About Fiege

FIEGE is headquartered in Greven, North Rhine-Westphalia, and is one of the leading providers of logistics in Europe. The company specializes in the development and implementation of integrated, holistic logistics systems. The Group has approximately 21,000 employees worldwide. With 222 locations and cooperative endeavors in 18 countries, the company has a dense logistics network. In 2006, the Group earned 1.75 billion euros. It boasts 2.85 million square meters of storage and logistics space, which indicates the scale of its performance capacity. In the past several years, FIEGE Deutschland has evolved from a transportation company to one of Europe’s market leaders in holistic logistics solutions in the commercial and industrial sectors.

Project goals

Online delivery of up-to-date order status information is now common practice in the logistics business. Simply providing status updates will continue to be sufficient when working with parcel carriers, but companies in other industries expect to be able to view documents related to specific orders. FIEGE From information shortage to abundance Project Report – Success Story Deutschland wanted to offer this service to its customers in a comprehensive manner and thus sought out a solution to connect the newly established F-XL Monitor tracking and tracing (T&T) solution with a web-capable archiving and document management system.

Efficiency

FIEGE offers its customers an integrated solution with the web-based T&T platform “F-XL Monitor” in connection with d.3ecm. The complete logistics chain is thoroughly documented, which guarantees the greatest possible amount of transparency for current orders. This allows FIEGE to increase its competitive advantage: If customers are able to access delivery documents themselves on the web, logistics specialists no longer need to actively provide this information, which allows them to deploy their personnel more efficiently. FIEGE customers no longer want to forgo 24/7, click-of-a-button access to information about current orders. In the past, Customer Service had to contact the logistics department to find out more information about the whereabouts of a package. The shipping agent at FIEGE then had to be contacted, who in turn had to contact the carrier. This process required many phone calls, whereas now Customer Service only needs to click a button. FIEGE transformed a cumbersome process into a simple, customer-focused service that provides a huge benefit to the company’s customers. That’s how FIEGE went from information shortage to information abundance.

Why d.3ecm?

FIEGE appreciates the simple operation of d.3ecm and its extremely fast access to documents via the web client. “We were also very impressed with the product’s wide range of available modules and the fact that many systems can be quickly and easily integrated via the open interface architecture – we experienced this first-hand with the F-XL Monitor,” said Torsten Gronemann, DMS Project Manager at FIEGE Deutschland. The d.velop team also has to remain alert when it comes to improving and expanding the project. The logistics industry moves at an incredibly rapid pace. At times, a new location has to be equipped with DMS technology in a matter of days. d.velop convincingly demonstrated that this is feasible by successfully setting up the first four locations.

Project development and status

Torsten Gronemann: “As a provider of logistical services, we’ve been focused on document management and package tracking for quite a while now. We have been using d.3ecm in our invoicing department for several years to archive incoming and outgoing invoices with SAP/FI. We already had a tracking and tracing solution in place.” However, its functionality was disappointing and it could not be connected to a DMS and archiving system. The company therefore introduced the T&T platform “F-XL Monitor” in 2005. Since then, “F-XL Monitor” has offered customers highly functional package tracking. Yet, customer requirements continue to increase. Many companies expect their carriers not only to provide information about package status, but also proof of deliveries (PoD). This brought about the idea of expanding the use of d.3 repository from the invoicing department to package tracking. d.3 repository’s open programming interface made it possible to quickly consolidate both IT platforms. d.velop technicians set up an interface between the d.3 web module and “F-XL Monitor” in a matter of days. This allowed archived documents in the “F-XL Monitor” to be displayed via the d.3 web module. Implementation of the first project then followed: At the end of 2006, the first scanner for capturing package documents was installed at the Bocholt location. The system has been up and running since March 2007. Anywhere between 1,300 and 1,800 packages are shipped daily from the Bocholt location. The packages are supplied with a proof of delivery, which has a 34-digit barcode attached. The recipient signs the proof of delivery upon receipt of the package. The shipping agent then brings it back to the company, where it is scanned with the shipping order and the barcode is copied to the attribute fields of the PoD document type. Finally, the documents are transferred to the central d.3 repository at FIEGE’s headquarters in Greven. “We don’t have the delivery note for some recipients, in which case we use the shipper’s delivery slip as proof,” explains Jörg Klöpper, F-XL Logware Support Manager at FIEGE. “For us, it’s essential to have a document that substantiates the shipping order and that can be made available to our customers via DMS and web technology in a short period of time.” Customers can then log on to the “F-XL Monitor” web platform using their login data and view the status of various packages. If the proof of delivery has been scanned, a little sticky note appears behind the package entry, which can be clicked to retrieve and display the document from the archive via d.3 web. “This service has been well received,” says Peter Hardebeck, IT Manager at FIEGE headquarters in Greven, with delight. “We recognize this by virtue of the daily retrieval of proof of deliveries.” In addition to Diageo—a major customer—numerous other customers at the Bocholt location also use the system productively. Within a short period of time, other FIEGE locations were on board too, including Dortmund (January 2008) and Lahr/Schwarzwald (February 2008), a brand new location established to serve Bridgestone—another major customer—who will also use the combined T&T/DMS solution.

Outlook

After scanning proof of deliveries at three German locations at the beginning of 2008, the locations in Hamburg and Coesfeld are due to follow suit in quick succession. In addition, FIEGE is also considering digitizing images and making them web accessible so that damage and other information can be documented. Plus, FIEGE Holding is currently developing a concept for the international expansion of the T&T solution, which is only used in Germany at present. In this scenario, d.3ecm would be used as a central DMS platform.

Facts and Figures