High level of acceptance of the lean solution for SAP by inPuncto
inPuncto was elected as a system partner within the scope of a SAP implementation project by German company from the agricultural sector
In the framework of Greenfield strategy for the introduction of SAP S/4HANA, our customer aimed at the optimizing and simplifying the purchase-to-pay processes in parallel with the complete new installation of the SAP system. For this purpose, all processes were to be considered and re-evaluated. After thorough system analysis and considering the standard capabilities of the S/4HANA to be implemented, it was decided to turn to a system partner who could implement his specific requirements and make the system customizations critical to its business.
It was required a lean solution for invoice processing that could find a high level of acceptance and yet also be applicable to other similar projects in the future, thus bringing additional benefits. The initial situation was the processing of credit-side invoices, which used to be entered manually into the SAP system at a central location and was very time-consuming. In the future, the capture processes were to be automated and the digital documents transferred to the SAP system in a structured form.
Cross-module and flexibly expandable add-ons
The customer was quickly convinced by the inPuncto SAP solution, as it offers very lean cross-module and flexibly expandable add-ons. The fast and simple implementation was also a great advantage. The introduction of the electronic invoice processing project in SAP to the parallel SAP/4HANA implementation project took place in two phases, which was the best fit.
In the first installation phase, the standard inPuncto software was implemented. This included scanning of paper invoices as well as OCR processing including order numbers and supplier recognition. The initial implementation phase took place within the accounting department and was able to go live very quickly, thanks to the software’s cross-functional usability. Due to the software components: Workflow management tool biz²DocumentControl, the scanner software biz²Scanner, incoming mail document processor biz²ScanServer and SAP archive system biz²ArchiveServer, a full automation was made possible, which already covered a large part of the processes to be optimized within the standard version of the inPuncto software.
Support of quality relevant processes
Approximately 15,000 invoices are coming annually, which are then scanned via a Twain-capable Mufug and transferred to SAP via the biz²Scanner. Electronic invoices are directly imported into SAP with the biz²ScanServer. Since the documents have a different structure, they are read out using freeform OCR/ICR text recognition technology, automatically matched with SAP master data and transferred to the inPuncto SAP workflow according to the respective invoice document type. In the second project phase, the customer-specific enhancements and requirements were implemented, which included the workflow connection of the specialist departments. The archiving of documents generated from SAP, such as outgoing invoices and good receipts, was also integrated into the project.
The parallel projects together with the SAP S/4HANA implementation project were very well coordinated, and the result was very successful: the increase in the degree of automation has significantly reduced the throughput times of the document-based processing procedures in SAP and freed up new capacities for the company to focus on its main tasks. Our customer is a traditional, medium-sized company and market leader in the field of crop production.
