ROTEX Heating Systems Case Study

• Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration

• Equipment & Machinery

• Discrete Manufacturing
• Procurement

• Inventory Management
• Process Control & Optimization

• Software Design & Engineering Services
• System Integration

ROTEX Heating Systems, a manufacturer of heating systems, was facing challenges with its invoice authorization process. The company was receiving approximately 150 incoming A/P invoices per day, which required four eyes to verify each invoice. This process was pushing the previous way of distributing invoices and gathering signatures via internal mail system to its limits. When employees were out sick or on vacation, the invoices would stack up their mailboxes, resulting in weeks, not days, for certain workflow steps. At the same time, central administration often lost track of where everything was. As a result, the company was rarely able to take advantage of early discount payments. Additionally, a lot of time was wasted searching for proposals, order confirmations or contracts, and documents needed for everyone`s daily work.

ROTEX Heating Systems is a manufacturer and provider of complete heating systems. The company is based in southwestern Germany (Güglingen) and has developed innovative products for generating, storing and distributing heat. The company's success lies in its commitment to innovation, having been developing leading edge solutions that meet the needs of the times and lead the way for new trends for more than four decades. To retain their competitive edge, ROTEX is not only innovating with its products; modern information technology has always been a part of this company’s strong internal organization. The company has 350 employees and operates internationally.

ROTEX Heating Systems introduced a document management system (DMS) to simplify and speed up internal administrative processes. The DMS solution was directly integrated with the SAP system without any additional programming. The integration in the Microsoft SharePoint company portal was also seamless and acts as the basis for their invoice authorization workflow. Various incoming documents – including proposals, order confirmations and contracts in addition to the incoming invoices – are scanned in a central mail room using a Develop ineo 220 multi-function unit and digitally forwarded to the appropriate staffers. Even incoming A/P invoices arriving via email are incorporated in the workflow. Incoming invoices are captured in SAP and automatically indexed and then archived in the central document pool. For invoice verification, an additional workflow was set up: as soon as an invoice is digitized, a new authorization process is immediately launched in SharePoint. The manager responsible for the affected cost center receives an email containing a link for the invoice, which is then opened for viewing via DocuWare.

• Employees were quickly up to speed with the new software and able to immediately recognize its advantages.
• All of their administrative processes are now much faster. An invoice can be authorized within minutes without anyone having to leave their desk.
• Even following up on open issues is much faster. Anyone working in Accounting or is responsible for a cost center or the controller – really anyone who has anything to do with an invoice – can quickly access the information that’s needed.

• The company is now regularly taking advantage of early payment discounts, without a problem.
• After one and a half years of using DocuWare, they already have more than 30,000 documents (most multi-page) in their electronic archive.
• Invoices are now only found in digital form at ROTEX. Next to paper, the company also saves lots of space. In the past, invoices alone filled 190 binders every year on their shelves.