case study

Founded in 1979 as a subsidiary of Sony Corporation, Vienna-based Sony Austria GmbH currently employs approximately 90 people and plays a key role in Sony’s global entertainment strategy. Sony‘s music, video, games, and online businesses make it one of the world‘s leading brands. Its audio, video, communica-tions, and IT products are also renowned in their industries.

Sony’s portfolio of high-quality products is backed up by professional brand management, including pro-fessional marketing instruments, efficient customer communication, and intense, dedicated customer support. To keep its strategy moving forward as efficiently as possible, Sony Austria depends on a smooth back office workflow. For this purpose, the firm chose SAPERION software implemented by Ammonit EDV Consulting GmbH.

The SAPERION software components are highly flexible, enabling integration into existing IT struc-tures. This permits capturing, distribution, manage-ment, archiving, and retrieval of important infor-mation. Sony Austria utilizes the SAPERION ECM system for a variety of purposes, such as approval and archiving of travel expenses, archiving of deliv- ery certificates, providing data to outside employ- ees, and investment authorizations.

Norbert Gutmann, director of the IT department at Sony Austria, describes the company’s use of the system with this real-life example: “Investment approvals and archiving are handled through stan-dardized forms in SAPERION. These documents are automatically forwarded to every department involved in the process. For example, when I need to purchase IT-related hardware, I start an invest-ment request, which is assigned an identification number and forwarded to controlling. There my request is checked against the budget. The next step is approval by the CFO, who returns the request to the IT department so we can place the order”, says Mr. Gutmann. According to him, this procedure is highly effective and saves a great deal of time. With this system, the company has achieved much higher productivity over the previous paper-based system, which ran through internal mail. “I can even add remarks like “urgent” to my investment requests before passing them on. Having a traceable history of each document is also very useful, because we can see where in the process it gets delayed“. Since implementation of the ECM system, throughput times for internal procedures have been greatly reduced because individual business cases can be handled much faster. This gives the employees more time for other responsibilities.

SONY AUSTRIA

Streamlined approvals with SAPERION

The situation

Strategy

Implementation

THE CHALLENGE:

+ Smooth back office workflows

THE SOLUTION:

+ SAPERION ECM

+ SAPERION Workflow

+ Approval and archiving of travel expense documents

+ Archiving of delivery certificates

+ Investment approvals

THE BENEFITS:

+ Shorter processing times, faster throughput

+ Traceability of internal business procedures

+ Fewer errors

+ Faster retrieval of relevant information

+ International applicability

AT A GLANCE:

+ Industry: Trade, consumer electronics/IT

+ Core subject: Workflow, document archiving

+ Integrations: SAP, Microsoft Office

Objectives

case study

Fon: +41 (44) 735 46-00Mail: international@saperion.comwww.saperion.com

HEAD OFFICE INTERNATIONAL SAPERION (Schweiz) AGIn der Luberzen 19CH-8902 Zürich

CONTACT

We look forward to helping your firm achieve its objectives.

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Norbert Gutmann, Director IT Department

Sony Austria

„SAPERION applications can be used for operations that span multiple countries. This is tre-mendously important for a company as internationally-oriented as Sony because it allows us to integrate sister companies like Sony Switzerland into our approval processes.“

SAPERION AG

Sony Austria

Company overviews

Sony is a leading manufacturer of audio, video, communications, and information technology for consumers and professional users. The company is recognized around the world for electronics like the BRAVIATM high-definition LCD television, CybershotTM digital cameras, Handycam® camcorders, Alpha digital single-lens reflex cameras, Walkman® MP3 players, VAIOTM computers, and professional HD camera systems, especially models of the XDCAMTM HD series.

Sony is the only manufacturer in the industry to offer a complete high-definition value chain and is one of the leading digital entertainment brands competing in the electronics, music, film, games, and online segments. The company employs approximately 170,000 people around the world. www.sony.at

Ammonit possesses extensive experience implementing HR-related document management systems and projects. The firm’s mission is to execute solutions that successfully fulfill its clients‘ requirements. Ammonit‘s wide range of experience is one of its most important assets, which it utilizes to the benefit of its customers.

Ammonit EDV Consulting GmbH is a reliable partner for implementation of business processes, compre-hensive service, and intensive support. Years of project experience and provision of complete solutions deliver value for Ammonit clients. www.ammonit.at

The European software provider SAPERION offers midsize and global organizations a high-performance software platform for Enterprise Content Management. SAPERION AG has worked together with global players for many years and has preserved its straightforwardness, flexibility and responsiveness. The SAPERION products empower corporations by addressing the needs for efficient management of all com-pany information while creating competencies across the operation by streamlining and automating busi-ness processes.

SAPERION’s vision is to bring together companies, people and processes so that they can respond quickly and make informed decisions in today’s dynamic markets. More than 1,850 companies from various indus-tries world-wide enhance their product quality and increase customer satisfaction with SAPERION, while reducing costs and thus gaining a vital competitive edge.

Fon: +41 (44) 735 46-00Mail: international@saperion.comwww.saperion.com

HEAD OFFICE INTERNATIONAL SAPERION (Schweiz) AGIn der Luberzen 19CH-8902 Zürich

CONTACT

We look forward to helping your firm achieve its objectives.

v1

Ammonit EDV Consulting GmbH