Sanitas Troesch

Projects to design and sell bathrooms and kitchens are complex and require a variety of different information in a range of formats. At Sanitas Troesch, this includes email correspondence, data and documents from the principal SAP® system, such as quotes or orders, as well as contracts and CAD drawings. Previously, this generated more than six million sheets of paper per year in the company’s bathroom sector alone. Thanks to the digital sales dossier for bathrooms, Sanitas Troesch has removed all paper from the process, eliminating the time and effort associated with filing and searching for information on paper, and with the added benefit of statutory, audit-compliant data storage for ten years.

Digital sales dossier saves three million sheets of paper per year

“Up to now, our paper consumption has been immense. In essence, you could say that two trees had to be chopped down each day to meet our paper requirements,” emphasized Hans-Peter Birneder, head of organization and IT at Sanitas Troesch. “On top of this, there was the manual effort needed to file all that paper. Extrapolated across all our sites, it amounted to four full-time positions just to do that. That time and money would be better spent on more productive tasks. Therefore, we came to the conclusion that this situation couldn’t continue and that we would need to digitize our information management system.”

The idea was very popular throughout the individual departments and particularly in the Biel branch, where employees were already using a predefined structure to store all information and documents digitally, including drawings and faxes, before the OpenText project began.

“We earmarked Biel to take part in our OpenText project pilot. In the first month alone, we saved 20,000 sheets of paper at this site,” added Birneder. The total potential savings amount to no less than 40,000 Swiss francs per year.

Digital searches and storage free up time for more important jobs

“There are obvious advantages to only dealing with digital information and having centralized access to information. Our sales team colleagues no longer need to take paper documents with them when they visit customers to discuss and draw up plans for fitting bathrooms in new housing developments, for instance. The digital sales dossier gives them direct access on the laptop to all the information they need from their SAP clients. This includes logistics information, delivery deadlines and photos of the merchandise,” emphasized Birneder.

In line with the principle that every document received or created must be immediately stored in the digital dossier in a legally compliant manner, office staff save emails and SAP documents to OpenText Extended ECM directly from interfaces and applications like SAP® GUI, Microsoft® Office and Outlook. Thanks to the seamless integration of the OpenText dossier with the principal SAP system, a predefined directory structure, known as Connected Workspaces, is set up automatically when an SAP object, such as a customer or an order, is created.

“This makes storage much simpler and quicker because users don’t have to leave the application they are working in. It is easy for anyone to find their way around the directory structure,” said Birneder.

On top of that, stored information is available at the push of a button. Depending on their authorization levels, colleagues in bathroom sales or even key account managers across different sites may have access.

Birneder explained: “This creates transparency, simplifies the arrangements for replacement staff and field sales work and optimizes management. And my colleagues can use the extra time they’ve gained to create value instead.”

A centralized platform ensures legally compliant storage and provides additional dossiers

Two more branches came on board with the project following the successful live operation of the digital sales dossier during the pilot phase. Subsequently, an average of two branches each month got involved.

“My colleagues can have full confidence that the information is always up-to-date. And the company can be sure that documents are being stored in a legally compliant manner for at least ten years and will remain accessible even when employees leave,” concluded Birneder.

“Users find it very easy to use the OpenText solution. The on-site, three-day training sessions were more than sufficient for employees to learn about the software and become accustomed with the new processes for storing documents,” said Birneder.

Feedback from the branches was so good that the kitchen and logistics sectors wanted to have their own digital dossiers as well.