In October 2018, Midtfjord Agro began their digital journey towards less paper waste and simplified workflows. A wish that Birgit Henningsen had had for a long time before they implemted Document Capture. A Continia additional module for the DSM solution that makes everyday life easier for the entire organization.
Document Capture
With Document Capture from Continia, you can automate the handling of documents - from receiving and registering a document to approval, posting and finally searching for documents from the digital archive. Read more about Document Capture.
Lack of overview in everyday work life
The decision to invest in Document Capture had been on its way for a few years. Not because it didn't make sense for Midtfjord Agro, but because the price seemed too high in relation to the value the solution could bring. They had originally been presented with Document Capture during the transition to DSM in 2015, but at the time they thought it was too much money. Only when Casper Larsen, the owner, took over the company in 2017, did the considerations begin again.
Questions such as "how much time do you spend now" and "how much time can you save" combined with a calculation of the hourly price for the individual tasks ultimately became the starting point for a newer and more digitized approach to things in the company.
And if you ask Birgit today, she has no doubt why the choice to invest in Document Capture was realized: "You have no overview at all without it. After a holiday there could be more than100 invoices and you had no idea about when they were due. Then we got Document Capture. Not that there were fewer invoices, but with a small click on "due date" you could quickly see those 20 invoices that had to be handled. Before you had no peace for a week because it was so stressful to come back from holidays. Now you can quickly get an overview of what is overdue or not. So it gave me an enormously good overview of what was urgent."
Facilitates work processes
With a quick overview, the workflows at Midtfjord Agro have also improved considerably. Not only for the finance employees, who feel the change in particular, but also for the rest of the organisation. The combination of digitization and automatic linking of purchase orders with sales orders makes it easy for employees to avoid incorrect entries on prices, item numbers, etc.
As Birgit explains, they could not access this kind of information widely in the company before Document Capture was implemented. At least not without long paper trails ahead.
"My colleagues can quickly go into purchase invoices and see if the invoice has come with the parts that have just arrived in stock. Which is particularly useful when determining the selling price of newly arrived bits and pieces. Precisely because without the invoice it is difficult for a seller to assess what the customer has to pay for a given piece or part."
Release of employee resources
One of the things many customers fear when implementing Document Capture is, in particular, the fear of having to fire "Ann" in the bookkeeping department. That fear, however, has never haunted Midtfjord Agro: "It has not been a fear in Midtfjord Agro. Because we probably lacked some manpower. We have freed up some resources in this way." And with those resources in play, it gives more room for other tasks, such as cleaning and maintaining the store as well as counting etc.
The automated approach to handling attachments has made everyday life easier for Birgit. "It doesn't matter if there are 100 invoices, if you know you can start from one end and then it's all just booked. But if there are 100 invoices and half should have been paid, then you are hopelessly behind. Then everything will be patchwork solutions. Now you can say, we need to do this and that, the invoice is there, because there is no rush."
In other words - it has become easier to prioritize work tasks and all the stress that used to fill up after holidays, has now been removed.
A kind of Catalogue
In many ways, Document Capture can be compared to a kind of catalog. A reference work.
Something Birgit also uses in her function. "It's a good tool that allows us to look back. Find documentation for everything. Purchase prices, equipment on machines, machine invoice, everything". What she likes best is the whole idea of being able to search for information about sellers who have been in contact with previous purchase situations with suppliers. "If we have bought spare parts for a customer and need to see where we bought that spare part, you can go back into the system and find the exact location, seller and other important information." A function that saves time because the entire background story is in place from the first call of the seller in question.
Document Capture has not only lifted Midtfjord Agro along the necessary digital journey that is now unfolding. This has made everyday tasks easier for the entire organization.
"Now it has become a requirement in the EU that finance is digitized, it's great that we have already started".
FACTS ABOUT MIDTFJORD AGRO
Midtfjord Agro was founded in 2005 and it was a merger between two machine dealers in Løgstør, Northern Denmark.
The product range consists of well-known brands such as Deutz-Fahr, Kuhn, Stihl, Polaris, Ferris and Simplicity.
Employs 22 employees
