From 2000 to 350 'standard documents' thanks to SmartDocuments
SmartDocuments has achieved an enormous improvement in quality for the municipality of Tilburg through the consistent use of existing data in documents.
A few years ago, JDEdwards was chosen as the ERP system. It quickly became clear that a connection with a document generator would provide a lot of efficiency gains for the creation of, among other things, purchase orders. The document creation platform of SmartDocuments was able to do that quickly, and it saved the municipality a lot of money, time and management effort.
What was the specific request and need?
Kurt van Dueren den Hollander is Project Leader in Tilburg: “The consequence of choosing JDEdwards was that it determined where our digital future was at. The creation of purchasing documents had to take place from JDEdwards. As a local authority, we create a lot of documents. Approximately 2000 civil servants work for the municipality, which has a population of almost 210,000 inhabitants. At one point, there were nearly 2,000 standard documents in circulation. This kept on growing, which wasn't a workable situation in terms of usage and management. We had to look for a tool that would help us get a better grip on the flow of documents – especially the creation of documents – and it had to be user-friendly. In addition to being simpler and more manageable than JDEdwards, it had to have a stable connection with it.”
“The XML generator included with SmartDocuments is by far the most developed of all the options currently on the market.”
SmartDocuments has achieved an enormous improvement in quality for the Dutch municipality of Tilburg through the consistent use of existing data in documents.
A few years ago, JDEdwards was chosen as the ERP system. It quickly became apparent that a connection with a document generator would provide significant efficiency gains for the creation of, among other things, purchase orders. The document creation platform of SmartDocuments was able to do that quickly, saving the municipality a lot of money, time, and management effort.
“The XML generator included with SmartDocuments is by far the most developed of all the options currently on the market.”
What was the specific request and need?
Kurt van Dueren den Hollander is Project Leader in Tilburg: “The consequence of choosing JDEdwards was that it determined where our digital future was at. The creation of purchasing documents had to take place from JDEdwards. As a local authority, we create a lot of documents. Approximately 2000 civil servants work for the municipality, which has a population of almost 210,000 inhabitants. At one point, there were nearly 2,000 standard documents in circulation, which kept growing, which wasn't a workable situation in terms of usage and management. We had to look for a tool that would help us get a better grip on the flow of documents – especially the creation of documents – and it had to be user-friendly. In addition to being simpler and more manageable than JDEdwards, it had to have a stable connection with it.”
“SmartDocuments has achieved an enormous improvement in quality through consistent use of existing data. Fewer errors are made because data no longer needs to be retyped.”
Connection
“The XML generator included with SmartDocuments is by far the most developed of all the options currently on the market. This formed the basis for linking the document creation platform to JDEwards. SmartDocuments uses relevant data from JDEdwards and places it in a document. Users work with a wizard that allows them to finish building the document. The user is asked questions, after which SmartDocuments retrieves the required information from other systems and inserts it into the defined layout. This enables us to create all documents from one source: SmartDocuments. It also ensures that the information from underlying sources is used consistently, with everything in the right place and reflecting the current situation.”
What is the gain?
Using SmartDocuments as a generic tool for document creation in cooperation with JDEdwards has given Tilburg a lot of advantages. Van Dueren den Hollander elaborates: "The number of municipal standard documents is now under control and reduced from 2000 to about 350. SmartDocuments has realized an enormous improvement in quality through consistent use of existing data. Fewer errors are made because data no longer needs to be retyped. An investment is quickly recouped through simplified document creation. Now we can quickly see in SmartDocuments which standard documents aren't used. This way, management is controllable and simple. Everyone works with SmartDocuments in the same consistent way."
JDEdwards as a basis, SmartDocuments as a platform.
Van Dueren den Hollander is happy with the integration realized by SmartDocuments. “Creating new outgoing documents happens via one uniform platform: SmartDocuments. We don’t need external people, for example, to make adjustments to JDEwards in order to generate those standard documents for us and adapt them periodically. That saves a lot of costs, and the in-house management is also a lot easier and faster. All procurement documents from the ERP system can now be supplemented by SmartDocuments with structured and consistent information for the recipient. An imminent integration with the business system should ensure that all these documents are also available in the digital file from which the employee serves their customers.”
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