Interview: why agility is the key to shaping our industry

As our suite of bTools undergo further development to solve more complex business scenarios, we sat down with Wilfried Schulte, Director Data Transformation Services at bancon to find out about his background in SAP System Landscape Optimization and his vision for how leaner, more cost-effective tools can help businesses carve out new revenue streams.

Wilfried is responsible for the Group’s market unit in South Africa which focuses on specific services and tools to realize system harmonizations, reorganization, mergers, splits and other similar projects.  

Tell us about your background and what brought you to bancon?

I worked at SAP for about 15 years and during that stint founded SAP’s SLO organisation. As part of that, my role included defining the unique service offering as well as managing the development of the technical tools and consulting organizations to ensure they got the most out of them. 

With that background, I was keen to join bancon because as a small, agile organisation, product development can scale and develop at speed. I liked the idea of being able to shape our industry and be at the forefront of data transformation solutions.  

Before joining bancon, I knew they had a unique offering based on their deep knowledge and specialist development skills. It meant they could (and still do today) provide solutions that out-pace the competition. I’m really excited about bPostingEngine, our proprietary posting engine that posts open items in an audit proof manner. 

Tell us more about bPostingEngine 

bPostingEngine was built because many large companies who perform migrations and splits e.g Company Codes (legal entities) or plant’s reallocations, often have a very large number of open items on their books. Due to legal requirements these have to either be taken over, or closed and reopened. In each of these cases the company has to manage thousands of records manually which is naturally prone to human error. 

bPostingEngine provides an automated transfer of open items in almost unlimited numbers. It is highly configurable and works based on pre-defined rules. With human error excluded, it’s an audit proof solution that reduces regulatory and operational risk, as well reducing project times from what can take months, to a matter of minutes.   

What’s the benefit of bPostingEngine vs a Posting Engine from another provider? 

bPostingEngine has been developed to provide only exactly what is necessary, the advantage being, this simple, yet powerful functionality makes projects easier, faster and less costly for clients in comparison to the very few other solutions available. The tool is easy to use and transfers exactly what is required by auditors and pre-defined by the finance departments of clients.  

What other bTools have bancon developed?  

A few! Because of our deep knowledge of SAP and data transformation, we know where the inefficiencies lie in some of the existing tools out there. So, when a barrier occurs during a project, it’s often easier for us to create a bTool to power through it and get to the heart of the problem. For us, it means we can automate activities, reduce human error, speed up the time it takes to complete the project and pass those savings onto our clients. 

By stripping out unnecessary features and functions, we in turn create a leaner, more efficient solution for a fraction of the cost of the existing legacy software that does the same thing. 

bPostingEngine is one of the tools which forms part of our bFinanceManagement range. bFinanceManagement covers the transition of company assets as well as assets-under-construction. 

Alongside those, we also provide a number of technical tools. Similar to bPostingEngine they are a “no frills”, focused solution that get specific jobs done with high quality results. 

• BAuthorizationValidation provides an overall authorization check and gives guidance for compliance teams around access controls. 
• BCustomizingCompare provides reporting and comparison of multiple customized systems during transformation projects. 
• BDataValidation provides a comparison of data between two SAP systems before and after migration to ensure consistency and integrity.  
• BServiceAutomation validates SAP processes by running a series of service-based business scenarios in ECC and S/4. 

What other bTools are in the pipeline?  

We do a lot of work in the financial services sector, so we try to combine our skills in System Landscape Optimization and data transformation with financial services to create unique solutions only bancon can offer. 

Using the latest technology from SAP, we are currently building our bMigration solution which will cover the migration of legacy core banking data to SAP S/4 Transactional Banking and later is intended to cover all cross-industry S/4 HANA solutions.

Your role sound incredibly varied and exciting, what do you love most about your role? 

The grown-up attitude and lack of unnecessary bureaucracy or ‘red tape’ that you often find at larger consultancies. Our Founders, Bernhard Stricker and Jörg Mauelshagen are still very much involved in the day to day, which reduces the decision-making process so we can operate in a much more agile way, compared to larger consultancies. With this set up, we can quickly react to specific customer requirements and provide the fastest, most relevant solutions. 

The other thing is the level of experience we have in the team. Working with a group of people who have been so involved with SAP’s SLO development, we’ve been able to develop and provide tool-based solutions which go beyond the standard offering which exist in the market. That team is the backbone of our business and what makes working at bancon so special. 

What would you say to anyone thinking about joining bancon? 

If you are keen about becoming part of a highly dynamic team which is most of the time involved in cutting edge technology, bancon is the right place for you.  

You would be directly part of building solutions which drive the company forward and solve some of the world’s biggest business problems. Plus, we’re growing fast. Having just opened entities in India and Singapore, the next few years we have an exciting road ahead at bancon. 

For the latest job openings, visit our careers page.