An SAP Commerce Project in the Chemical Industry as Personal Success Story

Dr. Maximilian John, SAP Commerce Solution Architect at valantic, gives us exciting insights into his personal success story, his first project and his role as Technical Lead.

Hello Maximilian, what do you do at valantic?

I have been part of the SAP Commerce team at valantic CEC since 2019. In my projects, I design and develop e-commerce solutions in the SAP Commerce Framework (formerly Hybris). In addition, I am involved in the development of interfaces within SAP Cloud Platform Integration (CPI). This means in particular the integration of SAP Commerce systems into related third-party systems such as SAP ERP, SAP C4C, etc.

What does one of your projects actually look like?

Our customer, a well-known group in the chemical industry, is represented on the market globally with independent organizations. We have developed a so-called “Global Core” – this is almost a global template, which is gradually being rolled out in several countries and adapted to the special features there. At the same time, the features of the Global Core are being developed continuously so that even countries that have already been rolled out can benefit from it. This project is also very interesting in terms of integration. There are currently very strongly intermeshed integrations into several ERP systems, which are constantly being improved and expanded. This ensures that manual processes are automated, and the user experience is improved, not only for end customers, but also for product and content managers.  

What was your personal challenge on this project?

In this project, I took on the role of Technical Lead. My predecessor was very highly esteemed by our customers, so my first challenge was to demonstrate my expertise and gain the customer’s trust. The second major challenge was that the project was at a (technical) crossroads when I came on board. The system previously used for price and order management was to be replaced with a new, more modern technology on a large scale. This was an exciting situation, especially because we had been live for quite some time and the old system was to be replaced without compromising the user experience. After several workshops and in close cooperation with the customer’s ERP team, we built a proof of concept (PoC) that replaced the old price and order management. The main goal was to optimize system performance without losing any features. After the continuous expansion of the PoC, we were able to celebrate the first successful go-live and will now gradually replace the old system in all countries.

How large is the project team and precisely what is your role on it?

Currently, there are four developers and one project manager on this project. As Technical Lead, I focus on the technical design of customer requirements and am responsible for their smooth implementation. Communication is important for both tasks: I have to engage in intensive dialog with various stakeholders at the customer and work closely with the developers to implement the concepts. After all, the overall technical quality of the project is my responsibility.

What are you especially proud of?

I am proud that I was named Technical Lead on this project so early in my consulting career – and that I was able to successfully repay that trust.