STEAG and its more than 6,000 employees will soon be migrating to SAP S/4HANA. But before that happens, IT wants to ensure that all documents — around 20 million — are archived solidly, securely and, above all, can be retrieved with any notes. That sounds easier than it is, because in fact not only are three different ERP systems currently in use across the company, but it is particularly difficult to reproduce archived PDF files and their annotations. It wasn't until he came across the kgs H5 Viewer on the Internet that Uwe Pryka, responsible project manager at STEAG, knows that he has found a solution to his problem. Since then, a lot has happened not only for him — STEAG Accounting employees in particular have benefited from the new software.

Archive document annotations cleanly

This was preceded by Pryka's idea of reducing maintenance costs for the SAP system over the long term and making processes simpler and more comprehensible when switching to SAP S/4HANA across the company. The reason for this approach: An external service provider provides STEAG SAP — as does the archive. Pryka expected a lot from the introduction of a solution that ensures that annotations in the document, so-called annotations, as well as graphical elements that are inserted into PDF documents, can be easily processed, saved and retrieved: “Especially for the approximately 1,700 employees who regularly work with SAP, including colleagues from accounting. ”

From the outset, he placed great emphasis on making such a tool easy to use. In addition, the history of annotations was important to him and he wanted the opportunity to add individual functions or even graphical annotations. This was particularly important with regard to the stamp function of PDFs in accounting.

In the meantime, the kgs solution has not only been expanded to include stamp functions, but individual informational texts can also be written. A helpful mouse-over effect was also programmed. “If you move your mouse over an annotation, you can see who made the comment — valuable information as part of ongoing accounting processes,” explains Pryka.

But his requirement profile for the tia® H5 Viewer goes beyond these usability aspects. The most important thing was that the annotations and graphical elements created in the H5 Viewer can be easily saved and archived. Pryka: “The kgs solution is perfect for our needs. It was easy to implement, is self-explanatory to use and supports smooth and reliable archiving of annotations. “He is now well prepared — for his archiving project and subsequent migration to SAP S/4HANA.

Happy users, lean processes & fast ROI

In addition to his own satisfaction, the feedback from SAP users and PDF users has also been very positive. They welcome the fact that the tia® H5 Viewer has made it easier to add annotations to PDFs and at the same time more sustainable.

For Pryka, the secure reproduction of PDFs and their annotations after archiving is a major benefit. As part of the migration, documents will no longer be accessed via the DMS, but only via SAP. Thanks to the H5 Viewer, all editing options for the PDFs are retained, which streamlines processes and reduces the risk of errors. With a volume of 20 million documents, this is certainly significant.

“With the H5 Viewer, we came through the door absolutely lean,” says the ERP specialist, describing the savings achieved by kgs tia®. This means the fact that only license costs and a manageable operating budget need to be estimated for the H5 Viewer. “We have succeeded in taking a big step towards simplification and the future. The viewer significantly supports us with its sophisticated architecture, stability and ease of use,” says Pryka.

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