Success Story
SAP Purchasing Documents

Case study

Goals achieved through
digitization platform MailCenter – Purchasing receipts

1. Further digitization of process flows
2. Ensuring criteria for the necessary performance characteristics when sending e-mails
3. Standardized ordering processes for worldwide purchasing activities

PDF-Download Success Story | Dr Oetker

company

Dr. August Oetker Food KG

• Registered office: Bielefeld
• Sector: Food
• Turnover: 3.71 billion euros (2020)
• Employees: 17,576
• Internet address: www.oetker.de

Project Objectives

1. Further digitization of process flows
2. Ensuring criteria for the necessary performance characteristics when sending e-mails
3. Standardized ordering processes for worldwide purchasing activities

Choosing MailCenter

1. Compliance with business requirements
2. Complete transparency of communication with suppliers
3. Easy handling enables efficient work

Solutions and Services

1. Digitization platform MailCenter
2. Solution partner: munich enterprise software GmbH

Implementation Highlights

1. Competent contact persons
2. High acceptance of the product among users
3. Relatively low initial training requirements
4. Low support effort

Main benefits for the company

1. Easy verification of mail recipients before sending
2. Transparency when sending messages
3. Flexibility with senders, texts and attachments
4. Easy updating of additional standard attachments
5. Support of business processes at international locations

Environment

1. SAP ERP ECC 6.0 EHP 7

Case study in detail

“With the introduction of the MailCenter, we are designing the dispatch of orders in purchasing
internationally standardized and efficient.”

Andreas Hübner
, Central Purchasing Bielefeld at Dr. August Oetker Nahrungsmittel KG

In the past, the purchasing departments of the food company Dr. Oetker sent orders to suppliers from the SAP system by fax. However, because the sending of e-mails from SAP to the supplier had a number of limitations, Dr. Oetker also introduced a platform for digital communication in 2016, the MailCenter from munich enterprise software.
The central strategic purchasing department at Dr. Oetker had previously learned about the global requirements for how purchasing processes could be better designed via e-mail from SAP. In this area, too, the company wanted to further advance digitization. It was necessary to install a functioning system of contract and order issuance, which replaces the fax as a technology.

SAP standard does not meet internal requirements

Although you can also send e-mails from the SAP standard, this method does not meet the internal requirements, explains Janine Dallüge, IT Senior Consultant for SAP-MM at Dr. August Oetker Nahrungsmittel KG. In her opinion, the integrated SAP standard solution for sending e-mails offers too few strengths in handling and does not allow the degree of professionalism in communication to which Dr. Oetker feels obliged to his business partners.
The new, digital communication platform now improves the SAP standard so that sender addresses and e-mail text corpus can be individualized and attachments can also be attached. Janine Dallüge: “With the new software, there is now a central point where purchasing stores the latest version of the required PDF. And the pdf document is sent immediately in one step.”

Medium for transparent communication with suppliers

After a comparison with competing products, purchasing and IT at Dr. Oetker were quickly convinced by the munich enterprise software solution. The MailCenter is characterized by the simple check of mail recipients before sending, the transparency in sending messages and the flexibility in senders, texts and attachments. The users of the MailCenter are particularly impressed by the central cockpit for managing and monitoring e-mails that have not yet been sent, erroneous or already sent.
In the pilot project in a European subsidiary, only a few weeks passed from installation to first productive use. Subsequently, Dr. Oetker’s IT team gradually rolled out the platform in other national companies. The biggest technical challenge of the project was that Dr. Oetker also introduced the continuous electronic document release at the same time in order to stop printing documents. The electronic release was virtually the prerequisite for a complete digitization with the MailCenter.

E-mail as the primary means of communication for purchasing documents

Today, the communication platform is used in 35 of Dr. Oetker’s national subsidiaries in Europe as well as North and South America. All employees in worldwide purchasing send purchasing documents to the suppliers via the MailCenter. Sales has also already started to use the platform for sending documents.
“With the introduction of the MailCenter, we are making order shipping in purchasing internationally uniform and efficient,” explains Andreas Hübner from Central Purchasing in Bielefeld. For Dr. August Oetker Nahrungsmittel KG, saving printouts and copies also fulfils a clear sustainability aspect.
and accounting now partly use e-mail sending from SAP. Purchasing is the main field of application of the MailCenter, because in sales, a large part of customer communication takes place via EDI. In purchasing, on the other hand, a connection of suppliers via EDI plays a subordinate role. The MailCenter project is essentially complete and the platform is being used. From time to time, however, there are always smaller projects to use them additionally for sending other types of documents.

“With the communication platform from munich enterprise software, we can individualize sender addresses and e-mail text corpus
and attach appendices. The solution meets all our internal requirements.”

Janine Dallüge
, IT Bielefeld at Dr. August Oetker Nahrungsmittel KG

Dr. August Oetker Food KG

Within the Oetker Group, Dr. Oetker forms the umbrella of numerous production and sales companies that are active in over 40 countries and operate not only in the core markets in Europe but also in North and South America as well as in Africa, Asia and Australia. In the 2020 financial year, Dr. Oetker and the confectionery Coppenrath & Wiese generated sales of EUR 3,710 million. The companies employ more than 17,576 people worldwide. Founded more than 130 years ago in Bielefeld, the family-owned company Dr. Oetker is one of the leading branded goods companies in the German food industry.