VIRTUTEM helps manufacturer complete EDI go-live with no shipment disruptions

VIRTUTEM supported a global industrial manufacturer through an EDI deployment tied to an ongoing SAP S/4HANA rollout across the U.S., Europe and Canada. The work kept legacy BPCS operations stable, reduced a ticket backlog and helped the company avoid shipment disruptions during the transition.

Why it matters: - Global manufacturers often have to run the old ERP system and the new one at the same time. - When key internal experts move to the new platform, legacy operations can stall unless outside support fills the gap. - In this case, VIRTUTEM helped keep order and shipment workflows moving while the SAP transformation continued.

What happened: - A global industrial manufacturer completed an EDI deployment phase tied to its SAP S/4HANA rollout across U.S., European and Canadian operations. - The EDI go-live phase finished with zero customer shipment disruptions. - VIRTUTEM supported the effort through its ERP application managed services team. - The manufacturer’s broader SAP S/4HANA transformation from BPCS v6.x remains ongoing.

The details: - VIRTUTEM provided global application-layer support for the legacy BPCS environment. - The work included technical application support and issue resolution. - VIRTUTEM also took part in SAP-side data transformation and validation activities. - The company entered after internal BPCS subject matter experts were reassigned to the SAP program. - An additional support gap opened when a key EDI resource left unexpectedly during the transition. - The VIRTUTEM team started with a three-month shadowing and onboarding period. - Primary support responsibility shifted to VIRTUTEM by month five. - A two-level governance model helped manage the transition, with weekly operational reviews and monthly executive check-ins. - At the start of the engagement, the manufacturer had more than 150 open ERP application tickets. - Some backlog items were older than 80 days. - Monthly ticket volume fell from about 130 to 40. - Open tickets dropped to roughly 30. - Backlog age fell to under 30 days. - The engagement remains ongoing. - VIRTUTEM provided global 24×5 support with 24×7 on-call coverage across all three regions. - Coverage spanned Financials, Distribution, Manufacturing and EDI. - The team captured knowledge and documented the environment. - VIRTUTEM supported data transformation and validation for the concurrent SAP S/4HANA program. - The team identified, documented and resolved undocumented processes that had required manual intervention. - That work restored reliable period-end processing. - When the EDI resource left, VIRTUTEM assumed ownership of the BPCS EDI environment. - VIRTUTEM became the client’s primary resource for the BPCS side of the EDI transition. - The team maintained BPCS EDI stability while working alongside the SAP implementation team. - That coordination helped enable the EDI go-live with no shipment disruptions.

Between the lines: - The engagement shows how ERP transformations create a second problem alongside the migration itself: the legacy system still has to run flawlessly. - The biggest risk is often not software conversion alone, but the loss of people who understand the old environment well enough to keep transactions, integrations and close cycles working. - VIRTUTEM’s model is built to absorb that operational burden while the manufacturer focuses on the new platform. - The company says it sees this pattern across clients undergoing multi-year ERP transformations.

What's next: - The manufacturer will continue its SAP S/4HANA transformation while VIRTUTEM keeps supporting the legacy environment. - Ongoing work is likely to center on stability, data validation and transition support until the ERP changeover is complete. - VIRTUTEM says its broader ERP managed services work is aimed at reducing skills gaps, legacy risk and knowledge loss during long transition programs.

The bottom line: - VIRTUTEM helped a manufacturer keep legacy ERP operations steady and complete an EDI go-live without disrupting shipments, even as the company’s SAP migration continued.