Customer stories

Preh

Automotive manufacturer significantly reduces processing time to improve visibility, compliance and reporting with OpenText Vendor Invoice Management for SAP Solutions

Challenges

  • Improve purchase order request handling
  • Improve metrics around the before and after performance
  • Drive demand for future projects

Results

  • Reduced the time and effort to raise order confirmations

  • Improved the visibility of the status of purchase order requests

  • Eliminated manual data entry into SAP and the associated errors and delays

Story

Due to continued growth, Preh faced a number of challenges, one of which was handling purchase order requests for its expanding production facilities. Requests are often complex, with multiple contributors, reviewers and approvers. The process must handle the accompanying technical drawings, specifications and other attachments for everything from a hand tool to a complete production line.

Closeup of car and headlights

We know OpenText Vendor Invoice Management 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.

Michael Kamien
Director, Corporate IT, Preh GmbH

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™ 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™ Vendor Invoice Management for SAP® Solutions to meet our purchase order processing needs,” stated Michael Kamien, director, corporate IT at Preh.

We adopted an agile project approach, which, thanks to the close cooperation between our team and OpenText Professional Services, was a complete success.

Juergen Orf
Head of SAP Applications, Preh GmbH

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.

“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 Vendor Invoice Management 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 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 Vendor Invoice Management 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.

About Preh

Preh GmbH is a top global automotive supplier. As part of the Joyson Group, Preh is headquartered in Bad Neustadt, Germany and employs more than 7,800 staff worldwide in the development and manufacturing of human machine interface systems, electronic control units for e-mobility applications, navigation systems and infotainment, as well as connectivity solutions.

Learn more about Preh.