DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN SAP – THE REAL DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

In this blog we will get to know in detail about DMS in ERP which can bring in a real digital transformation. Everyone knows what is DMS? It is nothing but the Document Management System, which is capturing, storing and retrieving of data that are used in your business. The primary requite for DMS is to bring a true digital transformation in any kind of businesses.

The ERP system used in your business should have a DMS built as a default module or a default solution, if it’s not there, you cannot do it. So it is very much available in SAP by design as well as HANA and so on. There are lots of ways the DMS can put into use. In an ERP solution to attain digital transformation. Let us go, through the various departments of business to see how DMS can put into use.

DMS in Customer Relationship Management :

Any kind of inbound call which is an inquiry call, which is answered by a sales co-ordinator or an agent or by an automated answering machine, these can be captured as digital audio files, and they can be positioned in the inquiry. So that whenever people down the line, estimation people or the business development people, or the sales people when they build the quotations or proposals, they can always refer back to the audio files and they can prepare the quotes. So this is one way of capturing the customer information.

2. DMS in Sales :

Most of the times, what happens in sales is the scope discussions is what people do with customers. These discussions run for very long and the best way is to capture these discussions as a recorded discussion through a mobile phone or through a recording device. Convert them into an audio and put them into opportunities or inquiries and this will be very useful for the people who will be preparing quotations or proposals in the future. They can always refer it and even if there is any kind of arbitrations then these recorded documents can be reviewed.

Moreover, if there are any customer expectations which comes in the form of a picture or an image, that can also be stored in your inquires, so that the quotations can be prepared, with respect to the images which you have got which makes things crystal clear right during the quotation stage. Down the line in order processing, you can have a customer letter of intent (LOI) or customer purchase orders, basically attached in your sales order confirmation, or in your ERP system, so that these documents can be used by the people down the lane like your accounts receivable people might want to have a look at it when they are receiving the payments from the customer. These documents can also be attached.

3. DMS in Goods Receipt (GR) and Incoming Inspection :

Any customer supplied material which comes into your company, for which you do goods receipt, basically has a documentation. So there is a supplier delivery note, supplier invoice, these documents if they come into your soft copies, it’s well and good. You can have them attached to your ERP system. If it comes as a hard copy, have it scanned and put into your ERP system, so that people down the lane, say for example, accounts payable can refer it and all these documents are available in one single repository.

People can record the images of how the goods came in, they can mail it to their supplier, or the incoming quality inspectors can have pictures and photos of items which are rejected and they can have them in their system. So that when there is a credit note generated for the supplier, or a rejection note generated for the supplier, the images can go along with the credit note or if the rejection requires a detailed explanation. You can also have a video mode and have it attached to the ERP so that can also be sent to the supplier. This is how you can use DMS in the goods receipt management.

4. DMS in Delivery and Invoicing :

You can make images of the items which are delivered, the way they have been packed. The customer gets a kind of confidence of how they have been packed, and they can check if it is being received in the same condition at their end. In some of the business cases, the customer needs to sign off to authenticate that he has received the shipment in proper count, shape or size or proper condition. Then this particular authenticated sign can be scanned by the person who delivers it or can be scanned after the signed copy comes back to the office. And it can be uploaded into the system, and this can be referred back if there is any kind of arbitration that comes in the future between the customer and the company on the way it was delivered or the count it was delivered. So you can even use DMS in these situations.

5. DMS in Item Master and Asset Master :

Every item you carry contains a small image of how it looks like, and this really helps lots of people, who work in the company, like when you print a stock report that will have the image of the item, the quantity, and the people who do basically the stock taking, get to know whether they are counting the right items. The images of the items on invoices, or in suppliers, purchase order, make sure that when your customer looks at the invoices, they will get to know whether they have received the right items, and they can get to see, whether the item looks the same, as it’s been printed on the invoice. And if there is any difference, they can always report back to you. For suppliers, when you raise a purchase order, you not only put them in words, you also, put them in the picture which brings more clarity to the situation. So you can have pictures used in items.

6. Add Product Brochures, Catalogues and Test Certificates :

Product brochures, catalogues, manuals and test certificate of an item can be added along with your quote or invoice, your ERP can do that for you. So it really becomes one single repository for all your item data. Not only that, if you are an engineering company and if you have requirements to store your documents, engineering drawings which changed the level and stuffs like that, you can even have your DMS do that for you. When you have fixed asset master, you can have the images of the fixed asset populated in your ERP system. This will make sure that whenever we do a physical count of a fixed asset, the image is printed and the quantity is also printed. So whenever we count, we ensure that we are counting, the right thing by looking at the picture. It helps a lot. You can also put any product videos with respect to any items.

7. DMS in Business Partner Masters, Customers / Vendors :

In business partner master or supplier master or the customer master, if there are any trade license copies of a supplier or a customer, you can put them in. Or if there are any certification given by individuals, given by authorities for processing or manufacturing certain thing for a certain period of time you can have them stored in your ERP, and you can have your ERP remind you and check you out whenever it’s going to get expired and you can have vendor images equipment list. Images of the vendor, factory, and images of the vendor shop floor, and whatever you want to have about the vendor in the system you can have it.

Similarly, you can have the same for your customer. So it becomes one single repository, or one single place to store all your details about a customer or a supplier.

8. DMS in Production and Quality :

In production you can have assembling videos made and populate them into ERP. So that whenever a production order is executed, the people who are working on the production order can refer the assembling videos or they can refer the do’s and dont’s videos or if you want a quality inspector to inspect something you can have. The inspection manual basically video-graphed, so that he can refer to it at any point of time and he can always check whether or whatever he is inspecting is right and what is the procedure to inspect and what are the instruments and devices that needs to be inspected.

Starting from the DMS in sales to the DMS in production/quality, you can see that DMS can be used in different ways to really bring a true digital transformation in any kind of business.

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