Culligan relies on Sage X3, Microsoft Azure and Inetum to support its transformation

This project is part of a global transformation program for the Group's information system, with a two-fold objective: to modernize the ERP base while moving to the cloud within an ambitious timeframe.

A world leader in transformation

Culligan France is one of the largest subsidiaries of the international Group, the world's historic leader in water treatment. Founded in 1936 in the United States, the Culligan Group is present in 90 countries with 7,000 employees, and offers its customers a wide range of products and solutions based on a long tradition of innovation.

Products range from water dispensers to softeners and purifiers. Historically, Culligan has placed particular emphasis on R&D, enabling it to constantly innovate and offer cutting-edge filtration and purification technologies.

Retain historical Sage X3 ERP and migrate to V12

Culligan France, a long-standing customer of Inetum's international ERP solution Sage X3 version 5 (at the end of its life), wanted to study the different solutions on the market adapted to service companies. After careful study, Culligan France confirmed its historic choice of Sage X3, by migrating to its latest version: version 12 perpetual, with half-yearly releases.

This decision was accompanied by a particularly ambitious schedule, with 10 months of project work between kick-off and go-live, and the integration of numerous interfaces to third-party applications.

Thanks to the strong commitment and expertise of the project team, made up of both Inetum and Culligan employees, this migration was completed on time and on budget, and within the expected functionalities.

Culligan chose Inetum to help it achieve its ambitious roadmap; an ERP X3 tailored to its business activities and highly integrated with the entire global IS was migrated in less than a year from kick-off to go-live.

An agile project in a complex context

This migration project was carried out in a demanding environment:

• Maintaining the existing solution in operational conditions during implementation;
• Integration and merger of several legal entities, requiring data reconciliation during the acceptance phase;
• High data volumes, requiring two data migration strategies:
  • assisted migration using the XTech Upgrade tool,
  • a classic approach for data outside the X3 perimeter in version V5;
• Need for a sufficiently agile move to the cloud to guarantee seamless integration into the overall IS.
• Inetum and Culligan teams in several countries.

A strong partnership, a co-constructed project

The target architecture for Sage X3 V12 was quickly oriented towards Microsoft Azure, enabling resources to be dynamically scaled to meet Culligan France's business needs. This approach offers a modern, proven and robust solution, capable of meeting current and future regulatory expectations (notably e-invoicing), as well as interfacing and application performance requirements.

The project was carried out jointly by Inetum and Culligan, with strong team commitment and cross-functional organization. This synergy resulted in the mobilization of over 170 people during the User Acceptance Test phases, spread over several countries.

Inetum Solutions' Sage Business Unit was able to demonstrate its agility in integrating the strong go-live constraint, while ensuring the robustness of the architecture choices and the performance of the solutions deployed.

The French and Group management teams, who regularly took part in the steering committees, were able to observe the productivity gains and stability of the solution under steady-state conditions.

The final solution will benefit from a dedicated TMA system, for optimized day-to-day operation.

Contact : Lionel Trigo