At the Riegele specialty brewery in Augsburg, around 200,000 delivery slips and invoices are securely archived in DocuWare every year. The integration of the document management solution within SAP makes filing and retrieving documents especially quick and convenient. A workflow speeds up invoice approvals, helping the company profit from early payment discounts.
Industry:
Manufacturing / Distribution / Retail
Location:
Augsburg, Germany
Application Areas:
Purchasing, Accounting, Technology, Logistics, Shipping, Marketing, Management
Document Types:
Proposals/Estimates, Contracts, Delivery Slips, Purchase Orders, Invoices, Correspondence, Electronic Faxes, Email, Stickers/Receipts (for rental and returnable items), Electronic Data from SAP, Rental and Leasing Contracts
Retaining the traditions of a long-standing brewmaster but combining them with an open attitude towards progress and change – that’s been a proven recipe for success at Riegele. Based in Augsburg, Germany, Riegele is one of the oldest breweries in the world today and has been in family ownership since 1884. Beers brewed according to traditional production techniques are still at the core of their product assortment.
But this brewing family has also expanded into more modern craft beers with unusual flavors, which are becoming increasingly popular. The outstanding quality of all Riegele products is regularly rewarded with international awards. Mineral water from their own source along with lemonades and other specialty drinks round out their palette. All of their products are seeing increased sales from abroad.
Preserving the traditional and being open to the new – this is a principle that the company hasn’t only applied to its frothy specialties. Riegele also relies on transparent processes with modern information technology for the company’s central administration. Since the beginning of 2008, they have been using the DocuWare document management system. Initially, they wanted to contain the immense paper flood and reduce their costs for tamper-proof archiving of about 80,000 delivery slips and 12,500 incoming invoices which accumulated every year. In selecting the DMS, they looked closely at the best price/performance ratio, says Peter Baier, Chief Financial Officer at Riegele. "DocuWare is very easy to handle, so we can customize and expand the system ourselves." Another factor was the expertise and close proximity of their Authorized DocuWare Partner, who helped guide them through the process, according to Baier.
The company first began deploying the DMS in their Purchasing and Accounting departments. Today, around 50 employees work with DocuWare throughout the company. Any department involved in approving invoices is tied in. Multi-site access is possible from their nearby logistics center, which is integrated into the internal network via radio link. Their entire outside sales team is equipped with notebooks and thus able to access the system via the internet.
Since 2016, the certified Connect to SAP interface has provided a seamless integration of the document management system and their ERP solution. All outgoing invoices, reminders and payroll statements created in SAP are automatically archived and tagged in the central document pool. It’s simple to respond to inquiries: employees can now access all documents belonging to a customer from the digital archive without having to leave their familiar SAP setting. In total, the central document pool comprises around 840,000 mostly multi-page documents (as of early October 2016). The SAP integration was put in place through a consulting company that specializes in DocuWare/SAP integrations.
In 2008, an electronic file cabinet was set up to capture the approximately 300 delivery slips that are generated every day from the company’s beer deliveries. These documents are created with the Mowis mobile ERP system and sent to the SAP system via docking station at the end of each delivery tour, where they are then stored in the central document pool via the interface. "This allows us to determine immediately when and to what extent a driver has supplied a customer," explains Peter Baier. In the case of complaints, an employee can quickly check the relevant records on the screen and send them directly to the customer by email. At the same time, all delivery slips are stored in a manner that is tamper-free and legally compliant.
All incoming A/P invoices – about 50 per day – are now processed electronically at Riegele. Every new invoice is immediately barcoded, scanned and indexed in the mailroom. Then a workflow is launched. The invoices appear in the task list of the Purchasing staff. They look over the invoice, verify the contents, and use an electronic stamp to send them on to any other relevant departments. The department heads or person responsible for the invoice will then immediately see the invoices in their task lists. They can then cross-reference documents directly from the SAP system. Once an invoice has been verified, they can affix a stamp that authorizes an invoice for payment or a stamp that indicates there is an error, each triggering different steps in the workflow. Approved invoices are automatically sent to the Accounting department, where they are booked in SAP. The workflow ends with the "booked" stamp. The invoice is stored in the central document pool and can be called up at any time.
If an invoice is questioned, Accounting employees can conveniently access the document from SAP and immediately provide information about the current processing status. The company’s external accountants, who are given direct access to all invoices during their annual audit, are equally enthusiastic about the new system, reports CFO Baier: "Everything about this system ensures transparency and creates trust." It’s now impossible for an invoice to lie around unprocessed or disappear on someone‘s desk. Often, an invoice can even be released on the same day for payment. "We rarely lose out on early payment discounts now," says the company’s CFO.
Riegele employees are also very satisfied with the DMS, because it has made work easier and less tedious for them. The time and energy needed to file and retrieve documents has dropped dramatically. Within seconds, all documents regarding a customer are available on the screen. Questions can be answered in detail. This is something their outside sales team appreciates as well. They can call up information about their customers while on the go – even while working abroad – and prepare themselves better for meetings. Now that their paper archive has been completely dismantled, it has created room for new activities in the Augsburg brewery. After a renovation, the space that used to house tons of file cabinets is now a new profit center, a "Beer Academy" used for training purposes.
After eight years of gathering experience with their DMS, Peter Baier is particularly positive about the seamless integration of DocuWare into SAP, though he also sings the praises of the system’s reliability: "We have reaped huge benefits from our continued collaboration." For this reason, they plan on further expanding their DocuWare system. "We want to further streamline and optimize some workflows in our administration," says the CFO. A central archive for all rental and lease contracts and a workflow for master data entry will be their next projects.
"DocuWare is the perfect add-on for our SAP system, enhancing it with smart electronic document management."
Peter Baier, CFO, Riegele Brewery Augsburg
