Stern GmbH & Co. KG

Companies, processes, logistics—fully digital, fully under control

Successful digitalization with Comarch ERP. The result: More efficiency and performance, less complexity

At STERN, a fast-growing company trading in stylish garden furniture, MAIT was able to impress with its sleeves-up mindset, its vast expertise, and its strong people skills. With Comarch ERP and numerous other software solutions, some of them customized, the project team succeeded in putting STERN's entire corporate management, including its closely interlinked logistics, on a new digital footing in record time.

For over 75 years, STERN GmbH & Co. KG from Affalterbach near Stuttgart in Germany has been enhancing the outdoor lives of its customers. More than 100 employees work towards this goal, dedicating themselves passionately to developing and selling selected garden furniture. The company closely follows every step its products take, from the initial design to mass production and presentation to its almost 1,000 retail partners throughout Europe.

For the highly complex business processes in its international operations, STERN naturally needs an efficient planning and management tool. Although the company already had such a tool, the business was continuously growing and logistics processes in particular were becoming increasingly complex and needed to be faster and more precise. In short: The time had come for a new, more powerful ERP system. Added to this, the solution they had been using up until then was no longer supported.

MAIT Germany – Customer Success Story – Stern GmbH & Co. KG

Sector Production and commerce

Region Baden-Wuerttemberg, southern Germany

Company size 100 employees

Search and selection

Ralf Lutz and Björn Blucha from STERN formed the newly created "ERP Task Force" and launched a tender to find suitable software and providers. Despite several other alternatives being available, they quickly settled on MAIT and Comarch ERP. Project Manager Ralf Lutz explains why it was such a good fit right from the start: "The two MAITs impressed us right from the word go. Proactive, full of ideas—just what we were looking for," says Lutz. The two "MAITs" were Marija Raiber from MAIT and Ernst Mürnseer, an external Comarch specialist who supports MAIT with the ERP cosmos whenever necessary. And of course the Comarch ERP software was also convincing. The retail solution has already won several awards as ERP system of the year. And for good reason: Comarch ERP enables retail companies to digitalize their logistics processes across the board and make themselves fit for the future. What's more, MAIT has enjoyed a close partnership with the global software company Comarch for over 20 years. Another big plus. The contract was signed in December 2021 and the MAIT team led by Marija Raiber and Ernst Mürnseer took up its work in January 2022. After just ten months, the new Comarch ERP system was up and running in the company. An absolute record! Especially as a lot of things happened during this time.

"MAIT impressed us right from the word go. Proactive, full of ideas—just what we were looking for."

Ralf Lutz

Project Manager, Stern GmbH & Co. KG

The first steps: Stock-take and training

After putting together all the requirements agreed in the specifications, the MAIT team immediately began training the future key users on how to use the Comarch ERP standard system. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, MAIT was offering its customers a flexible mix of on-site workshop modules and virtual events using Microsoft Teams and the like. The customer selected key users with previous knowledge from various sectors of the company as participants, for instance from Warehouse Logistics, Accounting, Sales, and Procurement. The MAIT experts then incorporated the results of these workshops into the detailed planning for the customized future ERP system. "This enables us to ensure that the customer's individual processes and the requirements of the future users are reflected in the system we create," says Marija Raiber. "What particularly pleased us was that all the STERN people in the project team were really eager to actively help shape the future process landscape right from the start," Ernst Mürnseer adds. Not something that can be taken for granted, as any change in a company, its processes, and routines can sometimes be met with opposition, as Mürnseer knows only too well.

Roll-out: Comarch ERP and a whole lot more

Once the path was paved, everything was set for the solution to be put into practice: As part of the customizing process, the joint project team explored the possibilities offered by the Comarch ERP software and defined the features to be included in the tool. It quickly became clear that the functional scope of the standard software needed to be expanded to adapt it even better to STERN's specific requirements. Not a problem for MAIT: In around 100 days of development time, the software professionals programmed the required software components and interfaces. Other service components included "MAIT Mobile Warehouse Logistics", in-house sales, handling postponed deliveries—for example due to container delays—and route planning for delivering products to retail partners.

MAIT also rolled out the business intelligence solution QLIK. In QLIK, clear dashboards give users—wherever they may be—a permanent overview of all important company data from sales, purchasing, finance and warehousing, allowing them to analyze the data and make informed decisions on this basis. MAIT also connected numerous freight carriers such as GLS and Dachser using V-LOG Multicarrier shipping software and automated labeling to a large extent. Although STERN also carried on using the original document management system (DMS) after the refresh, MAIT ensured a seamless connection to the new ERP solution. In addition, MAIT provided support on site: The team linked up the factory outlet and even helped to install the HP POS system and integrate the telephone system. STERN uses the MAIT.CLOUD to operate its Comarch ERP solution. This saves STERN space and resources in terms of installing and maintaining computing capacity. Even once all these modules had been put together, there was barely any time for the team to catch their breath. Because this was when the meticulously planned and rigorous test program kicked off, something that all key users were required to undergo on an ongoing basis. The next step was to plan going live. During this process, the developers for example defined what was to be transferred from the old system and when the last inventory would take place before the new system was launched.

And come the end? It all happened very quickly: The factory outlet went live first, followed by Sales and Procurement three days later and then Shipping a day after that. And it all went off without a hitch.

The result: fast, simple, and scalable

From procurement to shipping, MAIT successfully digitalized the logistics processes at STERN with the help of Comarch ERP and numerous customized programming elements. The result: more efficiency and performance, less complexity, and a system that can be scaled as required.

"The roll-out of the new software was outstanding. MAIT lived up to our expectations and in some cases even far exceeded them. And it was a great fit from a people perspective as well," says Björn Blucha from STERN.

So where do they stand today? Today, everyone involved is getting on very well with the ERP system and the warehouse logistics, even if they don't normally have much to do with the subject. That's probably the only true definition of
"user-friendly".