Fit for the digital future?

"When making the decision, we relied on our long-standing IT partner MODOX - Modern Documents GmbH, who recommended the ECM suite from ELO Digital Office. This fully meets our requirements and is technologically state-of-the-art," reports Claudia Kirn, Managing Director of the Group's Organization division. "Two ELO Business Solutions are also used. The specialist department solution for invoice management was installed right from the start, while 'Contract' for contract management was only installed at the beginning of 2018." Both are based on best-practice approaches, can be seamlessly linked to the ECM suite and can be expanded with just a few clicks if required.

The technical implementation of the solution was completed within a few months, including the migration of legacy data. MODOX initially implemented the standard version of the suite. After an optimization workshop planned for June 2019, customer-specific adjustments will follow. The IT experts also integrated the MODOX Documents Importer, which they developed and which indexes documents based on database entries and imports them into predefined paths. In addition, the ECM suite was seamlessly integrated with the commercial system used in the company, which also defines the processes at organizational and commercial level. As a result, only minimal adjustments were required during the changeover - for example in the scanning process.

The 'ELO for Mobile Devices' ECM app provides a mobile connection to the ECM system. This allows managers to use basic ECM functions and workflows on their iPads while on the move, for example to release documents without delay. The approximately 360 employees were familiar with the intuitive user interface and the system's functions after just a short training session, meaning that the change process required little support. "The advantages of the new ECM system for every workplace are obvious: processes are simplified, standardized and made visible - internally, across departments and company-wide. Thanks to the integrated search function, documents can be found in the archive in no time at all.

The ECM system increases efficiency in more complex processes such as cross-location multi-client constellations - and all legal requirements are always complied with," explains the Managing Director.

Contract management: terms and deadlines always in view

Digital contract management helps employees in the legal/compliance department in particular to manage and monitor contracts easily. They can create contracts using forms, store them in a structured manner and assign them to the relevant employee. The status automatically adapts to the current processing status and changes from 'new creation' to 'revising' to 'negotiating', for example. The solution configures the terms and automatically reminds you of deadlines so that no more deadlines are missed.

All contract types can be managed with the exception of land purchase contracts. These are usually contracts relating to the vehicle fleet or vehicle purchase as well as mobile phone, customer, employee, service and order processing contracts. It is important for the legal department that only authorized employees have access to the documents. The software makes this possible with the help of dedicated authorization levels. The new solution ensures better handling of contract-related processes. The dashboard provides an optimal overview of the contracts, payment flows and contract processes - including active notification and collaboration options for the people involved as well as extensive controlling functions.

Conclusion and outlook

With the change of ECM system, the NOVELLUS Group not only sees all of its requirements fulfilled, but is also ideally positioned for the future. "Following the successful implementation of the first phase, we want to expand the solution in the first half of 2019. We expect to benefit in particular from the intelligent classification and fully automated processing of incoming documents with the help of the 'ELO DocXtractor' module and the 'ELOxc for Microsoft EWS' email management package," concludes Kirn. An upgrade to the group solution ELOenterprise is also firmly planned.

Last but not least, the management is considering successively adding further business solutions, for example in the areas of visitor and knowledge management.