Mich. Weyermann® is taking the next step toward digitalization

The family-owned company Malzfabrik Mich. Weyermann® GmbH & Co. KG, based in Bamberg (Germany), is the global market leader in specialty malts. Founded in 1879, this long-established company specializes in the production of malts, organic malts, and kosher malts, which are sold worldwide.

THE REQUIREMENT

In recent years, Mich. Weyermann® GmbH & Co. KG has been placing increasing emphasis on process digitization and resource conservation. As a result, the sales department initiated the automation of the outgoing invoice process using Outlook to replace the previous paper-based processes.

The goal was to minimize manual invoice processing and switch as many customers as possible to automated invoice processing.

The focus was on ensuring a consistent design for the emails in line with the corporate identity and on optimizing the mailing process. This is because a consistent corporate design, along with adherence to the corporate language and corporate communication guidelines, is essential for this long-established company.

THE SOLUTION: INFORMATICS E-Mail Framework

Working together with the IT and Sales teams, a concept was developed based on the INFORMATICS E-Mail Framework (EFW). This consulting solution helps to generically map complex email requirements (e.g., layout, HTML text, attachments) to documents via the Customizing user interface.

The wide range of design options available allows Mich. Weyermann® GmbH & Co. KG to meet the various requirements for email signatures. These range from different fonts, font sizes, and colors to the inclusion of a graphic logo and the embedding of social media links.

This made it possible to implement a wide variety of different user signatures in multiple languages within the SAP system, all with a consistent graphical layout. A consistent corporate identity was thus ensured across the entire sales side.  

Smooth implementation 

The implementation was incredibly simple—the email framework, which is fully integrated into SAP, was imported into SAP by the IT department at Mich. Weyermann® GmbH & Co. KG via a so-called transport. After just a few lines of code and some EFW customizing, the new emails were ready for testing by the business unit and went live shortly thereafter.

The EFW is now fully operational on the sales side—meaning that all previous paper-based processes (quotes, orders, delivery notes, shipping, and invoicing) can be replaced by the EFW.

However, for internal use of the EFW, the focus was not only on design requirements, but also on the speed of implementation and the ability to easily customize email recipients and text without requiring programming or specialized customization skills.

BENEFITS FOR ME. WEYERMANN®

The seamless integration of EFW into the SAP system allows the sales team to automatically send invoices to one or more of the customer’s contacts or email addresses after saving them or following an automatic invoicing run.

For this automated process to work, it is essential to have accurate customer and contact master data. In addition, if responsibilities vary (e.g., project management, the employee in charge, etc.), additional recipients can be added in EFW as carbon copies (cc) or blind carbon copies (BCC) during the invoicing process.

The simplified accounting process

In this context, it is particularly important to ensure that, from a technical standpoint, the invoice is sent by the actual processor—that is, even if the invoice is sent via the automated invoicing process, the processor is listed as the sender of the email. This ensures that all relevant parties are properly addressed and that invoices are issued correctly without any communication gaps.

Once an invoice has been saved or the invoicing run has been completed, the customer receives an email for each invoice with the invoice attached as a PDF. The person who entered the order at Mich. Weyermann® also receives a copy of the email.

If errors occur during shipping, they are no longer tracked in various transactions but are instead displayed centrally via the shipping reports.

The intuitive and easy-to-maintain interface minimizes the training effort required by the department.

_{By automating our digital invoicing process, we have not only streamlined a key business process but also improved customer satisfaction. In addition, we have significantly reduced our internal workload. All in all, the EFW helps us conserve resources and do our part for the environment. We save on printer ink, paper, postage, and the associated logistics costs.}

Larissa Diesendorf, Export Coordinator, and Sabine Weyermann, Managing Director of Mich. Weyermann®