Client: GRANOVIT SA

In November 2017, the AURELIUS GROUP acquired the animal feed division of Cargill Animal Nutrition Group. This divestment from the Cargill Group resulted in the new GRANOVIT SA, a merger of the well-known brands Provimi Kliba and Protector. With over 50 years of experience in the Swiss market in the field of animal nutrition, the company offers solutions for livestock as well as zoo, leisure, and pet animals. GRANOVIT SA is represented at three Swiss locations in Lucens, Kaiseraugst, and Gossau, with around 250 employees.

Initial Situation and Challenge

As part of the divestment, all employees of the company were taken over with their existing contracts. Thus, about 250 users at three locations had to be migrated to a new IT landscape. Due to the high complexity caused by the strong dependency of the production systems (Manufacturing Execution Systems – MES) on the SAP system in use, only a so-called Big Bang approach was feasible for the migration from the existing environment. Accordingly, the complete transition to the new systems took place at a clearly defined point in time and without a transition phase in parallel operation. The daily business was to continue as unaffected and smoothly as possible.
The extremely strict regulations of the divesting company presented another challenge. For example, the takeover of existing hardware and services could only take place after prior deletion, which meant that all PCs had to be set up and configured from scratch.

“Through professional project management throughout the entire Carve-Out, digatus enabled our operational capability as a stand-alone organization from day one.”

Matthias Täubl – Executive Board Member AURELIUS Equity Opportunities SE Co. KgaA

As part of the Carve-Out project, digatus coordinated the separation of the IT infrastructure from the divesting unit to GRANOVIT SA’s independence. This included the complete reconstruction of the entire IT infrastructure, including the SAP system. The migration of non-SAP applications was also part of these tasks, such as the MES, nutrition systems, laboratory systems, and reporting software.
Furthermore, the selection of future service providers was supported through tenders. digatus also assisted in the subsequent contract design with the selected parties.

Customer Benefits

During the separation of the IT infrastructure, GRANOVIT SA benefited from consistently clear project management with full cost transparency. With the successful completion of the IT Carve-Out project, the newly created entity experiences relief for its personnel through the uniform and lean design of processes and systems. By selecting a Swiss IT service provider, employee trust in IT was regained, and productivity was increased due to the resulting shorter response times. Furthermore, cost savings of nearly 25% compared to previous operating costs were achieved. Now GRANOVIT can continue to focus on its successful reorientation, with increased stability and productivity of the systems.