Autodesk + Celonis

The leading creator of 3D design software accelerated and enhanced their system transformation with Celonis, saving the team up to six weeks of project time. They are now using Celonis to continuously optimize process performance. 

Over 100 million people use Autodesk software to build the future. With more than 10,000 employees, $4B+ revenue, and a global reputation for excellence, Autodesk needed a system transformation partner that matched their ambition and achievements. In early 2020 they started working with Celonis. 

“Celonis was brought in to help us with our ERP transformation for three primary reasons,” recalls Ashraf Youssef, Senior IT Manager, Autodesk. “One was to understand our existing processes. The second reason was during the migration so that we wouldn't break anything… And the third reason was to ensure compliance or conformance to the to-be-designed processes after we got to the end-state ERP.” 

Celonis ensured migration compliance in a hybrid world 

Handling millions of orders a year, Autodesk lives in a ‘hybrid world’ where their two ERPs, SAP ECC and S/4HANA, run in conjunction. Total visibility throughout the migration was therefore essential. Any failure to maintain the data integrity of sales orders between the two systems during the migration would impact financial statements, and regulators and auditors could suspect the business was losing or modifying the data. That could lead to penalties, not to mention the negative reputational impact. 

How Celonis transformed Autodesk’s systems in three parts

Here’s how Celonis helped in all three stages of Autodesk’s system transformation. First, Celonis completed end-to-end mapping, creating total visibility to ensure no process was left behind. Second, Celonis carried out live data verification between the two systems, reconciling 120,000 sales order line items per month, at speed. Third, post-migration, the team leverages Celonis to monitor performance and continuously optimize processes. 

Autodesk saved up to six weeks during system migration

Youssef estimates implementing Celonis was twice as fast as using other solutions, significantly reducing project cycle time – saving the team around four to six weeks during their system migration. 

While using Celonis for reconciliation, Autodesk also caught 15 critical engineering defects in the connections between the old and new ERP systems. If those bugs had not been caught, they would have had a huge impact on the customer experience. Ashraf says, “Instead of it affecting our customers down the road, we were able to catch that up front.” 

Autodesk now drives business  performance with Celonis 

Any company wanting to turn system migration into business-wide transformation needs to ensure newly-migrated processes work as intended, while tracking their performance to get the best out of them. 

Youssef describes Celonis’ value here: “One of the really interesting analyses that has come out of Celonis is the benefit of this ERP transformation. We've spent a lot of time and a lot of effort migrating, [asking ourselves] ‘how has it affected key metrics like order cycle time, like clean order rate?’ It's been enlightening.”

Backed by the data Celonis provides, Youssef can set targets to improve performance and achieve true transformation. He sums up:

Celonis has freed up Autodesk’s team to focus on what they do best 

The Autodesk team has welcomed the new, more effective ways of working. “They're extremely happy because [Celonis] enables employees to do what people do best,” says Youssef. 

So far the team have looked at Order-to-Cash and Opportunity-to-Order. They want to expand to Lead-to-Opportunity next, and then IT Service Management. They also use Celonis to unearth opportunities for automation: “We've delivered over 200 automations, leading to tens of thousands of hours per year in labor savings.”

“The project team has given us a lot of kudos,” Youssef notes. Combine that backing with a commitment to doing things differently and Autodesk is clearly constructing the bright future it wants to see with the Execution Management System. “Celonis is not your typical process mining,” he sums up.

Looking to transform your organization? Check out how Celonis kickstarts system transformations with confidence.