Migration to SAP Delivered on time
How Antalis successfully managed a seamless ERP transition with parallel environments
Antalis is part of KPP Group Holdings Co., Ltd., a leading global distributor of paper, packaging products, and visual communication services, generating approximately €4.3 billion in revenue in 2023.
Key takeaways
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Antalis ran old and new systems side by side, allowing gradual rollout, continuous validation, and no interruption to daily operations.
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Building on Netlang and cloud-based integrations allowed phased migration and smooth adaptation—even when the data center strategy changed mid-project.
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By moving to a dedicated EDI Flow solution, Antalis gained end-to-end visibility across complex document exchanges, making it easier to track orders, handle multiple standards, and quickly detect and resolve errors.
Background
Headquartered in Paris, Antalis is Europe’s leading B2B distributor of paper and industrial packaging products and services, and a strong player in visual communication media. Operating across 32 countries, the company serves more than 100,000 customers through 84 distribution centers, supported by 4,100 employees worldwide.
With a broad international presence, Antalis leverages insights and proven concepts across markets, adapting successful initiatives from one region to another. This approach reduces redundant projects and enables faster response to evolving customer needs.
On ERP migration
For organizations at Antalis’ scale, upgrading or replacing an ERP system is a major undertaking. ERP migrations are often delayed, over budget, or disruptive to operations, making the transition strategy critical.
Businesses typically choose between three approaches:
The Big Bang:
The entire system is replaced at a single, planned moment, like flipping a switch. While often the cheapest option, it carries significant operational risks. A failed switch can cause costly delays or even halt operations entirely. End users must also complete training on the new system before it can go live.
Rolling Release:
Modules of the system are moved into production one at a time, sometimes even on a site-by-site basis. This approach requires careful planning, as modules are often interdependent. For example, invoicing depends on there being orders in the system. The benefit is that each module can be tested and validated before fully replacing the old system.
Parallel Release:
The new system runs alongside the old, with all data managed in both environments during the transition. This allows thorough testing and validation of both systems, making sure that data is handled in a consistent manner. While the safest approach, it is also traditionally the most resource-intensive and costly.
The Move to SAP
For their transition to SAP, Antalis chose the parallel approach.
As their legacy ERP was already running integrations through the Netlang platform, these served as a foundation for the new SAP integrations. The new integrations were developed in an isolated environment, allowing production workflows to be ported gradually without disrupting day-to-day operations.
Some functionality could not be fully replaced by SAP. Antalis has complex EDI (electronic data interchange) requirements and therefore transitioned to our EDI Flow module as part of the migration.
What I appreciate most is the
overall visibility. I can easily see where each document is in the process and immediately spot if something has gone into error.
Siw, Antalis
As a B2B organization, Antalis manages EDI exchanges across customers using different standards, with documents often passing through multiple systems. This can result in limited transparency across individual integrations. With the new EDI strategy, teams now have clearer visibility into document flows, can track order progress, and quickly identify errors.
Results and Outcomes
Not without its challenges, midway through the migration, the target data center strategy changed. From an initial plan in Sweden to a new setup in France.
Because the integrations run in the cloud through Netlang, this transition could be handled in a phased manner: some integrations operated from one data center while others ran from the new location, allowing both environments to operate in parallel until the move was complete.
Vendor support is often cited as a key success factor in ERP implementations. In this case, our close collaboration with Antalis helped address technical challenges, including the development of helper solutions to assist conversion. However, the primary contributor to the project’s success was Antalis’ structured testing, careful migration planning, and thorough validation of workflows.
Today, Antalis has fully migrated from their previous ERP and runs SAP in production. The project was delivered on time and without major disruption, an outcome that is uncommon for IT initiatives of this scale.
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