Press release Commerz Real becomes first German asset manager to set store by “Rise with SAP”

As the first German asset manager Commerz Real is gradually migrating all its essential business processes to the SAP enterprise resource planning software package S/4 HANA. It is doing so in combination with the integration and development platform SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP). HANA stands for High Performance Analytic Appliance. The objective is for the entire management of all assets as well as all the data and processes, incl. transactions and valuations, of the real assets subsidiary of Commerzbank to be processed in the cloud in the future. To this end Commerz Real is setting store by the full-service offering “Rise with SAP”. SAP will assist with the entire launch, and also supervise the operation and technical support of S/4 HANA in the cloud.

“With the overall package of SAP S/4 HANA and SAP BTP we will be taking a major step forward in our digitalisation, making our flows considerably faster and more efficient,” explains Nikolaus Schmidt, Head of Technology & Innovation at Commerz Real. He says that a fundamental benefit of the enterprise resource planning solution is a streamlined data model. Schmidt is also convinced that as a result analyses, the valuation of assets, and prognoses will be possible in real time, which in the view of Commerz Real will mean that decision-making processes are not only accelerated to a considerable degree but are also more well-founded. “This is a real gain for our asset and transaction management,” says Schmidt, adding that reports can thus also be produced in real time.

A further benefit for Commerz Real is the fact that everybody involved can access the processes from everywhere, even via mobile devices. Consequently, manual coordination and reconciliation are unnecessary and redundancies, resulting from the storage of data in a number of locations for example, are eliminated. Business partners can be integrated simply and automatically, thus simplifying and accelerating collaboration. Thus, for example, the buyers of properties would be able to access online all the property data and performance indicators in advance in the future. Other benefits are the ease of use, whereby employees without any programming skills can develop and customise applications, and the deployment of digital assistants, so-called “avatars”, in the use of the platform. All in all Commerz Real expects to see the acceleration and simplification of business processes, and thus greater efficiency. “As a consequence we will make our products and services more dynamic,” forecasts Schmidt.

The timetable foresees the migration to the SAP private cloud being completed by the end of 2023 and the migration of the first business areas by mid-2024. The cloud infrastructure, on the other hand, runs on Microsoft Azure, operated by SAP. All the business processes are to have been migrated in full to S/4 HANA by 2027 at the latest. The treasury management system of Commerz Real has been working with SAP HANA since 2020 already.