Preh

Juergen Orf, head of SAP applications at Preh, explained, “We had no digital workflow process in place to handle our purchase order requests. With a mixture of physical paper and email, requests could stall and become stuck at various stages, causing lengthy delays. It was difficult to obtain an accurate status of a particular request and providing a transactional trail of approvals for audit was extremely difficult, too. We also had to rekey request details into SAP, another potential source for error or omission.”

Preh has been using SAP as its core platform for many years, so any new solution for processing purchase order requests needed to integrate seamlessly. Having used other OpenText solutions in its SAP environment, such as OpenText™ Vendor Invoice Management for SAP^® Solutions to automate supplier invoice processing and OpenText™ Archiving for SAP^® Solutions to improve SAP performance, Preh naturally turned to OpenText once again.

“Over the years we have built up a great relationship with OpenText, more of a partnership in fact, as we continue to digitize our processes. Past implementations have been successful and continue to deliver benefits. So with this in mind, we selected OpenText™ Business Center for SAP^® Solutions to meet our purchase order processing needs,” stated Michael Kamien, director, corporate IT at Preh.

To implement the solution, Preh involved key personnel to represent the business to ensure its needs were met. In addition to its own project management team, IT representatives and a technical manager, Preh engaged OpenText Professional Services throughout the design and implementation of Business Center for SAP Solutions.

“We adopted an agile project approach, which, thanks to the close cooperation between our team and Professional Services, was a complete success. Everyone worked together to face challenges head on, quickly dealing with changes and despite a very busy workload with many projects running in parallel, successfully delivered the project without any adverse impact on either internal or external relationships,” said Orf.

For users at all levels in the business, adopting the new solution was a seamless process. Although some required training and a little encouragement, now all users are saving time and can concentrate on their respective roles without having to chase order requests or track down misplaced paperwork.

“Although we didn’t formally measure the before and after performance, we instinctively know that Business Center for SAP Solutions has saved us a significant amount of time, perhaps in many cases halving the effort involved in purchase order requests. We no longer have to rekey data into SAP, which not only saves time but eliminates keying errors and with the process now electronic, paper has been eliminated. From the initial request through to review, approval and purchase order production, requests are now immediately reflected in SAP where a status can instantly be viewed at any time. Also, as every step is recorded, compliance and audit is also seamlessly taken care of,” explained Kamien.

With the first process successfully implemented and ensuring improved performance, accuracy, reporting and compliance, the business will drive demand for future projects using the solution for other document types. The team at Preh was able to learn the necessary skills from the Professional Services team to support the existing process and also to implement future processes. Today, users access the solution through the desktop SAP user interface, however, with its native support for SAP Fiori^®, the solution is well placed to provide mobile access.

“We know Business Center for SAP Solutions was the right choice for us and we feel good about the future and the strategic partnership that has developed between Preh and OpenText,” concluded Kamien.