Uhlmann Pac-Systeme – SAP Change Management with Conigma

As a globally leading provider of packaging solutions for the pharmaceutical industry, Uhlmann Pac-Systeme relies on stable, secure, and transparent IT processes. With an expanding SAP landscape involving around 30 entities, external partners, and diverse system environments, the company faced new challenges. The goal was to introduce a consistent end-to-end SAP change process, from internal SAP experts to external partners, regardless of their SAP expertise. Until then, approvals and documentation had been handled organizationally, without technical enforcement. This made it difficult to trace changes later, such as during audits. Uhlmann aimed to ensure transparency, traceability, and governance through automated, end-to-end implementation.

The Solution: Conigma CCM and Conigma Connect

After a thorough market analysis, the Uhlmann Group chose Conigma™ CCM and Conigma™ Connect. The Conigma™ CCM software from Galileo Group not only guides users systematically through all necessary steps of SAP software logistics but also enforces a binding four-eyes principle, ensuring no change is implemented without formal approval.

It was clear from the beginning: Jira, as the central ITSM system, would remain the primary tool for incidents and requests. Conigma™ Connect acts as the 'central hub in the network,' enabling tight, audit-compliant, bidirectional integration into the existing ITSM landscape. The implementation was completed within a few weeks, making it very cost-efficient. This enabled technically secure and consistent process control across all internal and external parties involved.

Whether in the parent company or during SAP rollouts at subsidiaries with numerous custom developments, the Conigma™ Suite reliably supports different target operating models. This transformed a previously manual approval process into an enforced standard with the four-eyes principle.

"With Conigma™, we’ve created a standard that works for everyone—from SAP veterans to juniors and all external partners."
— Helge Stührmann, Head of Business Applications at Uhlmann Pac-Systeme

The Approach: A Step-by-Step Rollout Across the Company

Uhlmann deliberately opted for a gradual rollout to build acceptance within the IT department. A tool-supported process change represents a noticeable shift in established work habits, especially for experienced SAP users. "It was important to us not just to introduce a new tool, but to bring people along on the journey," explains Lukas Bulla, SAP Basis Lead at Uhlmann Pac-Systeme.

Initially, the rollout began with a single SAP environment, followed three months later by the go-live of the two largest systems. In parallel, a soft introduction phase followed the principle of "can, not must," including weekly Q&A sessions and regular meetings to engage all stakeholders early. Only then was the new process gradually made mandatory across all areas, ensuring that transports could no longer be pushed through without approved changes.

Today, the direct link between Jira tickets and SAP transports ensures that change objects are automatically created, Customizing and Workbench transports are generated automatically, and all process steps are enforced "on the fly." Cross-system changes are also processed cleanly.

Uhlmann benefited directly from Galileo Group’s expertise and responsive personal support. “The extremely fast response times of the developers are particularly noteworthy. Changes and requests were often implemented successfully on the same day, which is far from standard among international software vendors,” says Lukas Bulla. “We were also able to leverage Galileo’s 20+ years of best-practice experience from other international corporations.”

Experience and Added Value in Daily Operations

The transition paid off: Uhlmann reports significantly reduced manual effort, higher system availability, and seamless documentation. Conigma™ proved especially valuable in major projects such as the S/4HANA migration or during the onboarding of a subsidiary within the Uhlmann Group.

“Thanks to Conigma™, we were able to deploy several hundred transports automatically during go-lives—something no one would have dared to do before,” says Lukas Bulla. Even skeptical voices quickly changed their tune: the automated overwrite checks ensured that outdated transports were properly identified and handled, reliably preventing potential system outages—a real 'lifesaver.'

The ability to perform simulations in advance gives teams additional confidence—“You can head into the weekend with peace of mind,” knowing that no production downtime is at risk.

Conclusion & Outlook

Today, Uhlmann uses the new change process across all SAP systems—except for the HCM system, which is currently excluded due to special organizational requirements. In this system, master data must be transferred from production back to development for testing purposes, which requires a specialized process. This final gap is expected to be closed within the year to ensure full end-to-end process continuity. Technically, this is not an issue with the Conigma™ Suite.

Looking ahead, Uhlmann considers itself well-positioned with Conigma™ to efficiently address future requirements. Potential expansions include test management solutions or BPMN process modeling. Thanks to its open architecture and flexible integration capabilities, Uhlmann remains future-ready and well-equipped to implement additional end-to-end processes along the IT toolchain.