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EDITORIAL A driving force for digitalization
AUTOMATED PROCESSES ALL AROUND, FROM ORDERS TO ARCHIVES Thanks to the introduction of a digital invoice archive, the procurement of goods process at Falkensteiner Hotels & Residences is now a fully electronic affair.
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he last challenge regarding full automation in the procurement of goods procedure at Falkensteiner Hotels & Residences, a part of Falkensteiner Michaeler Tourism Group (FMTG), was to make invoices audit-proof. With the support of EDITEL, this challenge was successfully tackled and implemented. Falkensteiner recently started saving all invoices in its digital archive. What makes this approach unique is that not only invoices in EDIFACT format can be saved, but all other invoices from the ERP system as well. The latter are automatically exported to the archive in PDF
format. The successful introduction of the archive was the last step to achieve full EDI communication at Falkensteiner. Stefan Unterlader, Director of Group Purchasing IMS&POS Systems at FMTG, is convinced that “the digital archiving solution beautifully complements our electronic processes because it allows us to store our invoices as legally required while saving space and resources.” Falkensteiner Hotels & Residences was also very pleased with the project implementation. In the words of Herbert Schöfbänker, Director of IT: “The support we received from our
IN BRIEF Read the new medianet EDITEL dossier https://www.editel.at/news/aktuelles/artikel/ spezialdossier How Wiesbauer optimizes its supply chain processes https://www.editel.eu/references/editel-best-practices/ wiesbauer/ REGAL industry meeting – the innovations of 2018 https://www.editel.at/news/aktuelles/artikel/ regal-branchentreff/
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Digitalization is quite a buzzword these days. EDI service providers like us live and breathe digital processes, and hence it’s key to focus Gerd Marlovits on an integrated approach to digitaCEO lization. Digitalization makes sense if business processes are seen from a holistic perspective and requirements are implemented in a customer-friendly way and across the entire company. Different systems must be adapted to internal as well as external processes and harmonized. This means a lot of work, but also a lot of benefits. EDI can be a driving force for digitalization processes at any company because EDI processes don’t stop at internal business processes, but also connect business partners and clients. This translates into an integrated approach for the entire value-added chain. And it pays off because businesses will have transparent and efficient organizational processes that save both time and money. We are excited to be able to share yet another issue with a few examples of such initiatives. As always, there is a mix of involved industries and solutions. You might want to read our main article about EDI expansion at Falkensteiner on page 1, the use of EDI services at Dr. Schmidgall and Kotányi on page 3, the integration of upstream processes into the automated supply chain process on page 4, and many other sophisticated solutions that are taking digitalization to the next level. Happy reading! Gerd Marlovits
ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE alkensteiner Hotels & Residences 1 FComprehensive automated goods procurement n brief IOther news from the EDITEL Group alkensteiner Hotels & Residences 2 FComprehensive automated goods procurement ESADV on a new path DDespatch advices in PDF format at Coca-Cola Hellenic Austria ollaboration CEDITEL and MARKANT to expand their collaboration n the road with EDI 3 OEasy order processing for field service employees artners for F&B PEDITEL at the Delegate Client Day pstream EDI 4 USmurfit Kappa and Spitz lead the way roduction optimization PAustria Email saves time and money
Think digital, act real: ECR Austria Infotag 2018 https://ecr-austria.at/infotag/ The EDITEL JOURNAL is published as a supplement to GS1 Information in a total of 13,000 copies. It is available in German, English as well as in Czech, Slovak, Hungarian and Croatian for our international clients. To download the Journal as an epaper, please visit www.editel. eu/press/publications. If you have any suggestions, please contact us at info@editel.at
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editelJOURNAL Corporate Magazine of the EDITEL Group
IN BRIEF I ntroduction of an invoice archive at Falkensteiner Hotels & Residences A udit-proof, space- and resource-saving storage of invoice documents A ny data format can be archived D ata integrity
ABOUT FMTG
A ll documents relevant for business can be found immediately A chieves full EDI communication in procurement of goods processes
EDI partner EDITEL and the technical incorporation of the archive were stellar!” Higher efficiency and transparency via EDI have always made the difference for Falkensteiner Michaeler Tourism Group (FMTG) in the company’s pro-
cess-optimized order processing with suppliers. With eXite by EDITEL, FMTG now has the ideal solution that allows them to reach all suppliers via a single interface. Between 120 and 130 suppliers are currently connected and they exchange product master data (PRICAT), despatch advices (DES-
ADV) and, since early this year, invoices (INVOIC) as well. The archive was the missing link at FMTG to achieve full digital communication in its procurement of goods procedure. n
Falkensteiner Michaeler Tourism Group (FMTG) is one of the leading regional providers and developers of tourism products and services in central Europe. FMTG mostly works in the area of tourism development, which includes planning and building hotels, residences, serviced apartments and mixed-use buildings as well as their operational management and related sales activities.
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EDI2PDF – DESADV ON A NEW PATH
COLLABORATION
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“We would like to receive the despatch advice ahead of time or as soon as possible.” This was, in a nutshell, what Coca-Cola HBC Austria clients who took a GfK-run survey revealed in their responses. According to Sabine Puwein, who was the responsible project manager at Coca-Cola HBC Austria at the time, “accommodating our business partners and clients is a top priority for us,” which is why this suggestion
ABOUT COCA COLA HBC GROUP Coca Cola HBC Austria is a subsidiary of Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Company AG headquartered in Switzerland. As a leading bottling business of the Coca-Cola Company with a sales volume of two billion unit cases, it serves production and distribution centers in 28 countries and more than 585 million consumers annually.
was promptly implemented. A presentation by EDI partner EDITEL about e-invoices at Coca-Cola kicked off the implementation process. “Why not send the despatch advice as a PDF document as well?” Sabine Puwein had wondered. Said and done! EDITEL was entrusted with the implementation of this project and in early June, the first client received despatch advices in PDF format during a test run. The PDFs are sent via a simple e-mail with a link. Other clients are being added gradually. “Our clients are highly interested in this service,” said Sabine Puwein, who is now proactively offering this service to all clients. This is a huge plus, especially for clients based in western provinces to which trucks oftentimes travel up to two days. They will see if products are not available or products that might have been entered incorrectly well ahead of the actual delivery, which allows these clients to react faster than ever. For Coca-Cola itself, this is a seamless process without any
system inconsistencies because all data leaves the company in the EDIFACT format, the same used by all other EDI partners. EDITEL efficiently converts this data to PDFs and sends the documents. A weekly report sent to Coca-Cola allows them to see at a glance which clients have not yet picked up their despatch advices. Sabine Puwein then actively asks these clients for feedback. “After all, we strive to continuously improve our services,” she said. To Ms. Puwein, EDITEL, the EDI partner of many years, was the obvious choice for implementing this project. “If you are about to do something new, it is important to have a partner who knows what you want. EDITEL speaks our language and is always very accommodating when it comes to meeting our needs,” she explained. This is a compelling example of the many solutions inherent to EDI, even beyond fully integrated solutions. n
ARKANT Group provides a large range of services and solutions to its business partners in manufacturing and retail that help them support and improve their supply chain processes in their day-to-day. For process optimization is a goal that is also a priority at EDITEL, which is why these two companies have had a s uccessful collaboration for many years. According to MARKANT’s expansion plans, the company wants to do business in more than 20 countries in the CEE area by 2025. Therefore, the aforementioned collaboration is now being expanded internationally. This has benefits for all parties: national market requirements will be easier to meet, the incorporation of new business partners will be swifter and even smoother, and the existing EDI community will grow significantly, just to mention a few. Jürgen Vögele, EDI project manager / European Central Regulation International at MARKANT Group, comments on this development: “We very much look forward to continue working with EDITEL. Together, we will considerably increase EDI coverage in the CEE area and ultimately make procurement of goods processes more efficient and more transparent for our clients,” he said. Gerd Marlovits, the CEO of EDITEL Austria GmbH, agrees: “This step will take the strategic collaboration with MARKANT Group to the next level. We look forward to providing even more support services to the local subsidiaries of MARKANT by relying on our local presence in many countries in central and eastern Europe,” he said. n
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L‘Oréal‘s buyIT solution
ON THE ROAD W ITH EDI Manual entries in field service are increasingly becoming a thing of the past. Orders are now being recorded in real time.
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n addition to using Electronic Data Management (EDI) with fully automated order processes to run their business efficiently, manufacturers in the food, drugstore or any other industry rely on a time-tried strategy to be in constant contact with their clients, especially small-size business partners: personal contact via field
BENEFITS OF buyIT FOR FIELD SERVICE EMPLOYEES asy order recording anytime and E anywhere Integration into existing EDI processes Automated update for product master data Customized definition of product range, price lists and discounts for every client Automated order tracking
service employees. These field service employees visit their clients on a regular basis and show them the latest products, agree on rates and, of course, take o rders. One case in point is the manufacturer of medical products Dr. Schmidgall, who works with many pharmacies, while the spice producer Kotányi serves restaurants and small grocery stores. Previously, the order process performed ”on the road“ used to be mostly as follows: the field service employee would manually take the order at the client‘s premises and would only be able to enter it into the order system later, which also had to be done manually. In practice, this often meant that the employee had to return to the office to make sure the order would be processed the same day. Also, the process involved a lot of paper. Overall, it was a very time-consuming procedure with a lot of room for error. Luckily, for Kotányi and Dr. Schmidgall, this is now a thing of the past. Both companies recently started using
buyIT in their field service. It is an online order portal that allows employees to record orders online while they are with the client or shortly afterwards using their PC or tablet. Brigitte Knapp, director of finance & controlling at Dr. Schmidgall GmbH & Co KG, has found this automated order processing to be ”very user-friendly.“ According to Ms. Knapp, all it takes is a notebook with internet access for employees to be able to easily enter orders into the company’s ERP system. Martin Lorenz, CIO at Kotányi GmbH, knows all about the many advantages of buyIT, not only for recording orders: ”It allows us to have an overview of the latest orders at all times. This helps our field service employees provide the very best service to our clients.“ It is worth noting that buyIT does not only work across industries, but can also be customized for every client to reflect specific product ranges, rates and pricing conditions. n
In addition to using buyIT as an online tool for field service employees, it can also be used as a an online store where clients sign in themselves and can order products via a user-friendly online interface. Cosmetics corporation L‘Oréal Austria for example uses buyIT to allow hair salons to order haircare products online 24/7. In the luxury department of perfumeries, beauty coaches use buyIT to place their orders. Extended functionalities for coordinating returning goods is in progress.
bout Dr. A. & L. Schmidgall A GmbH & Co KG
Dr. A. & L. Schmidgall GmbH & Co KG, headquartered in Vienna, is an Austrian family-owned business that produces and sells medicine, medical products, nutritional supplements and cosmetics.
About KOTÁNYI GmbH Kotányi specializes in spices and is one of the most traditional and most successful family-owned businesses in Austria. The company has a strong market presence in CEE and SEE and has always been synonymous with fine spices of the very best quality. Headquartered in Wolkersdorf in Lower Austria, Kotányi has a staff of 570.
HIGH-EXPERTISE PARTNERS FOR F&B
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Left to right: Markus Gruber, Gerd Marlovits, Christian Schmidt, Erik Timo Rassl, Martin Knopp, Karl Cegner
DITEL and the ERP software provider Dele gate have been working together for ten years already. During this time, they have successfully implemented many cross-border projects in the food service and restaurant chain industries. Their clients include Sodexo, Falkensteiner, EUREST and Vapiano who trust the expertise of both partners for processing EDI-based orders. A big plus is that clients get one-stop services. In addition, Delegate was part of an EDITEL working
group and as such played an important role in the development of EDI standards for the F&B industry (e.g. PRICAT). At this year’s Delegate Client Day in Munich, EDITEL had the honor of speaking to an interested audience about the advantages of this partnership and the future of electronic business processes in B2B in the F&B industry. ”It was a great occasion for presenting F&B EDI in detail. After all, the perfect interplay between EDI infra-
structure and ERP system can make all the difference when implementing electronic order processes,“ said Gerd Marlovits, the CEO of EDITEL. Martin Knopp, the CEO of Delegate, especially emphasized the good collaboration between the two companies on an international level: “Both our partnership and the challenges of our industry span many countries, which makes it so thrilling,” he said. n delegate-group.com
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editelJOURNAL Corporate Magazine of the EDITEL Group
TS TECH HAS CERTIFIED EDI SERVICES BY EDITEL Flawless EDI communication is a main prerequisite for the successful implementation of complex processes in the automotive industry.
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hen it comes to demand-based automated procurement of goods, there is hardly any industry that is as efficient and demanding as the automotive industry. What is needed is perfect interplay between different automotive subcontractors, logistics partners and manufacturers. This interplay must work across borders while also uniting different “logistics
IN BRIEF uring an evaluation by TS Tech according to D IATF 16949, EDITEL HU received the highest score in almost all categories (overall result = 96%) upplier communication via VDA standard S (DELFOR = delivery schedule message) anufacturer communication via EDIFACT M (DELFOR; DELJIT = just-in-time message) cheduled projects: connecting additional S suppliers and introducing EDIFACT DESADV messages with suppliers
languages.” One case in point is the Japanese automotive subcontractor TS Tech that produces car seats for the “third row” for VW seven-seater vehicles in Germany at its production plant in Szászhalombatta. TS Tech relies on EDI communication in two directions: one is the upstream process with suppliers and the other is directly with the automaker VW. In its communication with suppliers, TS Tech had previously relied exclusively on VDA standards (the standards of the German Automotive Industry Association). Among others, TS Tech uses the message type VDA4905 (which is similar to the EDIFACT message DELFOR) to send orders for the next 3 to 6 months to its suppliers, allowing for timely manufacturing. To communicate with the car maker, on the other hand, TS Tech relies on EDIFACT messages. “The conversion of VDA 4905 (delivery instruction) and DELFOR and DELJIT (just-in-time mes-
sage) to EDIFACT messages is expertly done by our EDI service provider EDITEL. We have successfully been working with them for four years,” said Laszlo Gordos, logistics manager at TS Tech Hungary. These services have now even been certified. During the annual evaluation performed by TS Tech following the internationally recognized standard IATF 16949, EDITEL achieved one of the best results for its services provided in 2017. The criteria under evaluation included, among others, communication, problem-solving skills, price and flexibility. EDITEL scored 96%. Mr. Gorgos is very pleased with this result: “For complex production processes at an automotive facility, a reliable EDI partner is a prerequisite for successful delivery processes. The result of this evaluation once again highlights the fact that EDITEL meets and exceeds these expectations.”
ABOUT TS TECH TS Tech is a Japanese company that specializes in the production of car seats and other automobile interior components such as door trims, head rests and roof trims. TS Tech employs 16,000 worldwide and has sales of over 4 billion euro. In CEE, TS Tech operates a production facility in Hungary which is currently a supplier of VW.
Gabor Hernadi, an EDI expert at EDITEL Hungary, strives to build on these results: “We do everything in our power to maintain the service quality for TS Tech and to show what we can do with every new project, for example, when connecting new suppliers,” he said. n tstech.co.jp
AUSTRIA EMAIL SAVES TIME AND MONEY Austria Email recently introduced EDI for order processing purposes. This introduction has translated into more efficient processes, both internally and externally.
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anfred Kopp, the IT director at Austria Email, explains why his company relies on Electronic Data Interchange (EDI): “We want to strengthen our relationship with large long-standing clients while at the same time minimizing the workload for our internal sales staff,“ he said. Austria Email initially started using EDI in 2016 when it introduced electronic invoices (INVOIC). The company has now
IN BRIEF ustria Email started using EDI back in 2016 A for exchanging electronic invoices (INVOIC) he following new message formats were T now implemented for order processing:
Orders (ORDERS)
Order response (ORDRSP) inimizes the workload because manual M order recording and sending order confirmations via e-mail is a thing of the past Saves time and money trengthens the relationship with large S long-standing clients
added additional processes associated with order logging in the sales system: the electronic integration of orders (ORDERS) and a confirmation delivered as an order response (ORDRSP). Constant change is a given at Austria Email since the company delivers to many wholesalers and clients in the manufacturing industry, offering a comprehensive range of products and 400 basic models of water heaters. According to Mr. Kopp, the results achieved with the use of EDI speak for themselves: “Since there is no more need to enter orders manually, we save considerable amounts of time and money. We are now sending out order confirmations at the click of a mouse,“ he explained. Mr. Kopp also said that the project was implemented within the desired timeframe and that working with EDITEL was “a very pleasant experience. In the next few weeks, we will start connecting more clients,” he added. n austria-email.at
IMPRINT ISSUE 2/2018 Owner and publisher: EDITEL Austria GmbH, 1040 Vienna, Brahmsplatz 3; T: +43 (0)1/505 86 02; e-mail: info@editel.at. www.editel.eu EDITEL Austria GmbH is a wholly-owned subsidiary of GS1 Austria GmbH. The corporate objective of EDITEL Austria GmbH is the electronic data exchange between business partners, the sale of the required software and support services.
ABOUT AUSTRIA EMAIL AG The Austrian company AUSTRIA EMAIL is one of the leading European manufacturers of high-quality water heaters and the only storage manufacturer with its own R&D and production of advanced fleece insulation for large storage tanks and buffer storage tanks. The company’s facility in Knittelfeld/Styria is the most sophisticated buffer cylinder factory in Europe and includes a heating technology laboratory with state-of-the-art test equipment. Austria Email is part of the international Groupe Atlantic and an expert provider of storage tanks and heating technology.
Management and responsible for the content: Mag. Gerd Marlovits Editorial staff: Sylvia M. Gerber M.A., Anja Jung Proofreading : Dagmar Jenner, www.texterei.com Translations: English: Dagmar Jenner, www.texterei.com Czech and Slovak: Martina Pokorná Hungarian: Katinka Czigány Croatian: Nataša Burič, Marija Lunjek Layout: www.creativedirector.cc Disclosure pursuant to Austrian Media Law as amended in March 2009: the purpose of this newsletter is the promotion and support of EDITEL Austria‘s business activities.