A.G.R. GROUP

LLC “GYDT AGRO” is an agricultural enterprise established in 2007 and is one of the 19 legal entities that are part of the A.G.R. Group agroholding.

A.G.R. Group is a private agricultural holding that unites Ukrainian agricultural companies specializing in the cultivation of corn, sunflower, and soybeans. The agricultural products of the holding are grown from high-quality seed material using modern technologies and comply with standards that allow the products to be sold on external markets. Concerned with the quality of its products, the holding expands its production capacities and pays special attention to the efficiency of crop production by implementing state-of-the-art technologies. All agricultural products are sold for export.

The prerequisites and goals of the project

The holding encompasses a large number of organizations and collaborates with legal entities and individuals across the country, requiring timely exchange and strict control of a large number of documents – the company processes over 1000 documents per month. The holding previously used an in-house document approval system based on a corporate web resource. However, over time, it ceased to meet the company’s business needs.

To optimize work with such a volume of document flow, the management of A.G.R. Group decided to implement a modern electronic document management system.

The main goal of the project is to increase the efficiency and speed of processing various types of documents by performers through the creation, approval, and execution of documents in electronic form, as well as the prompt provision of necessary documents and related information to participants in the document flow for decision-making. The highest priority was given to documents related to the contract lifecycle (contract approval, signing with counterparties, invoices, acts, invoices, etc.).

To implement the project, the Implementation Center CONTO was invited, whose specialists, after conducting an examination and analysis of current business processes related to various types of documents, proposed the “BAS Document Workflow CORP” software product as the basis for the new system.

The project progress:

1. Conducted interviews with key experts of the company across all automation blocks, resulting in the formation of the implementation project plan.
2. Developed functional requirements for the system.
3. Installed and configured the system, including organizational structure representation, reference information, and the setup and refinement of user access rights distribution system for different organizations, clusters, types, folders, and documents.
4. Customized the standard configuration to adapt the functionality to the needs of the holding.
5. Developed detailed user instructions, provided training for database administrators, and provided support during the system’s implementation into industrial operation.

The new electronic document management system based on “BAS Document Flow CORP” was launched on December 1, 2023, with 100 workplaces.

During the implementation of “BAS Document Flow CORP,” the following functionalities were implemented:

• Functionality for creating and approving counterparties by the company’s security service, enhancing the security of selecting and cooperating with partners.
• Creation and approval of contracts and accompanying documents (specifications, additional agreements).
• Configuration of links between all system documents.
• Functionality for autofilling files when creating contracts and additional agreements.
• Tracking file changes through versioning.
• Automation of contract approval and tracking of approval deadlines. The system automatically calculates the approval route and deadlines for document approval.
• Control over contract expiration dates.
• Mechanism for notifying participants of the document approval process.
• Automation of work with accounting documents, their signing, and exchange with the accounting system.
• Creation and storage of personnel documents such as applications and orders.
• Automation of work with correspondence – incoming and outgoing company documents.
• Implementation of official and internal regulatory documents of the company (orders, policies, regulations, powers of attorney).

During the project implementation, the standard functionality was also enhanced with the following:

• Signing documents in the “BAS Document Flow CORP” database with a qualified electronic signature (QES).
• Integration of “BAS Document Flow CORP” with external electronic document management platforms (EDM). After signing the documents, exchange with counterparties occurs on the respective platforms.
• Implementation of the ability to exchange and process documents between companies within the holding within a single system.
• Exchange of personnel documents with the accounting system for applying QES and storing printed forms in the “BAS Document Flow CORP” database.
• Storage of any documents with applied digital signatures in a unified database with fast search capabilities and access rights segregation.

The management and employees of the A.G.R. Group acknowledge the following results from the implementation of the system based on “BAS Document Flow CORP”:

• Creation of a unified information space for data formation, storage, processing, analysis, and statistics in documents.
• Reduction in contract creation time due to the functionality of automatic file completion.
• Increased speed of document processing by executives from various structural units through working in a unified information database.
• Decrease in paper document circulation.
• Enhancement of executive discipline through timely notification of users about key document events and providing access to the current document status.
• Control during creation and prevention of errors in filling out counterparties due to the automation of the approval procedure.
• Access to analytical and statistical data on contracts and accompanying documents.
• Generation of reports, control, and analysis of document circulation across different types of documents.
• Improved convenience and security in searching, viewing, and storing documents.

The management of A.G.R. Group positively evaluates the project results, as the set goals of automation have been achieved. The leadership expresses gratitude to the team of CONTO company for the successful implementation of the electronic document management system and the preparation of the enterprise personnel for working in the new system.