DocuWare > Case Studies > IKEA Austria: Fast Grip on Paper Flood

IKEA Austria: Fast Grip on Paper Flood

Customer Company Size

Large Corporate

Region

Europe

Country

Austria

Product

DocuWare
CODA Financials

Tech Stack

MS Windows
Barcodes

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Cost Savings
Productivity Improvements
Customer Satisfaction
Employee Satisfaction

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Database Management & Storage

Applicable Industries

Retail

Use Cases

Inventory Management
Supply Chain Visibility

Services

System Integration
Software Design & Engineering Services

About The Customer

The Sweden based IKEA offers modern, functional furniture and accessories at low prices. The company further distinguishes itself by providing its customers with a variety of services connected to the purchase of furniture. IKEA's range of goods comprises more than 10,000 different articles, obtained from 2,000 suppliers in 55 countries. More than 2,100 employees work in the six stores in Austria, and an additional store will open soon. In Austria, the growth rates of the Swedish furniture house are far better than the average furniture store in the local market. In IKEA's 2002/2003 fiscal year, the company's sales reached 352 million Euros.

The Challenge

Due to the company's growth, the central accounting office faced the daunting task of filing and storing mountains of paper, which was quickly becoming harder and harder to store. For example, incoming invoices are received at each of the six stores. Before the introduction of the DocuWare document management system, the invoices were copied and mailed to headquarters, where they were sorted alphabetically and by store. Unfortunately, from time to time some of these parcels got lost and most of the documents need to be stored for seven years. IKEA decided that a document management system would provide the solution they needed.

The Solution

All relevant documents are electronically filed in a DocuWare File Cabinet. With the implementation of DocuWare, an electronic data flow was created and the employees gained immediate access to the documents. Incoming invoices are checked at each store and authorised for payment. Afterwards they are scanned, saved on the local hard disk of the scanning computer and then transferred several times a day to the central server. At headquarters, the invoices are booked into the accounting system directly from the digital entry baskets. The employees work with extra large screens showing DocuWare on one side and the accounting system, CODA Financials, on the other half of the screen. The accountants work directly from the screeneasily and smoothly. Workflow protocols make it possible to reconstruct which employee released or booked an invoice. Barcodes are used as unique identifiers for each invoice. DocuWare can read the accounting data from CODA Financials and automatically tag the invoices with the needed index data and file them.

Operational Impact

The workflow protocols created by DocuWare make it possible to reconstruct bookings and payment releases, so that the appropriate contact can be easily identified in case of inquiries.
All documents can be found directly from any workstation by a click of mouse. This makes it possible to answer questions from customers or suppliers immediately, without time consuming research in the paper filing cabinets.
Annotations and processing steps are electronically documented in the DocuWare File Cabinet. Because of this, employees can easily find information on transactions they have not processed themselves.
This advantage is also true for certified accountants during audits, says Rudolf Bubich, Director of the Accounting Department at IKEA. Because of this transparency, IKEA can offer a better service to their customers and suppliers and answer more inquiries during the same time.

Quantitative Benefit