Hypergene helps SSAB get stuff done: “Not even using all the features yet” 

SSAB is a huge player in the global steel market. Headquartered in Stockholm, it has over 15,000 employees worldwide. The organization utilizes both Hypergene Planning and Hypergene Portfolios.  

In Portfolios, SSAB has processed thousands of projects across its different divisions since implementation – ranging from highly complex investment processes, down to the most basic projects. On average, there are hundreds of data points per project; handling this information manually would take a massive amount of time and resources. 

“Before Hypergene, we used Excel for our portfolio management... Many, many Excel documents, in many different places. It increased the risk of mistakes”, says Kati Manninen, Development Manager at SSAB Europe. 

The purpose of implementing Hypergene, beginning in 2017, was to get rid of those mistakes. With a flexible platform in the cloud, it is much easier to get the right information to the right people, at the right time – something that is difficult and takes a lot of work for teams that use spreadsheets and locally-saved documents. Now, everyone in the team, from line workers to top management, can quickly and easily get an overview of the project and any key metrics they need. 

Additional features play a big part

Projects can involve teams and facilities that are spread out geographically. Some teams might even use different currencies. For them, currency conversion in Hypergene is a welcome feature: all projects can report in their own currency if they need to, which streamlines their day-to-day work and reporting. 

Visualizing dependencies between projects is another feature that teams at SSAB use often, for example between projects and risks, risks and software, or software and services. 

“We try to tailor the system to customer needs – that is our main focus. We don’t activate features unless there is a clear need. That means, even though we are a huge company, there are still features in Portfolios that we’re not using yet – the system is that powerful”, says Kati Manninen. 

Hypergene Portfolios is now a key tool for SSAB. It has improved data management and information flows, reduced manual labor and mistakes, and elevated decision-making across the organization. But the biggest thing for everyone is getting an overview of all projects, at different levels – that is invaluable. 

“Our next step is to get started on resource and capacity planning. Implementing these features will be a big task for us, but one that we are sure will provide great benefits long into the future”, says Kati Manninen.