Heidelberg/ Oberderdingen, July 21st, 2009 – Blanco opts for SAP add-ons from tangro for its financial accounting and sales
As globally-operating providers of system solutions for domestic kitchens, canteens and medical functional areas, Blanco and Blanco CS are two companies who have to deal with mountains of paperwork. The financial accounting department receives some 70,000 invoices per year, and the sales department handles an average of 250,000 documents sent in by customers. Seeking to reduce the workload on staff, Blanco opted for solutions from tangro, which enable the incoming documents to be entered in SAP automatically. tangro is a provider of SAP add-ons for automated processing of inbound documents received on paper, via e-mail or by EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). The financial accounting department uses tangro IM (Invoice Management) to process invoices, the sales department handles incoming orders with tangro OM (Order Management). These solutions allow them to save time and money on several levels. The cost of introducing the two SAP add-ons, for example, was considerably less than that of comparable projects in the SAP environment. Thanks to transparent and automated workflows, the internal company processes for inbound documents have been tightened up and made more efficient – and require fewer human resources. As the data quality has now been improved and the information is stored centrally, the need for post-editing has been substantially reduced.
Blanco: systematic success worldwide
The two companies, which are based in Oberderdingen in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, focus respectively on kitchen technology and on catering systems, medical care systems and industrial components – with a worldwide sales network covering about 100 countries, production sites in Germany, Canada and the Czech Republic as well as subsidiaries in numerous countries. Their products are sold primarily in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia. In view of their international orientation, one of their criteria for deciding on the tangro solutions was that they support multiple languages and country-specific regulations.
Background: unsatisfactory recognition rate of 15 %
Before Blanco started using tangro OM for its automated incoming orders process, only a small proportion of the documents could be processed automatically in SAP. The previous system recognised a meagre 15 % of the documents received. The rest still had to be entered manually.
In the financial accounting department also, the daily routine was characterised by time-consuming activities that added no value. Before tangro IM was installed, invoices were processed entirely by hand. Staff had to enter all incoming invoices in SAP manually. Authorisation and approval workflows were also manual, which resulted in high costs in terms of internal and external communication. The processes were not transparent and information was not readily retrievable.
Processing times for incoming invoices halved
"With the tangro solutions we have successfully optimised our document capture for financial accounting and sales, and have even exceeded our targets. With tangro IM we have been able to halve the time spent on processing incoming invoices. tangro OM for incoming order processing is used to read all the documents into the SAP system. This gives our employees significantly more time to work actively with customers," says Werner Gassner, deputy head of Blanco's IT Services. "tangro solutions have unbeatably short project timelines. The successful rollout of tangro OM for the sales departments in the US and Canada took just 14 days."
"Companies operating internationally like Blanco benefit from our solutions because they support multiple languages and country-specific regulations, they handle documents received by mail, fax and EDI, and they are scalable to other document types," explains Lars Krüger, Sales Director der Tangro Software Components GmbH. "SAP add-ons from tangro are out-of-the-box solutions with integrated standard processes. They allow us to implement our projects in four to six weeks."
Employee-friendly: no change in the SAP system
With tangro solutions, SAP users retain their familiar environment because the add-ons control the entire process directly in the SAP system – starting with the automated read-in of data to SAP and continuing right through to the audit-secure archiving process. This obviates the need for time-consuming import and export of master data and transaction data. Users perform all the work processes, such as OCR post-editing, invoice/order checking and booking of FI documents or orders, in the central user interface (SAPGUI). The package is rounded off by authorisation and approval workflows (based on SAP Business Workflow) for handling incoming invoices. Consequently employees are able to rely on their SAP know-how, which they have often amassed over many years. Expensive courses and long training periods are avoided.
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
About Blanco
Company: Blanco GmbH + Co KG
Headquarters: Oberderdingen (German state of Baden Württemberg)
Products and services: System solutions for domestic kitchens
Sales: EUR 260 million (2008)
Employees: approx. 1,300
www.blanco.de
Company: Blanco CS GmbH + Co KG
Headquarters: Oberderdingen (German state of Baden Württemberg)
Products and services: System solutions for canteens, medical functional areas and industrial components
Sales: EUR 93 million (2008)
Employees: approx. 610
www.blanco.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
