Achieving a global finance core at TEDi in 9 months
Achieving a global standard in just 9 months: How TEDi and KPS used SAP Cloud ERP Private to leave rigid legacy structures behind, standardise accounting across 15 countries and ensure maximum process efficiency in the cloud.
Although a preliminary brownfield certification in 2020 brought TEDi onto SAP S/4HANA, it left the platform’s innovation potential untapped. To underpin its European expansion, with over 3,700 branches, the management opted for a radical change: a greenfield re-implementation of the finance system. Working with KPS, a state-of-the-art, automated, cloud-based finance architecture for 15 countries and 25 companies went live in just nine
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Behind all these figures lies one thing above all else: an exceptional joint achievement by TEDi and KPS. Thank you to the entire project team for making Finance 2.0 such a great success
The challenge
The brownfield trap: technical migration without business benefits
In 2020, TEDi carried out a classic brownfield conversion to SAP S/4HANA. The result: the outdated, historically evolved legacy structure was simply copied into the new system environment. Genuine SAP innovations and standardised processes remained untapped. The financial landscape remained highly complex and offered neither the necessary transparency nor the autonomous environment that TEDi required for further transformation steps.
Compliance pressures and a lack of scalability
With a presence in 15 countries, the demands on fiscal and tax reporting, as well as on country-specific compliance requirements (including the GDPR), increased massively. The existing system did not offer any automated workflows to meet these requirements. It was clear to IT and finance decision-makers that without standardised, high-quality master data and a retail-oriented accounting design, the IT system would become a bottleneck for global branch growth.
The strategy
‘Finance First’ and the blueprint lever
The strategic decision was made in favour of a ‘Finance First’ approach. Rather than embarking on a protracted, all-encompassing ERP transformation, the initial focus was on accounting in order to realise measurable efficiency gains in the short term.
The implementation, based on SAP Best Practices and KPS’s strict ‘Fit-to-Standard’ approach, served as a key accelerator.
Risk minimisation through SAP Activate and the Industry Framework
As a holistic transformation partner, KPS took responsibility for consultancy, design and implementation. An upstream KPS Advisory Service secured approval for the ‘Finance First’ approach as early as January 2025. The streamlined project setup minimised implementation risks through clear milestones and a key accelerator:
- The blueprint lever: KPS brought a proven, industry-tested framework to the project and tailored it specifically to TEDi’s requirements.
- Months-long build phase: Focused design and development of the global core system.
- Months of localisation and deployment: a parallel, coordinated roll-out across all 15 national markets.
- Partnership on equal terms: KPS took responsibility for the S/4HANA implementation and was also actively committed to the overall success of the project — supported by transparent project management using agile tools such as JIRA.
The solution
Clean Core in the private cloud
The technological foundation is an SAP Cloud ERP Private (RISE with SAP) running on a Google Managed Cloud (GMC) infrastructure. Thanks to the greenfield approach, the system was set up entirely in accordance with the ‘Clean Core’ principle.
Automation of Interfaces and Compliance
- Integration layer: The SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) acts as a central integration hub for the seamless connection of legacy retail systems.
- Tax compliance: The implementation of SAP Document Reporting Compliance (DRC) automates local, statutory reporting in all 15 countries directly from the standard system.
Process automation
AFI Invoice Verification (automated invoice processing) and Insightsoftware GLSU (bulk postings via Excel) were integrated to enable efficient bulk data processing.
The result
The business impact in figures
Thanks to the close, collaborative partnership on an equal footing between TEDi’s specialist departments and KPS, a precise ‘big bang’ go-live was achieved on 1 May 2026. The project delivers significant operational and strategic added value:
- Speed: Full roll-out across 15 country accounting systems and 25 companies in a total project duration of just around nine months.
- Standardisation: Over 5,400 cost centres were streamlined, restructured and fully migrated to standardised SAP best practices.
- Data quality: 70,000 historical documents were successfully migrated in an audit-proof manner and without any data loss — KPS was responsible for setting up the master data as part of the S/4HANA migration.
- Operational Excellence: A drastic reduction in manual effort in accounting through automated invoice verification and error-free bulk posting processes.
- Staff Empowerment: What was planned as a ‘train-the-trainer’ approach evolved into a comprehensive, multilingual end-user training programme covering 22 specialist areas — thereby ensuring immediate operational stability from the very first day of go-live.
Outlook
Following the completion of the three-month HyperCare phase in July 2026, the financial foundations have been laid. The platform is now ready for the next logical step: the seamless integration of future SAP Retail industry solutions.
In this project, KPS has demonstrated what true implementation expertise means. They did not merely provide consultancy; from day one, they took full responsibility for the ambitious timetable. Thanks to their clear focus on SAP best practices and their collaborative ‘one-team’ approach, we have successfully completed a highly complex, multi-country project entirely on schedule and to the highest standard.
About TEDi GmbH & Co. KG
TEDi is one of Europe’s leading non-food discounters. Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Dortmund – the name stands for ‘Top Euro Discount’ – the company has developed into a retail chain operating across Europe within the space of around two decades. In the 2024/25 financial year, TEDi achieved gross turnover in excess of 3 billion euros for the first time. The company offers a wide range of products in the household, home décor, stationery, personal care, toys and seasonal items sectors at consistently low prices.
- Industry: Non-food discounter (large-format discount retailer)
- Primary project location: Germany
- More about TEDi GmbH & Co. KG
