Westernacher China celebrates a decade of success

• Westernacher looks at its achievement in China over the last decade
• Westernacher expands service offerings and footprint in China
• Further sustainable success planned for the next decade

Global consulting company, Westernacher Consulting, celebrates the 10th anniversary of its presence in the Chinese market. This milestone marks a decade of Westernacher being a trusted business and innovation partner in Asia.

Founded in September 2007, Westernacher China has come a long way – from providing a handful of services for foreign companies, to a broad offering for numerous local and international customers today. As a pivotal office in the Far East, Westernacher China has been expanding possibilities not only for mainland China, but also for the whole of the Asia Pacific region, helping customers innovate and grow.

"Ten years ago, we decided to set up an office in Shanghai when we saw the growing importance of China for our customers." Westernacher global CEO, Benjamin Dewilde, continues: "At that time, our customer’s main focus was on manufacturing in and exporting from China, and then increasingly also on targeting the local Chinese market. Local consumption was starting to take off," says Dewilde. China is the largest country in the world in terms of population, with extremely high growth and a rapid pace of modernization and innovation. He adds, "we felt that China would become one of the most important areas of innovation sometime in the future. Due to very high volume here, you must handle everything much more efficiently. At the same time China was leap-frogging over old ways of thinking and coming up with its own solutions. Since we want to be the forerunner of innovation, it was important for us to be there and be part of it in order to bring it to our customers." 

Journey to success

According to the Consulting Unit Lead of China, Dr. Guenter Dortmann, Westernacher China has not only grown very rapidly in size, but has also expanded its service offerings from SAP ERP consulting to Supply Chain Management and business consulting. In the first year when the subsidiary was founded, Westernacher China targeted German manufacturing companies which had facilities in China, primarily in the ERP area. In 2008, Westernacher started to invest in building SAP EWM warehouse system implementation services. Since then, this area of our practice has been growing exponentially and Westernacher is now the top SAP Supply Chain Management implementation partner in China.

Westernacher China has served many renowned companies, such as Weir Minerals and Federal Mogul in multiple projects. Westernacher China has also become a strong player serving local companies and joint ventures in a number of key industries. In the automotive industry, these include FAW-VW, Dongfeng Nissan and Skoito. Top names in the retail/consumer products industries include Xtep, Jomoo, Deli and Manwah. "All of these companies chose Westernacher as their business partner owing to the recognized expertise of our consultants, the long-track record of successful rollouts and implementations, the service partnership with SAP China and last but not least, an excellent reputation in the Chinese and Asian markets," explains Dr. Dortmann.

Today, Westernacher China is a crucial delivery hub, supporting Westernacher’s business in the Asia-Pacific region. 

"Westernacher China today is the most important SAP EWM implementation partner in China and the whole of Asia Pacific, with most of the EWM implementations in this region," says Dortmann. He explains, "our warehousing experts can implement any kind of warehouse, from manually to fully automated warehouses in different industries, starting with production, trading warehousing to distribution centers." In addition to being a leader in warehousing solutions throughout China, Westernacher also implemented the first S/4HANA simple finance systems there, as well as two live SCP TM implementations.     

The go-to innovation partner in China

As a worldwide consultancy, our very strong local team of experts in China makes Westernacher much more attractive to its global customers. "Most companies, who we help to optimize their processes, have global supply chains, with a large component in China," Dewilde says, adding that implementations must be carried out in China to optimize and automate those supply chains.

"It’s vital for many of our international customers to have a strong and experienced partner in China and we have built a customer portfolio of impressive Chinese customers. As a group we benefit from the experience and innovation from our Chinese projects and customers," Dewilde notes. "Maybe the most satisfying aspect of our track record in China is the fantastic team of great colleagues and friends who have enriched our group. They bring unique expertise and perspectives to our global team."

Looking to the future

In the decade to come, the group’s global CEO expects to stay number one in warehousing in China, to expand in transportation management, digital supply chain management and planning, as well as become a top player in the S/4HANA space in industries such as automotive supplies, pharmaceuticals and IoT. Westernacher is set to expand geographically, anticipating more business in Taiwan and neighbors such as Japan and South Korea.

On the other hand, Dortmann also expects further growth for Westernacher China in the existing business consulting areas in China. For Westernacher customers worldwide, China’s dedicated Application Management Service team, together with the global Westernacher AMS team, can deliver 24/7 Help Desk services to support the day-to-day operations of any SAP system. "We’ll also invest more in growing the SCM business management consulting activities and eCommerce," explains Dr. Dortmann.

Westernacher China looks forward to the next decade of expanding and remaining the top trusted name in innovative business and IT consulting in China.