that we involved our people from the start.”
For Expertum, its own implementation therefore has a double meaning. The group today has a more efficient and better integrated organisation, but at the same time has deepened its expertise as an SAP partner.
“By going through that transformation ourselves, we understand even better how important it is to prepare processes well and to communicate clearly to your employees why you are changing. We will take that experience with us to our customers from now on,” Ilse Brock concludes.
Charlotte is here to listen.
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Charlotte is based in Belgium.
