How the City of Antwerp is transforming its financial systems

At the end of December 2023, the City of Antwerp’s then Mayor, Bart De Wever, and Alderman of Finance Koen Kennis gathered the press at the Schoon Verdiep – a renowned floor of Antwerp City Hall – to announce a landmark achievement: the city’s historical debt had been paid off. "And we want to keep it that way," said Kennis. To safeguard the city’s financial future, its governors are taking steps to modernize the back office, focusing on security, standardization, simplification, and a touch of innovation. 

The announcement marked the first significant milestone on a journey that began in 2022, when the City of Antwerp realized it needed to address challenges related to project spending, budgeting and data management. The city government’s financial back office was running on a 13-year-old SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) software system. The old system was not a limitation in itself, but switching to a new one gave the organization an opportunity to reassess and optimize internal workflows, enhance collaboration between departments, and improve the integration of financial data across systems. To move forward, the city asked EY Consulting BV to look at how financial tasks were being handled and recommend practical ways to improve them.

A cyberattack targeting Antwerp's municipal services in late 2022 acted as a wake-up call, supporting the city’s commitment to overhaul its financial systems. "Security comes first," explains Pieter Dielis, Antwerp’s Financial Director. The attack underscored the necessity for transformation.

The city needed modern systems and infrastructure (network, security, security processes, …) to protect its finances and secure its future. Starting at the source.

An analysis study, conducted by Davy Van Ingelgem, Partner, EY Consulting BV, identified a central challenge: While foundational operations were in place, streamlining workflows and improving data collection offered significant opportunities to strengthen the city’s financial administration. "Initially, we were engaged to draft a vision document to improve internal project reporting,” says Van Ingelgem. “It became clear that, in addition to renewing the system, we also needed to simplify and better align the financial processes, all while taking into account the specific requirements and workflows of each distinct entity.”

City governors concluded that an SAP S/4HANA® Cloud Private Edition implementation, focused on process standardization and simplification, was the best path forward. The shift to SAP S/4HANA® Cloud Private Edition license with the EY organization as the business integrator marked a major step towards future-proofing the city’s financial platform and strengthening its security measures. 

Once underway, the transformation project was divided into three phases: 

• City mobility, city municipality / social services and public education network  
• Police, fire department and cultural institutions (January 2026)
• Real estate projects and maintenance, Internal ICT provider (Q1 2027) 

By streamlining processes, improving security and aligning systems with the city’s unique structure, EY professionals are helping the City of Antwerp transform its financial back office. This transformation is not merely a technical upgrade. The recent implementation provides a secure technical foundation for Antwerp’s future systems and processes. While the groundwork has been laid, further development is needed to achieve all goals.

As Antwerp updates its financial systems, the city recognises that meaningful change doesn’t happen overnight. Adjusting to new tools and processes has brought both progress and challenges; for example, teams are still adapting to new reporting routines and learning how best to use the updated platform. While the benefits of newer technology are becoming clearer, there’s an honest acknowledgment that getting everything right will take time and ongoing teamwork. At this stage, efforts are focused on learning, making steady improvements, and laying a practical foundation for future growth. 

With the adoption of SAP S/4HANA®, Antwerp positioned its financial reporting and governance systems for greater flexibility and future enhancement. While some processes remain in transition, these foundational changes indicate a commitment to strengthen financial management and lay the groundwork for continued modernization and value-added functions over time.

Following governmental procedures, EY was selected as an external partner for this significant transformation. "EY has years of experience with large projects, both in the private sector and with government entities," explains Kennis. "Moreover, they’re a neutral player – helping us refine processes that had grown complex over time." 

The comprehensive process and workload analysis identified areas for improvement. Analysis revealed that a significant amount of employees in the financial services time was spent on time-consuming tasks, such as manual data entry and purchase order corrections. This highlighted a significant opportunity for the City of Antwerp’s leaders to reverse this trend – giving valuable time back to employees to focus more on strategic activities that would ultimately improve city services and enhance the overall quality of life for the citizens.

The purchasing process was “by far the most time consuming," explains Van Ingelgem. Meanwhile, employees were spending relatively little time on master data management, leading to “negative consequences for other processes” such as invoice processing. The new SAP system was set up to address these challenges head-on. In addition, the EY team’s account harmonization program improved data reconciliation, enhancing the quality and accuracy of financial data and providing better insights for financial decision-making. The core of this transformation is setting the baseline for future innovation by creating a more secure and interconnected platform and streamlining processes through centralization.

With enhanced processes and data-informed employees, the city is ensuring sustainable, cost-effective governance.

By introducing a more streamlined and standardised approach, and implementation of a simplified, standardized system within Antwerp’s finance department, the city is making concrete progress towards improving daily financial operations. These changes aim to simplify processes, reduce manual workloads, and lay a practical foundation for ongoing enhancements in efficiency, accuracy and financial decision-making within Antwerp’s finance department, the city is making concrete progress towards improving daily financial operations.

The migration to SAP S/4HANA® marks a strategic step forward, offering a centralized platform that enhances data integrity, strengthens security, and improves cross-departmental collaboration. This transitional phase offers an opportunity to refine internal processes and prepare for future enhancements, such as predictive analytics, which are not yet available but remain part of the long-term vision.

A realistic mindset is essential during major change and technical transformation. It’s important to acknowledge that end-users often experience a temporary increase in responsibilities and workload as part of the journey. This is a common phenomenon: when new systems and processes are introduced, organizations typically see an initial spike in manual efforts while teams adjust, and the technology is still being fine-tuned. However, with patience and perseverance, this adaptation phase becomes a stepping stone. It allows the new way of working to truly take hold, enabling teams to unlock long-term benefits, drive efficiency, and realize the full value that the transformation was designed to deliver.

The increased clarity and accessibility of financial data also strengthen collaboration between entities, ensuring alignment with Antwerp’s broader governance and policy objectives.

The integration also improved compliance, featuring improved security measures that allowed for adherence to regulatory requirements and mitigate the risk of data breaches. The migration to S/4HANA establishes a more secure and interconnected platform, which creates a solid baseline for future innovations and enables the finance team to gradually shift focus toward more value-added activities like financial planning and analysis. 

“As a municipal government, you are responsible for the funds and the heritage of the citizens,” explains Kennis. “We strive for sustainable and sound governance, taking cost efficiency into account. That is why we always aim for more efficiency."

While the transition to new systems has brought practical challenges and a period of adjustment to the surface for teams, these experiences are an important part of the City of Antwerp’s broader strategy. The ongoing expansion to include additional municipal entities and the IT department by January 2026 is designed not only to unify processes and strengthen collaboration, but also to ensure that the benefits and learnings from the initial rollout provide improvements across the organisation. This strategic expansion will support a more integrated, agile city administration; one that is better equipped to adapt, innovate and deliver value in the years ahead.

Looking ahead, future potential research can explore additional opportunities to leverage advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and SAP’s BTP AI engine, with the aim of further supporting decision-making processes and service delivery as the city continues on its path of innovation.

"Ultimately, our focus is to provide value to the City of Antwerp’s citizens," says Van Ingelgem. "This transformation is about building a city administration that’s more agile, secure and prepared for the future."