Reference Story s.Oliver
Alphaflow and d.velop Complete Partner Project at Fashion Company Six Weeks Ahead of Schedule
Since its inception in 1969, the s.Oliver Group has evolved into a multi-brand conglomerate. The brand portfolio includes s.Oliver, QS, comma, LIEBESKIND BERLIN, and COPENHAGEN STUDIOS. The group employs around 5,100 people internationally.
Contract Management Was Previously a Paper-Based Process
All companies manage contracts, sometimes numbering in the thousands, encompassing employment, delivery, lease, distribution, and licensing agreements. Managing these contracts used to be a largely paper-based process, which was time-consuming, especially with numerous contract partners and an international scope.
Today, companies increasingly handle contract creation, signing, management, and archiving entirely digitally. This shift saves resources, money, and time, eliminating the need for paper, printing, postage, and physical archives. Additionally, it enables seamless and location-independent digital collaboration, a crucial benefit of planned digitalisation.
Contract management and DMS
Product
> 5000
Employees
Textile industry
Industry
s.Oliver Group Moves Away from Old Contract Management System
Years ago, the fashion group s.Oliver transitioned its contract management to digital workflows. The major challenge was that the outdated software solution was increasingly problematic. The system had been extensively customised over the years, resulting in performance issues. Additionally, support for the custom solution from a major software provider was set to expire.
200 Users and 27 Different Contract Types
“We couldn’t just replicate the old software’s functionality,” recalls Robin Tschischka, Consultant in New Work at s.Oliver. “We had to start from scratch and streamline everything.” Approximately 200 users across various departments managed 27 different types of contracts in the old system.
Requirements: User-Friendly, Fast, and Adaptable
The s.Oliver Group then sought a new provider. The new solution had to meet several key criteria to significantly improve the contract management process. Robin Tschischka highlights some examples: “The new system needed to be more user-friendly, faster, and adaptable without requiring a developer for every change.”
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Few companies will admit that the way they manage their contracts is as prone to errors as it is. The results all too often are missed deadlines and a lack of clarity for managing business relationships. According to IACCM, companies are, as a result, losing on average 9,2 % of their total turnover. The fault lies not with the individual employee, but in the business process itself. It is time to act.
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d.velop and Alphaflow: Contract Management and DMS
After evaluating three potential providers, s.Oliver selected d.velop due to the impressive functionality of its cloud solution and the unique licensing model offered by its partner Alphaflow. The distinction between writing and reading licenses was a key differentiator. Moreover, d.velop’s document management system (DMS), d.velop documents, provided a practical solution for contract storage and archiving.
Alphaflow Leads the Contract Management Project
The d.velop partner Alphaflow took the lead on the contract management project, providing a dedicated contact and driving the project forward. d.velop handled the DMS implementation and supported the migration of 20,000 existing contracts to the new system. “During the migration, we used our tool to reduce complexity by eliminating unnecessary contract fields,” says Marco Doods, Account Manager Retail at d.velop.
The collaboration with both partners was excellent. Our contacts were extremely reliable, very quick, and always available. They also excelled in providing solutions.
Robin Tschischka
Consultant in the New Work area, s.Oliver Group
Achieving a Complete Contract Management System in 7 Months
From project tender to implementation, customisation, and completion, the entire process took about seven months. “Our advantage was that we could quickly start the project and immediately provide a usable version with a cloud solution,” explains Marco Doods, the contact for the s.Oliver Group at d.velop.
100% Remote Collaboration Throughout the Project
One of the main challenges was the presence of individual fields, with no consistency across different contract types. The goal was to implement a new common logic and eliminate unnecessary fields. The collaboration with both software providers was entirely remote throughout the project.
Training Videos Created for User Training
Before s.Oliver could use the new contract management system daily, all users needed training. Reading and writing users were gradually introduced to their respective contract types.
Increased Transparency with Central Archive Access
Since the go-live of the new contract management system and the migration of around 20,000 old contracts, the s.Oliver Group has saved significant time in contract management. The number of fields to be filled in was drastically reduced, and transparency improved significantly. All contracts are centrally stored, and contract details are accessible and understandable with a few clicks, thanks to the cloud-based DMS solution, even from remote locations.
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