Brückner automates the entire P2P process

Brückner Maschinenbau, part of the Brückner Group and the world's leading supplier of production systems for manufacturing films, has achieved end-to-end automation in the purchase-to-pay process with tangro software. tangro automatically processes incoming purchasing documents in SAP and integrates seamlessly with SAP Ariba. Stefan Mauerkirchner, Business Expert SAP Logistics at Brückner says:

"Thanks to tangro, we were able to create an extremely efficient and highly automated overall purchase-to-pay process, also in conjunction with SAP Ariba."

The tangro IM, tangro OC and tangro DM solutions are used by the largest company, Brückner Maschinenbau, and Brückner Servtec, where they automate the processing of invoices, order confirmations and delivery bills. To a large extent, the processing of these documents has even been fully automated: Over 80 percent of the order confirmations received each year (approx. 85,000 documents) and around 60 percent of invoices (over 60,000 documents) are recorded, checked and posted in SAP completely in the background, without any manual effort. Stefan Mauerkirchner:

"Thanks to the high degree of automation, we can save considerable personnel resources in document processing and use them elsewhere." 

tangro software enables full automation by processing structured EDI documents directly in SAP. Smooth interaction with the SAP Ariba purchasing platform also plays a key role. Over 85 percent of all order items are processed via EDI or the SAP exchange format IDoc via tangro and Ariba.

"We view purchase-to-pay as an overall process. tangro solutions are integrated into this overall process with the SAP Ariba purchasing platform and work together seamlessly,"

tangro software enables full automation by processing structured EDI documents directly in SAP. Smooth interaction with the SAP Ariba purchasing platform also plays a decisive role. Over 85 percent of all order items are processed via EDI or the SAP exchange format IDoc via tangro and Ariba.

"We view purchase-to-pay as an overall process. tangro solutions are integrated into this overall process with the SAP Ariba purchasing platform and work together seamlessly. As a holistic solution, tangro is particularly well positioned here."

Approvals, account assignments and other issues are clarified in advance, either in the order or in the interaction between SAP Ariba and tangro. The order confirmation, which is received in the next step after the order, is automatically transferred from Ariba to the tangro OC solution with all relevant content. The software checks the values such as the AB number, date, delivery date and item data against the order and posts the document directly in SAP if everything is correct. When the goods are then received, the tangro DM (Delivery Management) software records the delivery bill and posts the goods receipt directly in SAP. Thanks to this end-to-end process support, there are hardly any deviations or need for clarification during invoice processing as the final step in the purchasing process. All data is already stored so that tangro IM (Invoice Management) can automatically fill in the relevant fields and items in SAP and post the document directly. Verification is extremely simple because tangro generates a PDF from each cryptic EDI data record that can be read like a normal document. Mauerkirchner:

"The PDFs that tangro generates from the EDI data are a huge advantage - also for transparency vis-à-vis auditors."

Electronic workflows are used for invoices that are not related to orders, such as hotel or shipping invoices. For these documents, tangro handles the obtaining of approvals and account assignments electronically, thus speeding up processing here too. The order confirmations that are not received via EDI are also recognized and processed automatically by tangro software, making them quick and efficient.

Brückner has been relying on tangro since 2011. The holistic range of solutions in P2P played a decisive role in the decision to use the software. So did the complete integration of tangro into SAP ERP.

"From an IT point of view, tangro solutions are ideal to work with. There are no interface problems, no additional OCR hardware is required  What's more, all tangro solutions offer the same SAP-like look and feel and always use the same logic. This makes user support much easier." 

Brückner is currently in the process of migrating to S/4HANA, and tangro is also proving its worth in this area. Stefan Mauerkirchner reports:

"The tangro software worked immediately in the S/4HANA test system, impressively demonstrating its migration capability."

About Brückner Group

The Brückner Group has 2,900 employees at 18 locations in 13 countries. The Brückner Group SE is the parent company and management holding of the group of companies based in Siegsdorf. Brückner Maschinenbau GmbH, founded in 1960, is the world's leading supplier of systems for the production of a wide variety of flexible plastic films, which are used as high-quality packaging material and in technical applications. Brückner Servtec GmbH helps film manufacturers to exploit the full potential of their production systems. Both companies are also located in Siegsdorf.