Centralized document capturing with Scan2SAP solution

Application requirements

In the past, Oerlikon set up scanning stations with special software in various departments around the world to scan and digitize a range of documents containing business-relevant information. The collection and further processing required a lot of administrative effort within the individual organizations. On the one hand, this was due to steps in the scanning procedure that could not be automated and required manual intervention by the user. In addition, the devices had to be maintained, and the software running on the scanning stations required periodic administration. To speed up the work involved in this document processing, there was a need to centralize the document capturing process for the whole company and to introduce case-specific classification, including forwarding around the globe. It was important to create an application that was simple, user-friendly and would enjoy global acceptance. Aside from increasing efficiency, scalability and user-friendliness also played a key role. In the search for a reliable solution that would integrate well with SAP, BCB GmbH evaluated and implemented the 3-Heights® Scan to PDF Server solution from PDF Tools AG after completing a successful test phase in Oerlikon’s SAP environment.

Customer benefits

These streamlined, automated processes save a lot of resources. The specialized scanning stations are no longer necessary, and the user no longer has to worry about whether there are double-sided pages in the stack of invoices, manually delete blank pages or rotate pages. The documents are scanned using a conventional multi-functional printer/scanner without any special software and then sent to the appropriate email address. The two email addresses set up to collect documents provide a centralized platform for capturing paper in a user-friendly way and from anywhere in the world. The solution is currently being used successfully for accounts payable accounting, controlling, purchasing and warehouse management. Born-digital documents can also be sent to the central invoicing address. In these cases, the text will immediately be read using the 3-Heights® PDF Extract tool and can then be transferred directly to the invoicing application in SAP without any further steps. This saves even more time, as incoming emails from suppliers no longer need to be printed and then scanned again. The solution is easily scalable. For example, additional Oerlikon organizations can be integrated at any time, and the processes can be shared between multiple PDF servers as the volume increases.

Implementation

Two central collection points were set up during the first phase. At present, documents are sent to two SAP email addresses to cover two use cases: one is the collection and processing of invoices; the other is the archiving of business-relevant documents in general. Once SAP receives the documents via email, the 3-Heights® Scan to PDF Server software from PDF Tools AG ensures clean, automatic page breaks, performs text recognition and categorizes the documents for organization. The “watched folder” concept is used to initiate the process, i.e. a folder that is monitored and for which a specific set of steps is performed whenever a document is added.  Batch processing is supported as well. Once SAP receives a scanned invoice, it is processed with OCR, assigned to the responsible company code and then sent to an electronic invoicing application in SAP. The documents being archived must be furnished with a bar code so that they can be assigned to the appropriate objects and stored in SAP.