Heidelberg/Linz, May 27, 2009 – Brau Union Österreich: tangro IM expedites invoice processing in SAP
tangro, the Heidelberg-based vendor of document-receipt automation add-ons for SAP, has successfully made its Austrian market debut with new customer Brau Union Österreich AG. For its financial accounting, the beverages specialist now uses the solution tangro IM (Invoice Management) for processing received invoices in SAP: the tangro solution automates document handling, shortens throughput times, provides for workflow transparency and avoids media breaks and redundant work, thereby activating significant internal efficiency improvements at Brau Union Österreich. Especially in times of crisis, companies benefit from assessing their ongoing costs and analysing cost cutting potentials – just one of many reasons why tangro's document-handling automation add-ons are in such demand – in Austria, as well, now.
Dying of thirst ... unthinkable due to nationwide brewery network
Brau Union Österreich produces and sells brand products for the beer and beverages industry, supplying over 49,000 customers in the food and catering sectors. The beverages specialist operates from eight locations in Austria including Wieselburg, Leoben-Göss, Zipf, Graz-Puntigam, Schwechat and Kaltenhausen. As a producer of such celebrated brands as Heineken, Gösser, Zipfer, Puntigamer and Edelweiss, Brau Union Österreich not only reported outstanding sales of €606 million (including beer tax) for FY 2008, but also had to process a large number of customer and supplier invoices. Put in plain figures, the company has to capture around 88,000 bills annually in SAP.
Prior to Brau Union Österreich's decision to use the tangro solution, each invoice was pre-processed in a preliminary inbound mail scan, after which it was forwarded electronically to the SAP Business Workflow. The accounts-payable clerk entered the creditor along with the associated invoice data. Following the preliminary data capture, the invoice was then forwarded to the order-party clerk who checked and approved it before returning it to the accounts-payable clerk for booking. Because tangro IM automates the manual capture activities, the accounts-payable clerk no longer plays the role of data typist but of inspector, thereby freeing up considerable time for core duties.
From data typist to inspector
Since tangro IM has been introduced for handling received invoices in the financial accounting department, the handling process has been shortened and streamlined significantly. The add-on automatically recognises the supplier based on the invoice data and recommends it for booking. In doing so, the invoice data are analysed on the basis of the free-form approach: tangro IM recognises the document's header and line-item data and validates them by matching them with the creditor data stored in SAP and possible orders. Once all the booking-relevant data have been extracted from an invoice, they are used to automatically populate the relevant fields in SAP. Supported by a multitude of plausibility checks, the solution then goes on to generate a pre-capture document. A variety of SAP Business Workflow scenarios complete the overall process.
Intelligent, self-learning solution
Accounts-payable clerks can call up a central view to access this invoice information for inspection. If any errors have crept in, corrections can be made easily using drag and drop technology. tangro IM is intelligent and applies these learning experiences to subsequent invoices for the same supplier, resulting in permanent and continual improvements in the interpretation results.
"We chose tangro, and thereby the automated handling of received invoices, because – in contrast to competing products – this solution is fully integrated into SAP. tangro performs its document and data analyses directly in the SAP system. This also meant a minimum of readjustment overheads for our staff," explains Kurt Ganhör, Director Corporate Finance at Brau Union Österreich AG. "A time- and resource-consuming import and export of master data and movement information across interfaces is not necessary. With just one day of training, tuition overheads were insignificant; support has been excellent to date. We are entirely satisfied with our decision to use tangro IM."
"We are pleased to have acquired Brau Union Österreich as an Austrian customer for our SAP solutions. For companies wishing to make crisis-proof investments, tangro solutions for saving costs and work time are just the right products: our add-ons are out-of-the-box solutions with integrated standard processes, resulting in short project times of four to six weeks and expedited ROI," explains Lars Krüger, Sales Director at tangro software components gmbh. "As well as this, tangro's add-ons are also multilingual, support country-specific rules, able to process documents received by regular mail, fax and EDI, and are scalable for other document types."
About tangro software components gmbh
tangro software components gmbh is a software development and consultancy firm with headquarters in Heidelberg. Founded in 1998, the company has many years of experience in software development, consulting and project planning. tangro's solutions find application mainly in the industry, banking and insurance and service and trade sectors. tangro supports customers with the optimisation and automation of their business processes for inbound documentation received on paper or electronically via e-mail or EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). The tangro solution uses SAP add-ons as well as solutions and workflow applications outside SAP. The innovative tangro technology is based on graphical business process modelling and guarantees a fast and inexpensive implementation of individual requirements in any current process.
www.tangro.de
Press contact
Schwartz Public Relations
Marita Schultz / Verena Schubel
Sendlinger Straße 42 A
D-80331 München
Tel.: +49 (0)89–211 871–36 / –43
Fax: +49 (0)89–211 871–50
E-Mail: ms@schwartzpr.de / vs@schwartzpr.de
Web: www.schwartzpr.de
tangro software components gmbh
Lars Krüger
Czernyring 22/10
D-69115 Heidelberg
Tel.: +49 (0)6221 13 336–0
Fax: +49 (0)6221 13 336–21
E-Mail: info@tangro.de
Web: www.tangro.de
