With a 25% share of European chemical sales, the German chemical industry occupies first place in the EU. With sales of approx. EUR 140 billion, Germany lies in third position worldwide behind the USA and Japan, and ahead of France.
An increasingly changed economic environment as a result of globalization means that many companies in the chemical industry are more prepared to undertake mergers and acquisitions. More and more small and medium-size enterprises (90% of the 1,700 German chemical companies employ fewer than 500 staff) are faced with growing cost pressure. In order for both multinational and medium-sized companies to remain successful in the market, these companies must optimize their process chains and make them as efficient as possible. In this regard, the optimal alignment of the IT structure plays a key role. This is why the chemical industry is also planning major investments for the next three years in corporate software such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Business Intelligence (BI).
The top priority for chemical companies is Enterprise Resource Planning. The ERP sector will receive further growth stimuli from acquisitions within the chemical industry, as well as from company decisions to centralize ERP on a global level and thus achieve harmonization. Chemical companies are also planning to purchase CRM package applications as these help to optimize customer relations – as a replacement for outdated in-house CRM software or for first-time use of CRM.
Over the course of many years, Lufthansa Systems has established itself as a competent IT full service provider for both large corporations and small and medium-size companies in the chemical industry. We advise on strategic and operational issues – focusing on the optimal alignment of your information technology – and all from one source. We provide a complete product portfolio, ranging from strategy and conceptual design to realization and operation of the IT systems. We have proven in numerous customer projects with highly qualified employees that and our specialist know-how and industry expertise are indispensable for the optimal controlling of business processes. A further prerequisite to achieve the desired success is for the complex IT systems to grow together.
We offer in-depth knowledge on both a process and a technical level. In some cases, special legal stipulations must also be taken into consideration. These regulations, such as guidelines for GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice), guidelines for GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) and GCP (Good Clinical Practice), require seamless batch documentation from the raw material to the final product. Legal stipulations like these inevitably lead to an increase in production costs, which prompts many chemical companies to rationalize their internal processes. This also makes special demands of the IT systems used as well as project implementation – issues which our long experience in the chemical industry in general and with SAP standard software in particular has equipped us to deal with.
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