"Vi har ersatt fem plattformar med en"

Lower costs and less risk of disruptions, while still achieving greater synergies and more freedom to add or remove applications. The list of benefits for holding company Bergman & Beving, which moved all its integration to iCore Integration Suite during 2019, is long.

– We do a lot of company acquisitions, and with an increasing number of different systems we need a capable integration solution to stay ahead of the curve. Moving from on-premise to cloud applications makes this need even greater, says Sara Carlsson, IT manager at Bergman & Beving.

As a holding company specialized in building materials, workplace safety, tools and consumables, Bergman & Beving uses many different systems and applications within the group. They face not only the challenges of integrating their own applications, but also those of other acquired companies. However, the goal is to let all companies in the group keep their own ERP and applications.

– It is important that all entities within Bergman & Beving retain their freedom, in order to make quick business decisions.”

The vast number of business entities, combined with Bergman & Beving’s ambition to constantly evolve, created a need for a flexible and reliable integration platform.

The integration platform connects the different companies and their applications. Not all Bergman & Beving’s applications are integrated with the iCore platform – it varies from case to case. The main goal is to make each company efficient and, if the need arises, reuse existing integrations.

– This way, the companies in the group that require for instance supply chain services or financial applications can benefit from existing systems and integrations. It creates important synergies and gives our companies greater freedom to add, modify or remove applications.

The integration strategy has reduced the risk of disruptions, since iCore Integration Suite creates a separate layer where the systems work independently of each other. The new integration platform will also make the gradual transition from on-premise to cloud-based applications much easier for Bergman & Beving.

– Bergman & Beving will exist in a world with both on-premise and cloud-based applications for years to come. We don’t want to prevent our companies from acquiring new systems, but we want to make sure the decisions are made with our business interests in mind, and with the integrations, that is now a reality.

The migration project started in spring 2019. The team responsible for integrations in the IT department at Bergman & Beving consists of only five people, but they still manage to handle systems and applications for more than 15 companies and 1000 employees. The current organization is very cost-efficient, and it allows for the pooling and growth of knowledge within the IT department.

– We have managed to reduce our IT and systems costs, partly by having fewer systems, but also with fewer licenses and man hours. Now we can deliver business advantages more quickly to our corporate group, says Sara Carlsson.