CEWE: Unlocking new markets and increasing capacity for seasonal sales peaks
Explore CEWE’s journey with SAP
When CEWE acquired WhiteWall, it needed to get a new IT landscape up and running in time for the seasonal sales peak. By harnessing cloud technologies from SAP and adopting best-practice business processes, CEWE and WhiteWall built a highly standardized, efficient platform that meets the business’ order-to-cash, procurement, and finance needs.
7
x
increase in order processing capacity.
50
%
reduction in manual payment processing time.
52
x
faster inventory preparation process.
Dzifa Buati
Program Lead
CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA
The Challenge
Integrating a strategic acquisition to boost product innovation and unlock new markets
As one of Europe’s leading photo service providers, CEWE helps customers turn their photos into a wide range of high-quality products, from personalized photo books to greetings cards, calendars, and mobile phone cases. CEWE spotted an opportunity to expand into a new market by acquiring WhiteWall, a company that supports professional photographers with gallery-quality photo printing and framing services across both Europe and North America.
Prior to its acquisition by CEWE, WhiteWall’s order processing capabilities were limited by its existing systems, which prevented the company from taking full advantage of seasonal sales periods, such as the winter holidays. To integrate the new business unit into its group, CEWE had to find a way to separate WhiteWall’s core systems from its former parent company and get a new IT landscape up and running in a matter of months.
The Solution
Enabling rapid business integration and alignment with group-wide standards
To realize its goals, CEWE used SAP S/4HANA Cloud to launch a new IT platform in time for the Christmas season – a deadline of six months. Working with All for One Group and the SAP Preferred Success service, CEWE and WhiteWall were able to separate core systems from WhiteWall’s former parent company and implement SAP S/4HANA Cloud without impacting the business.
Through API integration with WhiteWall’s online stores and production systems, as well as third-party solutions for local requirements, the company standardized payment processes to simplify accounting and accelerate financial closing processes. By adopting best-practice processes supported by the SAP Activate methodology, WhiteWall reduced manual work, enabling the business to focus on its customers.
Alexander Nieswandt
Founder
WhiteWall Media GmbH
The Result
Increasing capacity for seasonal sales peaks with streamlined order-to-cash processes
Today, SAP S/4HANA Cloud helps the company automate and accelerate the order-to-cash process. From the moment a customer places an order on one of WhiteWall’s online stores, the software processes the sales order, starts the production, and manages payments from PayPal and other payment providers. SAP S/4HANA Cloud also handles delivery, creates all the relevant delivery documents and invoices, and sends them back to the online store to share with the customer.
The whole process requires minimal manual intervention and has increased WhiteWall’s order processing capacity significantly, which should help increase sales during seasonal peaks.
SAP helps CEWE run better
Key business outcomes and benefits
- Delivered on time and below budget, despite the COVID-19 pandemic
- Improved auditability, helping WhiteWall align with CEWE group standards
- Reduced time taken to produce financial statements from several months to just three weeks
- Increased efficiency in order-to-cash and procurement processes
- Automated intercompany processes between WhiteWall’s European and U.S. subsidiaries
Featured solutions and services
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud is a complete ERP system that provides core order-to-cash, procurement, and finance processes and a platform for integration with WhiteWall’s online stores, production system, and third-party applications.
- SAP Preferred Success is a subscription-based customer success offering that helped CEWE and WhiteWall successfully adopt SAP S/4HANA Cloud through insight-driven recommendations, functional learning, change management, and support to optimize the value of the cloud solution.
- SAP Activate is an innovation adoption process that provided structured, solution-specific practices to help the business accelerate deployment and align with industry-tested best practices.
About CEWE
CEWE, one of Europe’s leading photo service providers, helps customers turn their photos into a wide range of high-quality products, from personalized photo books to greeting cards, calendars, and mobile phone cases.
| Industry | Region | Company Size | Partner |
| Consumer products | Oldenburg, Germany | 4,000 employees | All for One Group |
Featured partner
All for One Group supports over 3,000 customers in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Poland in transforming their companies and strengthening their competitiveness.
About CEWE
CEWE, one of Europe’s leading photo service providers, helps customers turn their photos into a wide range of high-quality products, from personalized photo books to greeting cards, calendars, and mobile phone cases.
| Industry | Region | Company Size | Partner |
| Consumer products | Oldenburg, Germany | 4,000 employees | All for One Group |
Featured partner
All for One Group supports over 3,000 customers in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Poland in transforming their companies and strengthening their competitiveness.