Customer Success Story
Thanks to Shareflex Invoice, New Flag speeds up the invoice approval process and gains full control
Partners Emrich Consulting and Portal Systems make invoice processing more efficient and transparent.
New Flag is growing rapidly: processes are becoming a bottleneck
After years of dynamic expansion, New Flag GmbH found itself in a phase where its internal structures could barely keep pace with the company’s development. ‘The challenge was the very, very rapid growth,’ recalls Christian Engl, Associate Director of IT Product & Operations at New Flag. This development not only led to an increase in the number of employees, ‘but also to a massive increase in incoming invoices.’ The existing processes, heavily influenced by the traditional circulation of physical signature folders, were increasingly becoming a bottleneck. The pandemic made it clear that this system had ‘had its day, because employees were working from home and were not coming back permanently afterwards.’
Founded in 2010, New Flag GmbH is a Munich-based company that positions itself as a distributor and brand developer in the beauty sector. As well as operating through traditional sales channels to drugstores and perfumeries, it also has a professional division for hairdressers and sells directly to end customers online. New Flag now has an international presence, operating in numerous countries such as France, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom and the USA, and has several subsidiaries. Employing over 300 people, the company brings together marketing, logistics, sales and market development under one roof, enabling it to bring beauty brands to market in a targeted manner.
Invoice approvals require a new invoice verification tool
At the same time, the complexity and critical importance of fast and transparent invoice approvals increased, making a new invoice verification tool necessary. Ad hoc solutions, such as email approvals, quickly proved insufficient because, as Christian Engl recalls, ‘it was no longer feasible in terms of scale and frequency’.
This made two things clear to New Flag: Firstly, a new solution for incoming invoice verification was needed. Secondly, this would not merely be a process optimisation. ‘The company had reached the limits of one of its core processes,’ Engl continues. At the same time, the Coronavirus pandemic acted as an ‘accelerator’. This made the introduction of a professional incoming invoice verification tool inevitable.
New Flag seeks solution for entire invoicing process
New Flag established clear and practical requirements for the new software solution. These were derived entirely from the real bottlenecks in the previous process. ‘A key factor was a high level of automation, especially when reading PDF invoices,’ explains Christian Engl. ‘This means that attributes such as amounts, suppliers, or cost centres can be transferred without manual effort.’ Equally important was a fully digital, seamless solution that would map the entire process, from invoice receipt to approval, replacing paper and email workarounds in the process.
Software must flexibly map individual internal workflows
In addition, New Flag needed a system that could flexibly map individual internal workflows, including various approval levels, responsibilities and escalations. ‘The software also had to offer integrated archiving so that invoices could be stored in the document management system in an audit-proof manner,’ says Engl, highlighting another important function. Since this is an ‘audit-relevant’ process, compliance capability was a mandatory criterion. Furthermore, seamless integration with the existing ERP system was required so that invoices could be imported into the ERP system ready for processing and processed there without any additional effort.
Emrich Consulting was already New Flag’s IT partner
Collaboration with Shareflex partner Emrich Consulting, and subsequently with Shareflex manufacturer Portal Systems, arose naturally at New Flag due to the company’s existing IT history. Before setting up an internal IT department, New Flag had effectively outsourced the entire IT function to Emrich Consulting for years. ‘Emrich Consulting was essentially New Flag’s IT department,’ explains Christian Engl.
The collaboration originally began in the context of ERP and developed into a comprehensive IT partnership, with Emrich Consulting increasingly acting as a technical ‘landscape consultant’. ‘When the need for a digital invoice verification solution became apparent, Emrich Consulting brought in providers with whom they had already had positive experiences, including Portal Systems,’ Engl continues.
Shareflex based on SharePoint: in line with New Flag’s strategy
The decision to choose the Shareflex Invoice solution from Portal Systems was influenced by two key factors. On the one hand, there was trust in Emrich Consulting as a long-standing partner, and the partner had already contributed expertise. On the other hand, the Portal Systems solution met all of New Flag’s previously defined functional requirements. ‘A fundamental strategic decision also had a major influence,’ reveals Christian Engl, ‘because New Flag wanted to consolidate its IT landscape with Microsoft applications wherever possible in future.’ Since Shareflex is based on Microsoft’s SharePoint, it was the perfect technological fit for this strategy and further reinforced the decision.
Good collaboration: New Flag, Emrich, and Portal Systems
The collaboration between New Flag, Emrich Consulting and Portal Systems was characterised by trust and a focus on achieving goals right from the outset. ‘During the introductory phase, Emrich Consulting acted as the central point of contact and coordinated with Portal Systems behind the scenes,’ says Christian Engl, describing the organisational structure, and adds: ‘This structure relieved New Flag of pressure and accelerated the project launch.’ As internal IT expanded and a dedicated product owner was introduced for Shareflex, the collaboration shifted increasingly towards a direct, constructive partnership with Portal Systems. ‘After the successful launch in Germany, we worked together to roll out the solution in additional countries and integrate further Shareflex products,’ says Engl, expressing his satisfaction.
New Flag: Close cooperation in turbulent times
Despite the dynamic corporate situation, characterised by strong growth, numerous parallel projects and intensive change, cooperation between all parties remained solution-oriented at all times. ‘The biggest challenges lay less in working with our partners and more in prioritising internal requirements at New Flag during a period of intense activity,’ explains Christian Engl. Once this clarity had been established, ‘we were well on our way,’ he emphasises. In retrospect, he describes the project as a closely coordinated collaboration that functioned reliably, even in turbulent times, and led, step by step, to a stable, jointly supported system landscape.
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New Flag’s experience with Portal Systems: efficient and reliable
New Flag’s collaboration with Portal Systems was characterised by pragmatism, efficiency and reliability. Christian Engl emphasises that the Portal Systems team was ‘always looking for pragmatic solutions and highly efficient implementations’, meaning that even complex requirements could be addressed quickly.
Fast and effective support from Portal Systems
The competent support was also impressive: “When things get tight, we receive fast and effective support,” emphasizes Engl. The in-depth product knowledge of the Portal Systems contact persons meant that not only could short-term solutions be found, but sustainable, stable systems could also be set up. This led to a solution-oriented and trusting collaboration that helped New Flag successfully implement the digitisation of its invoice verification process.
Major improvements thanks to Shareflex Invoice at New Flag
For New Flag, the biggest advantages of the new Shareflex Invoice solution are transparency, efficiency and control. ‘Since its implementation in early 2022, the turnaround time for invoice approvals has improved significantly, even though previous processes were so unstructured that it is difficult to compare specific figures,’ says Christian Engl. The newly gained transparency across the entire workflow is particularly valuable. ‘The finance team can now see at a glance which invoices are pending in which departments, which are already overdue but not yet approved, and which have been sent automatic reminders via follow-up messages.’
Shareflex Invoice: reliable, traceable invoice processing
The system also supports the dual control principle and strengthens cost awareness, as invoices and budget drivers are always visible. The stability and auditability of the process has also increased significantly. ‘We can really prove who touched and approved the workflow and when,’ emphasises Christian Engl.
‘Overall, Shareflex Invoice enables more efficient, reliable and traceable invoice processing, strengthening New Flag both organisationally and financially.’
Shareflex brings new transparency and process stability
Around 150 users at New Flag use the Shareflex solution, all of whom are involved in the invoice verification process in different roles, ranging from factual validation to C-level approval. According to Christian Engl, the software was ‘accepted very quickly and well, especially by senior staff, who appreciate the new transparency and process stability.’ Overall, however, the project is considered one of the ‘easier change projects’, as the benefits of the solution quickly became apparent to the broad user group. New Flag supported the rollout with training sessions and onboarding videos, enabling all users to utilise the software’s features quickly and efficiently.
Shareflex® Invoice
Digital invoice processing with SharePoint and Microsoft 365
Shareflex Invoice supports your financial accounting throughout the entire process chain, from invoice entry and processing to archiving.
- ✯ Keep track of all your deadlines dates
- ✯ Workflow-based invoice review and approval
- ✯ Integrates easily with your existing ERP
New Flag plans further cooperation with partners
New Flag intends to continue working with Portal Systems and Emrich Consulting. The current focus is on continuing to use the existing solutions, particularly Shareflex Invoice, Contract (contract management) and Documents (document management). Christian Engl explains that the company wants to streamline the contract process again, as it has become ‘somewhat diluted’ internally. The goal is to systematically archive all contracts using the tool to ensure stable storage and traceability, ‘instead of documents getting lost or being signed informally’.
Long-term and reliable cooperation
Apart from this optimisation, no further projects are currently planned with the two partners. Nevertheless, New Flag considers the cooperation to be reliable and long-term. Currently, however, the focus is on consolidating and increasing the efficiency of existing processes.
Any questions? I will be happy to answer them personally!
Patrick Carl
Chief Sales Officer
Email: info[at]portalsystems.de
