Raben Group provides domestic and international transportation services, contract and fresh logistics, maritime, air, and intermodal transport to clients from various industries. The company has been operating in the Ukrainian market since 2003. Currently, the company employs approximately 500 staff across 24 regional branches, with the main distribution center located near Brovary. Thanks to a well-developed transportation management system, a large network of branches, and modern warehouse facilities, Raben Ukraine delivers services of the highest quality.
Operating within a company with such an extensive network of branches and a significant number of clients involves managing a large volume of document flow – about 350 documents per month related to contractual activities. To optimize the handling of such documents, the company’s management decided to implement an electronic document management system. They turned to CONTO Implementation Center, which has extensive expertise in document workflow automation projects.
The existing document management system, which had been implemented in-house, was underdeveloped and primarily used as a repository for storing documents. All contracts and related documents were approved via email and messaging platforms.
Therefore, the goal of the implementation project was to automate the procedures for creating, approving, and storing company contracts using the “BAS Document Flow CORP” electronic document management system, to increase the speed of contract approval and fulfillment, as well as to obtain analytical data for contracts.
The new electronic document management system at Raben Ukraine LLC was launched into industrial operation on May 8, 2023, across 135 workplaces. Training was conducted during the testing phase of the new system separately for different user groups. Detailed instructions for system users were developed by the implementation center specialists.
During the project, the following was implemented:
- Creation and verification of counterparties using integration with the “YouControl” system.
- Verification of power of attorney when selecting signatories in contracts and control of their expiry dates. Two weeks before the power of attorney expires, the responsible person receives a notification to renew or update it.
- 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 route and deadlines for document approval.
- Control of contract expiration dates.
- Notification mechanism for participants in the document approval process.
- Unique seamless integration with the corporate accounting system. The standard functionality of the accounting system lacks a seamless integration module. Therefore, CONTO experts have developed seamless integration with the document management system based on the BI database, allowing users to receive data and tasks from the document management system directly from the accounting system they work in.
Results of implementation project
The management and employees of LLC “Raben Ukraine” note the following results of the implementation of the new system:
- Reduction of time for contract creation thanks to the autofill file functionality.
- Increased efficiency of contract approval and execution.
- Reduction of paper-based document flow.
- Enhanced executive discipline through timely notification of users about important document events and access to the current status of document execution.
- Shortening of time for creating counterparties in the system due to integration with the “YouControl” system.
- Enhancement of company security by reducing the risk of cooperation with unreliable counterparties through their automated verification by the “YouControl” system.
- Access to analytical data on contracts and supporting documents.
We positively evaluate the results of the implementation project; the automation objectives were achieved. The management of the enterprise thanks the team at CONTO for implementing the system and preparing the company’s staff to work with the software complex. We plan further development of the information system.