Johannesburg, 31 Jul 2014
Southern African Cat earth-moving equipment dealer, Barloworld Equipment, has rolled out an enterprise information management (EIM) solution within its Parts/ Stores, Procurement, Finance, and Services divisions, allowing the business to attach documents to the relevant transactions within SAP.
The implementation of SAP Archiving and Document Access by OpenText was executed by integrated ICT solutions and services provider, Datacentrix, the only Platinum Partner for OpenText in South Africa, and an accredited special expertise partner and value-added reseller (VAR) for SAP.
Barloworld Equipment is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barloworld, a multinational brand distribution company that is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. It is the sole dealer for Cat earth-moving machines, power systems and related mining and construction equipment in South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Botswana, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo's Katanga Province.
"Barloworld Equipment required a document archiving solution that could be used to attach business-related content to the relevant transactions within its SAP system," says Nathan Moodley, senior EIM solutions consultant at Datacentrix.
"Within the Parts division, when it comes to the purchase of Cat earth-moving equipment, the process is for clients to make the order and then collect the parts or equipment. Alternatively, customers can call in, place the order and Barloworld Equipment will make the relevant delivery."
The biggest challenge here, according to Roger Veldman, SAP project manager at Barloworld Equipment, has been that delivery notes were often lost and there was no proof of delivery or collection. This meant the company was writing off in the region of R1 million per year as it could not prove that equipment had been collected or delivered.
"These proof of delivery documentation issues also resulted in a delay of payments, thus impacting the company's cash flow," he adds.
The company had started scanning drivers' licences as proof of collection. However, within excess of 500 collections per day, it was proving difficult to scan and link this documentation to the relevant SAP entry, as well as to retrieve the correct information. In fact, there was also a 24-hour delay between the information being scanned and it reflecting in the system.
"The new solution is addressing the governance and compliance issues around this, and allows for evidence of the transactions to be recorded and saved within SAP," continues Moodley. Delivery notes are now printed with a SAP bar code and the related documentation, such as completed forms, copies of drivers' licences, and so on, are scanned and archived within SAP, against the correct transaction. This means they can be easily identified and retrieved. Now anyone with the correct authorisations can access the SAP transaction and therefore the documentation associated with that transaction.
In addition, the Barloworld Equipment Procurement department is using the new solution for vendor-related document access, such as requests for quotation, tender documents, contracts and so on. By using the vendor-assigned number, all of these documents can be easily retrieved and accessed within SAP. "From the perspective of certificates that expire, such as B-BBEE and tax clearance certificates, the solution can also be used to give alerts around the expiry dates," says Moodley.
The solution has been further rolled out within the Finance department, where it is used to scan and save credit applications - previously stored on the Intranet - directly into the SAP system. The Service department uses the solution to load service reports and queries directly to invoices, thus making it easy for the Finance team to track service reports quickly and resolve debtors faster.
According to Moodley, the Barloworld Equipment Human Resources (HR) department is also looking at implementing this solution in order to electronically manage all personnel-related documentation in a single SAP repository.
"Barloworld Equipment chose to partner with Datacentrix, given the company's proven track record," explains Veldman. "Datacentrix has implemented the same solution within other large organisations, hence we also opted to take advantage of this expertise. We were not left disappointed; with Datacentrix the implementation was flawless, and the experienced technical team resulted in a successful roll-out."
"We are already seeing the benefits, particularly within the Parts department, where the sales team can access the proof of delivery (POD) notices directly from their workstations in real-time," he continues. "Now the department does not have to scan documents daily into the system, and the tracking of the PODs is simplified by clicking of a button to retrieve the correct information."
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