Data Excellence with Hyperautomation at Brenntag

The Brenntag Group is a world market leader in full-line chemical and ingredient distribution. Brenntag North America introduced a virtual assistant for the creation of new products in the SAP MDG master data system as part of a larger MDM transformation initiative with a focus on North America.

Optimizing Master Data Management 

The virtual assistant created a standardized, digital process for product creation in the leading master data system. This applies to more than 5,000 product requests that were made annually by the business and processed by SAP experts (data stewards). 

Addressing key challenges  

Prior to implementing the virtual assistant, Brenntag encountered several obstacles in their product creation process, including: 

• Decentralized inquiries leading to inconsistencies 
• Lack of standardization in incoming product requests 
• Delays in product creation 
• Data redundancy in master data due to duplicate product creation 
• Initial errors in product data entry 
• Difficulty in generating consistent reports on product requests 
• Limited potential exploitation of the master data governance workflow 
• High employee workload for data stewards. 

A Standardized and Streamlined Approach 

The virtual assistant collects and standardizes all relevant product information to guarantee high data quality for further processing. The implementation of the virtual assistant enabled the creation process to be channeled, digitized, and standardized. As a result, nearly 500 business users can centrally perform a guided product creation via a Microsoft Teams integration. Several scenarios for product requests are integrated into the backend of the virtual assistant to support users for each product type.