Customer Success Story
With ‘Shareflex Quality Documents’ and ‘Shareflex Contract’ Schleich GmbH improves its digital processes and gains more security, access control and transparency in document and contract management.
Efficient document management is a desirable goal for many companies. A central document archive with mobile access is challenging, especially if there is not only one, but many sites, and these on different continents. Schleich GmbH had the same experience and, together with Portal Systems, eliminated a second problem: the laborious, paper-bound contract management. It was very time-consuming, and the processes lacked transparency. Today, Schleich GmbH relies on advanced digital technologies.
Schleich had been using a digital document management system (DMS) running on-premises at its German headquarters since 2006.
‘At some point, however, this system was no longer able to meet the growing demands of a globally expanding company’, recalls Rashu Singla, IT Project Manager at Schleich. ‘In the end, the organisation saw the need to acquire a new DMS, also to be able to manage the documents generated internationally in a central document archive.’
Schleich GmbH is a manufacturer of toy figures and play sets based in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany. The company employs more than 450 people at 9 locations worldwide, including Munich, Amsterdam, London, Charlotte and Tokyo. It has its products manufactured by suppliers at 7 production sites in Europe, Asia and North Africa. Schleich GmbH was founded in Stuttgart in 1935 as a manufacturer of plastic parts and is now one of the largest toy manufacturers in Germany, with a turnover of more than 230 million euros. Since 2015, Schleich GmbH has expanded from the DACH region and other European countries to North America and Asia, especially Japan, more than doubling its turnover.
The problem: The old, little-used legacy system could not systematically capture globally generated document types such as process documents, operating instructions and others.
‘When it came to contract management,’ explains Singla, ‘it was the legal department that took the initiative with IT. Because actually, no digital contract management system in the true sense of the word existed yet.’ Instead, signed contracts were manually uploaded into the old DMS. ‘There were no systematic processes or workflows.’ Moreover, the people who reviewed and approved the documents were exchanging contracts via email. ‘And all of this without a tracking tool that could be used to determine the status of a contract – i.e. what was still open and what was not.’
In addition, numerous media breaks in the information management of the data slowed down the signing process. ‘There was no standardised way of using digital signatures,’ adds Rashu Singla. ‘Once the contract was approved, it had to be sent as a PDF to the authorised signatory, who would then print it, sign it and send it back.’ All in all, it was a laborious solution that the legal department wanted to replace. ‘The whole process chain took up a lot of time and was quite opaque because there was no specific place for the contracts to be stored.’
When selecting a DMS, Schleich’s main focus was on information and data security. Another important requirement was to have full control over access rights. And it had to be a SharePoint-based solution ‘because we are integrated into the Microsoft ecosystem’. It was also important to ensure that the system could easily handle user migration. ‘For example, that you can easily grant and restrict permissions, etc. when someone leaves the company or changes departments.’ Finally, it had to be a cloud solution.
Silas Gimbel, Global Business Process Manager at Schleich, adds: ‘We already had workflows for the DMS that we really wanted to improve so that employees could be more directly involved in the processes.’ He continues: ‘For contract management, another very important aspect was that we also wanted to purchase a digital signature tool to simplify the processes. With Shareflex Contract, we found a solution as a basis for our digitisation efforts that optimally supports us in the use of digital signatures.’
‘As we already knew that we were looking for a SharePoint-based system, we approached our key account business partner at Microsoft, who recommended four or five software consultants they work with,’ explains Rashu Singla. ‘And all the consultants we spoke to could recommend Shareflex as a solution.’ So they got in touch with Portal Systems and expressed their interest in Shareflex. ‘I asked if they would also implement the software, and they said yes.’ The DMS and contract management were subsequently able to fully convince in a presentation, explains Rashu Singla.
‘In the first meeting with Portal Systems, we outlined our requirements,’ says Rashu Singla, describing the next steps. ‘Then we gave Portal Systems an impression of our current system and described what the ideal system would look like.’ However, Portal Systems did not go straight in and try to sell Schleich a software package, but first listened to what problems existed and how they could best solve them. ‘That was one of the reasons why Portal Systems convinced us as a supplier,’ says Silas Gimbel.
Equally important was the fact that Portal Systems was both the manufacturer of ‘Shareflex’ and the service provider that would implement the software, and was immediately ‘willing to create and share a software demo based on our requirements.’
‘So we didn’t have to rely on a third party, just on Portal Systems’ expertise. If problems arose, we could contact Portal Systems directly to resolve them. That’s a big advantage because you get feedback from the manufacturer very quickly. It was the whole package and the software itself that convinced us.’
‘The demo was completed really fast,’ says Silas Gimbel with genuine enthusiasm. ‘We looked at the demo with some internal stakeholders and wanted to see for ourselves if it really met our requirements.’ There was a lot of positive feedback internally. ‘In the end, all this convinced us to take the next steps with Shareflex.’
Rashu Singla describes the cooperation with Portal Systems as ‘very good’. ‘The conditions for productive collaboration were perfect,’ he explains, ‘but we also had a lot of homework to do in the beginning.’ Finding and collating the right information. To pass on the most important functions that were not to be missing in the implementation of the new software. ‘Portal Systems approached us with many suggestions on how to implement things better,’ recalls Singla. ‘Overall, everything went very smoothly because we were in touch all the time. There was never a moment when we lacked support from Portal Systems.’ Two people were assigned to the implementation, one of whom was always available.
The DMS ‘Shareflex Quality Documents’ was launched after 8 months, the contract management system ‘Shareflex Contract’ two months later. ‘The original plan to launch both at the same time didn’t work out,’ says Silas Gimbel. ‘So we focused on the DMS first, split the go-live dates, created training materials such as videos for the DMS, organised a QA session and closed that topic first.’
Only then did they focus on contract management. ‘This was a good decision, also for our stakeholders, not to overburden them with a big go-live.’ Further adjustments were postponed until the following year, as they were not necessarily needed from the outset. This also simplified the overall process. ‘We learnt not to implement everything on our list immediately, but to take it one step at a time.’
Since then, everything has become more structured. ‘Previously, there was always one person in quality management who you had to contact all the time,’ explains Gimbel. ‘For example, there were email conversations containing documents that had to be uploaded to the DMS.’
‘Today we have clear roles and responsibilities at Schleich. There are super-users in the various departments who can do a lot of things themselves – creating and uploading documents, for example. We manage the DMS – and don’t maintain it like we used to. And thanks to Portal Systems and Shareflex, we are much more digital than before.’
In terms of contract management, ‘there is now a structure for the review and approval process,’ says Rashu Singla. ‘It used to be done by email, but now there are clear rules about who can see contracts at certain times. In addition, we now use digital signatures, so most contract documents no longer need to be printed.’ All in all, Shareflex Contract has reduced the time needed for approvals and reviews, made the process much more transparent and ensured that there is one place where all contract documents can be stored.
‘All users have access to Shareflex Quality Documents, the DMS,’ says Silas Gimbel, describing the user base of the new software. ‘They can all work with the system, but not all of them are allowed to create documents. This is usually limited to one or two super-users per department.’ A matrix was created for this purpose. About half of the workforce has access to the contract management system ‘Shareflex Contract’.
In order to enable all employees to use the software constructively, internal training was provided at Schleich. Rashu Singla explains the process: ‘We provided internal training by creating video tutorials and offering QA sessions for those who did not understand the content of the videos, so that they could ask questions about workflows and all kinds of topics.’
Shareflex® Contract
With Shareflex Contract, you can organise your digital contract management and keep track of all deadlines.
Initially, Schleich’s staff had mixed reactions to the new software. ‘It’s like any time a company introduces new tools and processes,’ says Singla ‘Some people were used to working with the old system. For them, the transition meant a big change in the way they worked,’ he says. ‘Those who had hardly used the old system, or even knew about it, got used to working with ‘Shareflex Quality Documents’ and ‘Shareflex Contract’ more quickly.’ And then there were those whose job it was to maintain the old DMS at great expense. ‘Of course, they were excited about how practical Shareflex is to use,’ says Rashu Singla.
‘The use of the software is becoming more and more popular,’ says Rashu Singla. ‘More and more people are using the software, both the DMS and the contract management system. Acceptance is growing day by day, week by week, month by month. The number of new documents in the system is also constantly growing, and that’s worldwide.’ For example, documents are also being created in the system in the USA and elsewhere.
The collaboration with Portal Systems is not over yet. ‘We have a kind of parking lot scenario in our company, where we collect requests for improvement of the DMS and contract management system from the departments, which we then examine and implement step by step,’ says Rashu Singla. ‘We have recently implemented a DMS package and last year we implemented a contract management package.’ There is continuous monitoring, combined with regular updates. ‘We are constantly working with Portal Systems to adapt the system to our needs,’ Rashu Singla says contently.
Patrick Carl
Chief Sales Officer
Email: info[at]portalsystems.de
