HARIBO is a global market leader in fruit gummies and liquorice and is available in more than 100 countries around the world.
HARIBO produces its treats at 16 locations worldwide and employs more than 7,000 people. Founded in Bonn, Germany in 1920 by one man, 2020 sees the family business in its third generation celebrate its 100th anniversary.
Ongoing innovation has been key for HARIBO and continual growth meant tedious business processes coupled with bulky files and folders had to go.
To retain their leading market position, it was critical that all their business operations ran as efficiently as possible and so in 2006 opted to use the document management software, DocuWare.
Software Integration
Their decision was based on two important factors, the first was integration with their AS/400 ERP, and the second was the excellent know-how of their DocuWare Partner when it came to replacing their old access-based DMS and migrating several million documents into the new DocuWare structure.
The requirements of the new solution were clear. Any kind of document flowing through their business – including correspondence, customer information, invoices, delivery slips, receipts, purchasing and logistics forms, order confirmations and payroll records – needed to be centrally captured and made available to authorised employees in every department.
HARIBO also wanted to enhance and standardise their existing workflows. Other goals included: worldwide use; employee access regardless of department or location, with just the click of a mouse; automatic capture of COLD data; and reduction/elimination of manual indexing.
Last, but not least, HARIBO wanted to make sure that all archived documents from their ERP solution would be directly accessible within the system to improve employee and customer satisfaction.
HARIBO uses an IBM i5 (AS/400) with ERP software as their central computer. DocuWare is installed on a Windows 2003 server running Microsoft SQL Server 2005.
The Windows workstations use the emulation software Client Access to tap into the IBM computer. Employees can also access documents via a web client.
All departments were systematically converted to the new DMS and at the
same time, everything from their old archive was merged into DocuWare.
The company’s Logistics, Product Development, Purchasing, Sales, Quality Assurance and Accounting departments are now actively using the electronic solution.
As DocuWare provides the highest levels of security, the solution is also used in the Human Resources department for highly sensitive data, alongside IT.
DocuWare’s integrated workflow capabilities are currently used most by the Product Development staff. Since they work closely with several other departments this has significantly reduced processing times.
At their Bonn headquarters alone, HARIBO archives several thousand records every day, and most of them are multi-page documents.
The storage of mass data generated by their ERP solution – such as lists, shipping records and accounts receivable invoices – into the central document pool is done automatically by DocuWare.
Paper records are captured with high performance scanners and after adding a barcode documents are automatically archived.
Employees no longer have to look through paper folders or go to the various departments for the information they need. It's available instantly from their desk saving time and improving efficiency.
Cross departmental synergies bringing benefits to each employee
Higher productivity and competitiveness
Improved customer service
Eliminated long searches for information
Employees have more time to dedicate to core tasks
Transparent flow of information
Close integration with their ERP system providing a clear ROI
Expansion of the solution into other offices across Europe
DocuWare is the cornerstone of our IT strategy, helping us to integrate software applications from all of our offices around the world, shrink costs and simplify the exchange of experiences.
