FFF Group

Filzfabrik Fulda GmbH & Co KG – a traditional company for technical textiles – relies on a long-standing, reliable partnership with Manage Now. Together, a stable IT infrastructure has been established that meets economic conditions as well as the high demands for operational reliability. Instead of radical transformation, the focus from the outset was on a sustainable, continuous path – driven by trust, technical expertise, and a shared understanding of stability and future viability.

Challenges

The FFF Group – including Wirth Fulda GmbH – is an internationally active manufacturer in the field of technical felts, faced with complex production and supply chains. At the same time, like many mid-sized industrial companies, it is under significant economic pressure. Instead of relying on disruptive IT renewal, the management deliberately focuses on value preservation and reliability:

• SAP ERP (ECC 6.0) is not replaced by S/4HANA
• The operation of historically evolved IT systems (some over ten years old) is to be continued as far as possible without structural changes
• Investments in new architectures are only desired in exceptional cases

In this environment, the task was to ensure the reliable operation of the entire system landscape – including archiving, network, and security components – while simultaneously migrating to the modern hosting environment of the Managed Sovereign Cloud. The challenge lay less in technological innovation than in the ability to operate evolved structures sustainably and economically over the long term – with minimal risk and high stability.

Solution

Manage Now developed a viable service concept for the FFF Group that combines the technical realities of the existing environment with economic conditions. At the center of this was the careful and gradual migration of existing systems into Manage Now’scentral ServiceHub. At the core of the solution is the stable operation of the following services as managed services:

• Managed File & Print Services –including secure printand document access across all locations
• Managed Microsoft Exchange & Active Directory (AD) –stable emailand authentication structures
• Managed Citrix & Netscaler–central provision of productive applications
• Managed Network & Security –network operations with a security architecture in line with current
  standards
• Managed Saperion –audit-proof document archiving system
• Managed Seeburger EDI –electronic data interchange with business partners
• Managed SAP ERP (ECC6.0) –complete three-tier system landscape (DEV/QAS/PRD)

Support is provided via Manage Now’s central ServiceHub. In addition, Manage Now ensures SAP licensing and maintenance through a PMC contract, so that the customer isfully coveredat this level as well. The migration of the systems into the ServiceHub took place in several stages over a period of more than two years. Due to the conservative IT strategy and the resulting prioritization, the FFF Group was deliberately given the necessary flexibility to carry out migrations at its own pace. The final step is currently being completed with the last migration of the EDI system. All other services are already running fully in Manage Now’s hosting operation.

The most important results at a glance

The partnership-based collaboration made it possible to operate even an IT landscape that had grown over
many years and was technically heterogeneous reliably and economically sustainably–without forcing the
customer into technical modernization.

Stable IT operations with full economic room for maneuver
FFF Group can rely on functioning systems without having to invest in cost-intensive technology projects.

Successful migration ofexisting systems to the ServiceHub–without interruption
Productive operations were not impaired at anytime –not even for legacys ystems such as SAP ECC 6.0.

Strong operational partnershipand a high degree of service continuity
Operations are carried out in close coordination between Manage Now’s Customer Success Management and FFF Group’s internal teams.

Future-proof hosting environment despite outdated software versions
The ServiceHub ensures the secure and high-performance operation of even historically evolved systems