Springer Nature
APAC Finance function digitalised.
Who is Springer Nature?
Springer Nature is one of the worlds leading scientific, scholarly and educational publishers headquartered in Berlin and London. With revenues of €2b and 13,000 employees in over 50 countries, it is the publisher of the world's most influential journals, including Nature and Scientific American flagship publications.
The challenge.
The global merger of Macmillan Science and Education with Springer Science to create Springer Nature Group resulted in two duplicate and disparate Finance functions in Tokyo supporting Japan and the APAC region.
- The requirement is to restructure and consolidate people, processes and technology into one new Finance function for Japan/APAC, thereby standardising finance operations for the group worldwide.
- Replace the Macmillan global Oracle ERP with Springer Nature's global SAP ERP platform in Japan.
- Integration of SAP with Sales, Advertising, Fulfilment and Expense Management systems and introduction of the global Procurement system into Japan.
- A diverse and globally dispersed set of implementation stakeholders and team members (Finance, Technology, SAP, HR) located in Berlin, London and Tokyo.
The solution.
- Introduced a structured implementation programme for implementing Springer Nature's global SAP ERP platform for Japan and APAC region.
- Designed the solution to incorporate global as well as local Japanese and APAC financial and operational requirements.
- Integration into global operational systems (sales, advertising, tax and procurement).
- Successfully migrated from and decommissioned Macmillan's global Oracle ERP platform.
- Restructured and consolidating the finance function with minimal disruption to local and global operations.
