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Case Study: Retail / Wholesale

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In 2014, the Colombian supermarket chain Megatiendas introduced DocuWare – only as a solution for document archiving. They have since expanded their use and today, it’s used to automate workflows. The Group receives and processes all invoices exclusively in a digital format as required by the Colombian Tax Office. As a result, throughput times could be significantly shortened and the company benefits from early payment discounts.

The origins of Megatiendas date back more than 30 years, when the founder started delivering to smaller stores. With the establishment of its first branch, a separate sales distribution system was developed to serve commercial customers such as hotels, restaurants and shops as well as private consumers. Today's supermarket chain evolved to match growing demand from consumers to buy in bulk and at lower prices. They now operate 27 stores in three administrative districts of Colombia with over 1,500 employees and reported sales of approx. USD 160 million in 2022.

Initially, their 10,000 plus monthly incoming invoices were digitized with DocuWare, but still routed in paper form. The accounting department forwarded the receipts to the relevant department and, once approved, they made the payment. However, due to the high volume of receipts invoices were not transmitted on time or were lost along the way. The process was no transparent and payment delays, cash discount losses and supplier problems were the result.

A new Columbian law made electronic invoices and so management took this opportunity to evaluate various document management systems. DocuWare was the best fit, especially in regards to its digital workflow capabilities. Just a few weeks before the pandemic hit in 2020, Megatiendas decided to expand DocuWare into a hybrid on-premises and cloud solution. Their Authorized DocuWare Partner was able to carry out the expansion completely remotely.

Country:
Columbia
Industry:
Retail / Wholesale
Department:
Administration |Accounting
Deployment:
Hybrid

Our productivity has gotten such a boost with DocuWare – our employees work more efficiently with DocuWare and can simply do more as a result.

Jorge Morales, Process Manager
Megatiendas, Cartagena de Indias, Columbia

Highly automated workflows

Today, Megatiendas receives all invoices electronically and in compliance with tax regulations. DocuWare recognizes the index information of the documents received by email and stores them together in the archive. The approval process then begins. With the help of digital task lists and stamps, the documents are forwarded by the accounting department to the responsible departments, where they are processed and ultimately paid.

Megatiendas has also set up 30 other workflows on its own. For example, DocuWare supports various processes in their HR and administrative areas, such as travel expense reporting and contract management, which also includes the use of electronic signatures. Supplier contracts are now only signed electronically, which is both practical and time-saving when the responsible manager is not in the office.

Increased efficiency and cost savings

A big advantage of this expanded use of DocuWare has been that employees in accounting and administration had the flexibility to work remotely, even during the pandemic. Since introducing digital workflows, all throughput times have been significantly shortened. Depending on the process, this results in instant benefits, such as cash discounts for timely payments.

All of their workflows have become much more transparent. Digital stamps make the whole process trackable. But the most important benefit is the big increase in overall productivity. Everyone is now completing more tasks within their normal working hours. Which means that Megatiendas has been able to keep personnel costs low despite strong growth.

Thanks to the system’s usability and training from our Partner, we are always able to handle the design of all our new digital workflows.
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