continuous optimization comes natural for dat-schaub

— the worldwide leader in sourcing, producing, warehousing, marketing, and distributing of natural casings and ingredients to the food industry.

DAT-Schaub accepts nothing less than perfection in the finished products and in the production. In the supporting business processes we cannot allow ourselves the luxury of perfection. In our business processes we are looking for continuous optimization. 

Delivering continuous optimization with close to two thousand people in 14 countries on three continents takes proper organization, according to Flemming Sørensen, CIO at DAT-Schaub.

DAT-Schaub facts:

Carefully managed IT landscape

One of the secrets behind DAT-Schaub’s success in delivering continuous optimization throughout the world is a tightly controlled IT landscape with Infor M3 as the cornerstone, supplemented by other best in class solutions.

Using the same tools throughout the entire group allows us to continuously optimize important business processes and adapt to changing market conditions.

Corporate information hub

Our M3 ERP handles most of our business processes, but as with any ERP systems, it leaves behind 10 maybe 20% of the processes uncatered for. Processes we had to manage with paper, Post Its, Excel sheets, and emails. Instead we decided years ago to implement Multi Support Next as our business document and process management platform. Of course closely integrated with the other components in our IT landscape, especially our M3 – says Flemming Sørensen.

All documents — from invoices to product certificates — are kept secure in Next, and hence available from anywhere, no matter if they are created in New York or in Copenhagen. Most documents are even available with the click of a mouse in M3.

Supplier invoices

One of the heavy business processes we have optimized at DAT-Schaub is the approval of supplier invoices.

Invoices that arrive on paper are scanned, and the rest is captured from invoice@dat-schaub.com and processed using M3’s automatic match routines (APS050).

The moment an invoice is captured it’s available in M3 with a click of a mouse.

Perfect. Almost

The process defined in Next Invoices takes into account the organizational hierarchy, the delegation of authority, and temporary substitutes.

This allows Next to handle 98% of invoices automatically, while the remaining 2% must be handled manually. Not perfect, but close.

Big savings

Next Invoices has saved lots of hours in accounting, but more importantly also in the business. Our purchasers and managers get things done much faster. Even when I’m travelling there is no excuse for leaving an invoice unapproved, says Johannes Haugaard, Group Director, CFO. I do look forward to the day when I can also code invoices from my iPad, he adds with a smile. 

Several other processes

Approving invoices is far from the only business process that is optimized using Next. Whenever DAT-Schaub creates a new version of a Product Specifications, Next Processes manages it from draft, over review and translation, until final production. Easing collaboration, and securing proper documentation.

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Never ending story

“Our continuous optimization will never end - in my opinion.
It’s not a project, It’s a permanent state of mind in our company.“

Flemming Sørensen, CIO DAT-Schaub

The business philosophy we find at DAT-Schaub and our vision of Next Smart Process Applications as an agile supplement to a rock solid ERP foundation, is a perfect match.

If you have questions to what we have done at DAT-Schaub or what they have achieved, feel free to contact either of us.