With a much lower total cost of ownership (TCO) for code than Secil’s previous platform and its compliance with construction security standards, Neptune Software was a natural choice for their digital transformation journey.

Adoption and training for Neptune DXP were seamless. Integration with SAP was also easy, especially since Secil developers had a deep knowledge of SAP applications and platforms. They were able to design an app in minutes and then roll it out in days.

HR pilot delivers early wins
Beginning with a pilot in its HR department, Secil launched a new vacation scheduling and approvals application. Doing so would ease its workforce, many of whom had limited experience with computers, into the new approach. It would also help prove the usability of the Neptune DXP–powered application.

In just two months, Secil built a simple, intuitive, no-training-required application, which was quickly rolled out to more than 1,000 employees, making it easy for them to request time off. As a result, vacation approval time quickly decreased from three weeks to three days, and the company eliminated the need to print over 7,500 documents each year.

Since it launched right before the first COVID-19 lockdown in Portugal, application adoption was much easier and faster than expected. The success led to the additional deployment of HR applications that managed overtime, absence management, and shift coverage. Combined, the new applications helped make it easier for employees to work from home while reducing the management capacity needed from two full-time equivalents (FTEs) to one.

Apps built with low-code simplify vendor management, improve quarry management
Next up, the team created a new procurement portal and digitized materials management, vendors, workflow approval, purchasing requisitions, invoice checking, and service approval processes.

Time savings were significant. Thanks to Neptune DXP, the newly built applications in place helped to decrease procurement purchase approval time from two weeks to two days. In addition, the new-vendor process decreased from three weeks to three days.

More teams began requesting applications to solve their business problems. Among them, self-service capabilities were created for truck drivers and quarry weight measurement, as well as offline app capabilities for remote quarry locations. With the ability to manage their own transports, transporters save considerable time. Secil was able to empower its IT department with no-code/low-code solutions from Neptune Software to meet the ever-growing demand from the business side while continuing to deliver substantial business results.

In just two months, the team also built an explosives-tracking application to ensure that quarry explosives met legal requirements, creating capabilities that freed up 1,500 hours of labor per year.

Successfully tackling the biggest project: The B2B Digital Hub
The largest project for Secil was creating a new B2B portal to improve customer and vendor relationships. Secil’s Digital Hub was built entirely with Neptune DXP, yet separate from SAP. The objectives: easy user management, seamless customer access to the portal, the ability to track key performance indicators, and the ability to customize processes as needed.

Today, the Digital Hub includes four portals, one of which empowers transporters to manage their own transports. By decreasing phone calls and optimizing transport routes, the portal reduced the time required to manage this process to 0.5 FTE.

Today, Secil has successfully put Neptune DXP to work to create unified customer experiences and mobile-friendly interfaces across all portals. The company has also seen a positive return on investment (ROI) across all Neptune Software projects making their digital transformation journey a success.

Specifically, the company has achieved enterprise acceleration with Neptune DXP, having built 17 enterprise applications to date across HR, procurement, quarries, commercial excellence, logistics, and accounting.

Today, customers can create and submit their own orders through Secil’s Digital Hub. Within three months of launch, 37% of current customers had migrated to the new hub. Impressively, sales orders increased by 27%, and sales volume increased by 53% compared with the old portal.

Self-service employee applications such as the vacation and time-off applications have empowered employees while streamlining key processes. Not only can employees bypass manager approval for time-off requests, but the HR team’s workload also was reduced by 0.5 FTE, increasing agility and freeing precious time.

With these documented successes, Secil plans to keep using and building with Neptune DXP in their digital transformation journey across all geographies, adding innovative new capabilities to help the company thrive, give employees, customers, and vendors modern convenience, and improve its ability to outpace the competition. That’s a combination built for success.

Secil was founded in 1918, operating a small natural cement plant that had been in service since 1904. In 1930 Secil underwent a major merger with Companhia Geral de Cal e Cimento. The merger shaped the existing group of almost 40 companies that currently operate in complementary areas. Although cement production remains Secil’s core activity, the company also integrates mining and the production of concrete, hydraulic lime, mortar, and coverings. The company has cement plants across eight countries and four continents, with an annual cement production capacity of more than 9.75 million tons. Today, Secil operates as a major player in the construction materials sector, with more than 2,600 employees and 100% Portuguese capital.

Industry Focus: Construction
System Version: SAP ERP
Number of Users: Over 1,000 internal with external customer access
Devices: Smartphone, Tablet and Desktop access
Timeline: Three months to meet digital transformation migration deadline