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Case Study: Manufacturing

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Corestruc is a specialist in the production of pre-cast concrete structures, which are essential for modern building projects. At its headquarters, the company relies on digital document processing supported by a powerful DMS.

Corestruc is the flagship company of a conglomerate that includes eleven individual companies and 250 employees. All are active in the concrete, real estate and agricultural industries in South Africa and neighboring countries. Corestruc designs and manufactures pre-cast concrete structures that are used in public infrastructure and the private construction sector. A digital document management system helps coordinate all these corporate threads from their headquarters in Polokwane, located northeast of Johannesburg.

A constant battle with paper-based administration used to be part of their everyday at Corestruc‘s Polokwane headquarters – it was always a big challenge due to the geographical distribution of its subsidiaries. Since the decentralized employees only travelled to Polokwane on average once a month and then took the documents received locally with them, it would take them four weeks on average to process incoming A/P invoices. Although urgent documents were sometimes scanned in advance and forwarded by email, this almost always led to a loss of control later on, since it was often unclear if the copy of the invoice had been processed or not. The department would generally fall back on the paper-based variant and its long processing times.

Country:
South Africa
Industry:
Manufacturing
Department:
Quality Management |Administration
Deployment:
On-Premises
Integration:
Sage

DocuWare makes accessing documents from any location extremely simple. Since a large portion of our administrative data is derived from different documents, it means that our figures are more up-to-date. This in turn allows us to make faster and better decisions. Based on our positive experience, we will continue to expand the use of our DMS.

Tian de Jager
Administrative Manager, Corestruc, Polokwane (South Africa)

There were other challenges when a document was then filed away at their headquarters. Subsidiaries were dependent on their colleagues in Polokwane to look through the documents to answer an inquiry. Documents had to be retrieved, copied and sent out – again and again.

When the company began looking at a new ERP system, the time was right to research a compatible DMS solution, so that they could significantly speed up their administrative processes. Besides the simplicity of the software, a key factor for picking DocuWare was the local support provided by their Authorized DocuWare Partner.

Availability from anywhere, in real time

The DocuWare deployment began with the processing of incoming A/P invoices. First, an order document is created from their ERP software, Sage Evolution, which is transferred directly to the digital file cabinet along with all relevant index data. The incoming supplier invoice is then scanned by the subsidiary and ends up in the digital mailbox of the central accounting department in Polokwane. There the document is linked to the order number via electronic stamp.

A payment authorization workflow is then launched. Documents are distributed to various divisional managers, no matter where they are located, with the help of digital task lists. Until final payment is made, the DMS controls the entire process and synchronizes all data with Sage. In this way, authorized employees can check the status of invoices at any time via the ERP system and can follow up if necessary.

Quality Assurance even goes one step further. Due to extensive legal documentation requirements, Corestruc must be able to prove at any time in which buildings a certain element was installed. To make it easier to comply with these obligations, the smartphones of the mobile installation teams are equipped with the DocuWare app. Documents are scanned or countersigned directly on site and are then available to all other authorized colleagues in real time - regardless of their location.

Fewer Costs, More Opportunities

Corestruc is benefiting from digitization, especially on the cost side. Their DocuWare DMS not only significantly reduces processing times, but also improves the flow of information between administration and subsidiaries. As a result, only a fraction of the time is now spent between receipt of invoice and payment. Thanks to access from anywhere, documents are available to all authorized employees without losing any time. This also has positive effects on the sales side: If individual teams communicate with each other more quickly, for example, when RFPs are issued, an offer can be sent to a customer much quicker. And the earlier an offer is received, the higher the success rate! Based on their positive experience, the company plans to use DocuWare in human resources as well.

In the past, we had to send documents back and forth between HQ administration, our subsidiaries and teams working at various sites. It's so much easier today. Thanks to a central document pool, every authorized user can access important information.
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