Volkswagen Finance (China) Co., Ltd.

Improving contracts management

The company’s car finance contracts were received and stored in a file-based server, which was inefficient and lengthened the document processing cycle. The inconsistency of the file structure also made information retrieval and sharing a challenge, with employees spending a lot of time looking for information.

At the same time, VW FC’s host country, China, and its country of origin, Germany, imposed a number of regulatory compliance requirements. Documents had to be stored for seven years. Adding to the challenge, the regulatory required documents had to be scanned and then kept in paper form to support the electronic disbursement process.

As the company grew and the amount of stored data multiplied, VW FC needed a solution that would meet both its current and future needs.

“We were looking for a solution that could help us manage the rapidly growing data, while improving collaboration so that employee productivity could be maximized. Another key requirement we had was that the solution had to be able to meet the company’s future needs, since it was growing quickly,” said Dirk Heidebrecht, information manager, IT department, Volkswagen Finance (China) Co., Ltd.

Enabling a common view across the organization

VW FC implemented OpenText™ Content Suite to address its current challenges, meet future business needs and adhere to compliance regulations. Content Suite helps manage data with a host of features such as records management, archiving, search and eDiscovery to minimize organizational risk and cost, and maximize business insight and efficiency. This means that companies like VW FC can create business value from their data and content without compromising compliance and security requirements.

As part of the implementation, the team migrated large amounts of data from a file-based to web-based system integrated with Microsoft® Outlook® —within a small window of time. Content Suite also integrated with the company’s existing retail finance suite. This provides employees with a user-friendly interface as it allows documents to be dragged and dropped, and also eliminates the need to switch windows to display documents. The multilingual interface also meets the demands of the company.

Benefits were realized quickly following the implementation. All employees now have a common view of both documents and the tasks being carried out on them. Rights and roles are assigned to each employee based on their role within the organization and their respective teams, ensuring data security and regulatory compliance. Information retrieval is improved, with the time needed to locate a document reduced by 50 percent. This, together with the usability of the new system, reduced processing time by 40 percent and led to a five percent reduction in cost.

“A key advantage of the OpenText Content Suite solution was that it allowed us to migrate large numbers of files—within a short implementation window of 96 hours—despite the lack of consistency in the file structure. This ensured that we remained compliant to regulatory requirements and enabled us to adhere to an established set of configured information security rules,” Heidebrecht explained.

VW FC has also been able to streamline their internal processes to support the business. The new retail finance suite allows employees to scan and process documents swiftly. While this may slightly increase work in the first phase of the processing cycle, VW FC will be able to keep up with higher volumes of paperwork in the long term, once full electronic processing is implemented.

Future plans

VW FC is pleased with the results. It is looking to implement the solution in other parts of the Volkswagen business, both within and beyond China.

“Ultimately, we hope to achieve the benefits of the different business areas using the OpenText Content Suite solution as a standard document repository. The multilingual interface gives us the possibility to use one implementation and our self-developed modules in different countries,” concluded Heidebrecht.