customer success story

About 4,900 employees at SFS Holding are responsible for the highest quality and precision in the manufacture of moulded components, screws, and fastening and mounting systems for the automotive, aeronautic, electronic, fitting components and tools industries. In the IT field, SFS focuses on solutions that ease work processes for employees, enable a quick adjustment to changes and support their expansion plans and leading position in chosen markets. In 2007, the four groups of companies—SFS services AG, SFS intec, SFS unimarket and SFS Locher—made total sales of 1.3 billion Swiss Francs.

Many companies today are experiencing an ever increasing flood of paper; personnel files that fill folders, bookshelves, and archives to bursting point represent a typical situation. There seems to be no end in sight. At the same time, the pressure on HR managers is growing to ensure efficient management and meet the strict legal requirements for employee management. This was also the case at SFS Holding AG until Employee File Management System for SAP® Solutions (EFM) by OpenText was introduced. In order to save space, costs and to be more efficient, this Swiss company, which is also globally active, decided to digitalize the 2,300 personnel files at the Heerbrugg headquarters. Thanks to this and the integration of EFM into SAP, they were able to reduce their mountain of paper, to lessen the archiving and management burden, to shorten communication lines and simplify processes to optimise the HR resources and to decrease the management costs while at the same time positively contributing to the environmental balance.

At SFS Holding AG each personnel file contains on average 40 documents. Everything from applications, employment contracts, reports and training certificates to contact details have created a huge paper mountain over the years, which took up valuable and costly space. The preparation, provision management, and filing were extremely time consuming for the HR department, not least because the files, being dynamic, had to be amended and processed continuously as well as be made available to the decision makers and managers. It was also a huge challenge to ensure data availability and reproducibility in accordance with legal and data protection regulations. When the company moved to their new headquarters in

Industry Manufacturing

Customer

Business Challengesn Managing personnel files within a

shorter timen Minimizing storage and archiving spacen Automating personnel processesn Increasing data protection and ensuring

revision safety

Business SolutionOpenText Employee File Management for SAP® Solutions

Business Benefitsn Personnel documents can be found

more quicklyn Enormous time savings and faster

working processesn Neat personnel files for SAP HR as well

as a neat and uniform folder structuren Searching by any defined criterian Selective use of resources for strategic

fields such as management of applicants and personnel development

n Reliable data protection, modification-proof archiving SFS Holding AG creates

SFS Holding AG Creates Digital Personnel Files with the OpenText Employee Information Management for SAP® SolutionsA digital personnel file saves time and creates more efficiency and transparency

Heerbrugg, the existing warehouse would have to be transferred as well. With the costs and space requirements for such a transfer, a new approach had to be considered. In view of the eBusiness strategy that has been followed and constantly implemented by SFS, it became clear that the constructional enlargement or renewal of the filing system was not required, but rather the realisation of the goal to “Stop the paper-based personnel filing and start with digital filing.”

Inclusion of the departments creates additional valueA workshop was conducted at SFS in order to define the requirement criteria for digital personnel filing. During the implementation phase, Guntram Küng, SAP Module Manager and IT consultant of the project at SFS Holding AG, attached great importance to the planning being initiated and guided by the departments and not by IT: “The department has to define which data and documents are to be included in the personnel file and the structure of parameters.” Küng explains the composition of the four-person human resources project team, stating that “Because they are the ones that will be using the structure of the digital personnel file daily, they have to find their way in it. During this phase, our task was to include the IT aspects, to make recommendations, and to point to possible overlaps.” This approach has paid off; the project has been accepted and positively supported by the human resources department from the beginning and throughout its implementation.

Why OpenText was the best choiceDuring an evaluation process of two suppliers, SFS decided in favor of OpenText Employee File Management for SAP® Solutions (EFM). In the end EFM prevailed against its competition for various reasons. The infrastructure had already been created due to the previous implementation of the OpenText Document Access for SAP® Solutions for the complete digitalization of the archiving and accounts payable department. As the main system was SAP, EFM could be perfectly integrated both technically and organizationally

into the overall e-business strategy and linked to the Human Capital Management (HCM) Module as an add-on. In view of the increasing number of national and international laws that require long-term storage of personnel data and documents, OpenText satisfied SFS’s needs with regards to records management and archiving laws. Furthermore, EFM provided process-orientated possibilities for design and a hierarchical folder structure, fully meeting the requirements previously defined.

Quick and smooth implementationOriginally, the implementation was planned to take half a year including a half-day workshop for the human resources employees. The imminent move as well as the simultaneous release upgrade in the SAP core system meant that the development would have stopped for two months. Therefore, the IT project team was forced to make a choice between waiting until after the release upgrade or implementing it in record time. SFS chose the latter and succeeded together with OpenText in implementing, testing and putting into operation the solution in only eight weeks. This is a remarkable effort for a project of such dimensions. All parameters were set up without any problems and specific requirements were realized by OpenText immediately. “Thanks to the two-stage hierarchy of EFM, the archive structure could be built to have the look and feel of the paper file and named in accordance with the common SFS names and terms,” states Küng. “The employees were able to cope with the organization structure from the first day.” It took two of the employees five months to scan the 2,300 personnel files consisting of 92,000 individual documents. “The sooner the whole scanning process is completed, the sooner the human resources department will be able to access all information easily and to work productively,” Küng says. Therefore, he recommended paying special attention to this aspect during the planning phase and to complete it within the shortest time period.

“OpenText Employee File Management for SAP® Solutions has fully met our expectations and has proved to be a well-engineered and practical solution that distinguishes itself in flexibility and customization options.”

Guntram Küng,SAP Module Manager, SFS Holding AG

More time for value-added programs and activitiesThe electronic management of the personnel files and close integration into SAP has enabled the human resources employees to have quick and uncomplicated access to all relevant employee data, including accounting files and corresponding original documents according to their needs. The files are reclassified, stored in a reliable manner, are modification proof and provided immediately (via the SAP master record and info type) by just one mouse click in the SAP system. This ensures the smooth and fast processing of changes to the employee records and contributes to the value-added chain of the Human Capital. The savings in resources may be used by the human resources department by adding higher value in areas such as applicant management, personnel development, subsequent planning, agreements on objectives, knowledge management or contact maintenance. Thanks to the SAP® ERP HCM standard, absolute confidentiality as well as data protection is guaranteed at the same time as ensuring that only authorized employees have access to the information.

SummaryOpenText Employee File Management for SAP® Solutions provides distinct advantages for SFS Holding AG and sets a further milestone for the eBusiness strategy of the company. The paper flood has been reduced to a minimum, the shelves and archives have been cleared, and the space requirements are vastly reduced. The flexible structure of EFM and its integration into the SAP system do not set any limits on further enhancements. In the future, further

documents and processes such as vacation planning and a temporary issue function for access to the files will also be digitalized and integrated. Küng adds: “OpenText Employee File Management for SAP® Solutions has fully met our expectations and has proved to be a well engineered and practical solution that distinguishes itself in flexibility and customization options.”

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