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CNH is a world leader in the agricultural and construction equipment businesses. It employs approximately 30,000 people worldwide and has a network of more than 11,000 dealers in approximately 170 countries.
At their UK tractors and engines production facility in Basildon, a mainframe DB2 system (ERS - Evaluated Receipt Settlement) was used to manage their Purchase Ledger logistics. The system was introduced to eliminate the requirement for invoices as the basis for payment of materials and parts, and automate the production of self-billing invoices/credit notes and other accounting documentation for their 300+ strong network of worldwide parts suppliers. The process was efficient and sound in many ways, and the client did not want to change their approach, however, they wanted to find a way to avoid the large payload involved in printing high volumes of paper documents, which then had to be manually folded, inserted into envelopes, and posted to suppliers every week.
CNH wanted to implement a system that would reduce their carbon footprint as well as the considerable postage, handling and consumables costs, while offering a secure solution that would be well received by their business partners.
The solution involved setting up our ActiveDoc Document Management system. The process involves capturing the data produced by ERS and storing it into an SQL database, from where it can be merged to the appropriate templates in Crystal Reports. The electronic documents created are made available to the suppliers in pdf format via a secure website, from where they can be viewed, downloaded and/or printed. An archive facility is included in the web system, to highlight any new documents for suppliers to deal with.
The savings for CNH in postage costs alone were staggering, as was the reduction in carbon emissions by avoiding the use of large quantities of paper/envelopes/printer ink, and the related burden of transport around the postal system. The total number of documents produced and archived via ActiveDoc is in excess of 11,000 a year.
The environmental benefits are shared with CNH suppliers, who, instead of receiving paper through the post, have the options of storing the electronic documents online, or downloading them locally, to be filed electronically, although they can still be printed if required.
ActiveDoc has been welcome by CNH suppliers, who appreciate the speed of delivery, the user-friendly and secure web interface, and the benefits of its Advanced Search facility, which makes invoice retrieval exceptionally straightforward.