Reference story Polipol Group

Polipol lives the d.velop platform: From the introduction of digital files to invoice processing with SAP.

• Document management system
• E-mail archiving
• Digital invoice processing

Polipol saves a Lot of time when processing documents

The Polipol Group

What began in 1990 with four employees and a first series of upholstered furniture has grown into an international group with over 8,000 employees: today, the Polipol Group produces thousands of armchairs, sofas, beds and other furniture every year. In order not to stand still, the group is continuously improving at its 13 locations.

Introduction of the d.velop DMS in 2014

At the beginning of the 2010s, the company identified digital documents as one of the areas with potential for improvement. Incoming invoices in particular accounted for a high percentage of the accounting team’s work. Polipol would like to invest this time in more value-adding activities. As of 2024, there are now over 40 million documents in the document management system.

“We already had a document management system, but we were not satisfied with it for various reasons”, describes Stefan Kuhlemann, Team Leader IT Project Management at Polipol holding gmbH & co. kg, “So we introduced the d.velop DMS in 2014.” Kuhlemann quickly realises when working with d.velop AG: “The spirit is just right.” This is a fortunate coincidence for the Polipol Group. Because the company has to work with a large number of documents. With over 300 furniture models (over 150 TV armchairs alone), an annual turnover of over 500 million euros and global, multilingual activities, dealing with documents appears to be a solid challenge. With paper and pen, spreadsheets and simple e-mail forwarding chains, processes in such large companies take considerably longer than necessary, and the error rate is often correspondingly high.

The DMS offers many possibilities beyond a pure archive system

Initially, Polipol used the d.velop document management system (DMS) purely as a filing and archiving system. To be able to file documents, archive them in a legally compliant manner and find them again. But that changed. Kuhlemann: “We saw many more possibilities.” For example, the integration of d.velop DMS in Outlook. Kuhlemann: “That was a particularly nice moment for me as project manager, it was an “aha” moment for many employees.”

Automated e-mail processing

Integration in Outlook

This ‘aha moment’ consisted above all in the fact that d.velop DMS automatically reads information and files from e-mails and integrates them into the database. Example: An e-mail in customer service, such as a complaint. This no longer needs to be manually entered into the document management system. “That used to require quite a lot of manual work,” says Kuhlemann. Today, Polipol employees can simply enter the file into the system with a few clicks. The software automatically reads information such as the subject line and enters it in the corresponding fields; employees have the opportunity to make corrections.

“When the employee doesn’t need to be convinced first”

“These are moments that are simply great”, says Kuhlemann, “when the employee doesn’t have to be convinced first.” Kuhlemann is alluding to the advantage of using the d.velop DMS in this area — processes such as email processing are faster, easier and error-free thanks to text recognition and the automatic completion of input masks. Kuhlemann: “These are things that make everyday work easier. If someone files thousands of documents a day, whether in sales or customer service, it’s a mass process in the email inbox, and every five seconds of time saved is of course a highlight.”

User interface is intuitive and saves time

By using d.velop DMS, Polipol now saves a lot of time that previously had to be spent on the assembly line work of laboriously typing information from subject lines or from the e-mail corpus.

The intuitive usability of the d.velop DMS interface facilitated the implementation process. Employees who approve invoices via a web client, for example, can use the system without lengthy training. Kuhlemann: “For example, nobody needs training to be able to shop in an online shop. It’s just different when every employee can use a web interface that works as intuitively as they are used to in their private lives.”

Polipol has explained some special functions to key users, who have passed them on and taken them into their departments. Kuhlemann: “A basic understanding of the product was actually achieved relatively quickly by every user who is reasonably computer-savvy.”

In the cloud or on-premise?

For many companies, the question arises as to whether they should run a system such as the d.velop document management system in the cloud or on-premise (on their own servers). Both approaches can have specific advantages and disadvantages, depending on the intended use and available resources. The Polipol Group opted for a hybrid approach. The document management system itself primarily runs on-premise — the d.velop servers work locally in the Polipol data centre. However, some functions are in the cloud. ‘In my opinion, this is the best implementation for a company of our size,’ says Kuhlemann, “because you can simply take all the advantages from both worlds without being able to list any disadvantages.”

One of the advantages is that Polipol can manage the DMS itself. The company headquarters in Diepenau, Lower Saxony, employs around 55 people in its own IT department. ‘We have a strong resource base,’ says Kuhlemann, “which is of course an advantage that not every smaller company has.” Nevertheless, Polipol also utilises many advantages of special functions. These are stored in the cloud and are therefore always up to date.

Advantages of the d.velop document management system for Polipol

• Intuitive user interface
• Seamless integration in Outlook — simply file documents with just a few clicks
• System automatically reads subject lines and integrates information
• Time savings through automation: system recognises text from scanned and digital invoices (e.g. PDF) and inserts the information into the screen
• Saves time by simplifying processes relating to documents such as approvals, queries, forwarding, etc.
• Connection to SAP
• Location-independent
• Processing of e-invoices (electronic invoices); for example through ZUGFeRD or through the Polish KSeF
• Purchase requisitions (‘requisitions’) integrated
• Cost benefits thanks to web interface — not every user needs an SAP licence
• Holistic system that can map all relevant processes

A lot of working time saved through digital invoice processing

It didn’t take long for Polipol to find further potential in the d.velop document management system: digital invoice processing. This meant that Polipol could say goodbye to searching for invoices and the constant chasing up on the phone. Around 100,000 incoming invoices per year caused a lot of manual work at the Polipol Group: “Every incoming invoice had to be typed out, regardless of whether it was in paper or digital form,” describes Kuhlemann, “that was really one of the primary accounting tasks for us: laboriously typing out every booking line and, of course, the header information.” Added to this was the work involved in scanning and archiving the documents.

Within just three months, the Polipol Group had utilised digital invoice processing with the d.velop document management system at a first location. Kuhlemann: “It worked really well, the documents now go from the email inbox to the DMS and the final analysed invoice then ends up in SAP.”
The system is also compatible with e-invoice formats such as ZUGFeRD or the Polish KSeF. Accounting staff can see the finalised information in a large screen and can thus manually rework the few cases in which information was not automatically recognised by the system.

Digital processes simplify the approval of invoices — even when travelling

Polipol not only saves time when entering invoices, but also through the approval processes, which are now digitally mapped in the DMS. Anyone who has to approve an invoice receives a message in their inbox. The responsible employees can view the current status of invoices to be approved and queries are also made easier by the system. This makes the tedious tracing of e-mail chains a thing of the past. Substitution situations can also be mapped in no time at all: Once set up, the system knows who is authorised to give approval, who is on holiday and which employee is standing in for which employee. This also works on the move, via smartphone, tablet or notebook.

Kuhlemann: “It’s not just about simplifying the automatic posting mechanisms, but also about the approval processes behind them. A document shouldn’t just be entered so that the accountant can check whether the accounts are correct; someone also has to say whether the content of the invoice is correct, whether the goods have arrived or have even been ordered.”

The relevant persons do not even need their own SAP access for this, as the invoices can be viewed via the d.velop DMS using a web view. “This also has cost advantages,” says Kuhlemann, “users who didn’t have an SAP account before the introduction of digital invoice processing don’t need one because of these processes.” All in all, Stefan Kuhlemann draws a positive conclusion: “The DMS from d.velop is a product that simply satisfies us all round.”