Cooper Standard deploys SAP in new ways

With more than 32,000 employees globally and plants in 21 countries, Cooper Standard needed to connect 120 sites to provide better data and drive business decisions.

Cooper Standard is a leading supplier of rubber and plastic sealing, fuel and brake lines, fluid-transfer hoses, and anti-vibration systems for the automotive industry.

Cooper Standard grew through acquisition to become a global company. Frequently, the acquired companies managed their businesses through an existing ERP or information management system. That left Cooper Standard with a number of different systems and unable to see its business progress and other information in a single source. Senior leaders needed a better way.

Cooper Standard chose SAP as the new system of record and Capgemini as its implementation partner. Capgemini brought global resources, automotive experience, and SAP knowledge to help solve the company’s challenges. A single process was created to help make the company more agile and better able to make quick business decisions.

Two sites were brought online per year. Changes were made to the global template based on experience gained from the early sites and, once the template was standardized, the process accelerated.

“It is critical that you get a good partner, since your own talent is not going to be well-versed in the new technology. Capgemini is a high-level partner of SAP and had the ability to work in all of the different countries we needed support. Capgemini also had the automotive experience and they provided flexible solutions that were specific requirements for Cooper Standard,” says Soma Venkat, Vice President of Information Technology, Cooper Standard.

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