At a glance TE CONNECTIVITY LTD.

Invoice processing for the globalized worldCustomer

� TE Connectivity Ltd.

� Founding year: 1941 (AMP Incorporated) 1957 (Raychem Corporation)

� Employees: approx. 100,000

� TE Connectivity Ltd headquarters: Schaffhausen/CH

Industry sector

� Electronics

Key figures

� Annual volume of incoming invoices: 25,000 - 100,000 per location

� Percentage of correctly recognized vendors: 98%

� Purchase orders/delivery notes per year: 60,000/125,000

� Associated foreign subsidiaries worldwide: 15

Challenges

With the introduction of a system for electronic invoice processing, we wanted to streamline internal processes, save unnecessary typing, and cut out potential sources of error. For the international roll-out, the solution had also to be able to select automatically scanned invoices from a local storage and not from the central archive for their postprocessing at different locations.

Solution

� FIS/edc® - Electronic Document Center

� FCI - Invoice reading software

Benefits

The FIS/edc® release workflow enables global electronic approval processes and paperless invoice verification. The invoices are no longer physically sent from one location to another, the vendors are selected practically automa-tically, and the invoices are also posted faster when billing and order data entry are correct. Thanks to electronic archiving and the link bet-ween the scanned invoice and the SAP posting document in FIS/edc®, paper invoices are no longer filed, but are only stored in the archive now.

implementing a system for proces-sing invoices electronically.

Andreas Bergdolt, IT project lead for SAP architecture, technology, and solutions at TE Connectivity explains: “With such a solution, we wanted to streamline inter-nal processes, save unnecessary typing, and cut out potential sour-ces of error in invoice entry and data synchronization.”

Already in 2005, the solution deve-loped by FIS GmbH comprising the FCI document reader and the FIS/edc® Workflow was chosen for this global project. FIS GmbH was the only provider to imple-ment the required functionalities and the integration into the world-wide TE Connectivity network within a short period of time. FIS/edc® is a solution which is comple-tely integrated in SAP and which

From Bavaria to Bangalore – Auto-mated invoice recognition and SAP-based document processing are a global issue at TE Connectivity. The international electronics group streamlines internal processes by means of the electronic invoice pro-cessing developed by FIS GmbH. The FIS/edc® release workflow enables global electronic approval proces-ses and paperless invoice verifica-tion in currently twelve European countries as well as in China, India and the USA - more countries will follow!

In Germany, TE Connectivity is represented by the companies Tyco Electronics AMP GmbH (in Bensheim) and Tyco Electronics Raychem GmbH (in Ottobrunn) and has five production sites. The accounting department of Tyco Electronics AMP GmbH suggested

Stefanie Hummel, Head of SAP FI/CO EMEA

“Especially our purchasing depart-ment and the Cost Center Managers appreciate the electronic archiving and the combination of invoice map-ping and SAP posting document in FIS/edc®. Paper invoices are no longer stored but only saved in the archive. Every possible ambiguity can be im-mediately followed from SAP and FIS/edc® by clicking on the invoice image.”

the invoice is there – and in most cases, it is. The result is access times in a matter of milliseconds. In addition to incoming invoices, the FIS solution is now used for other types of documents, inclu-ding delivery notes, customs docu-ments, and customer orders. At the three German production sites in Darmstadt, Speyer, and Wört, the delivery notes are read using FCI and stored in the archive with the index data. A further step will be to link them to the orders in SAP. Another product will be used for this: the FIS/edc® Document Moni-tor, which can be used to assign

any documents to SAP objects – in this case, a delivery note and the related order. 125,000 pages of delivery notes will then be read this way every year at TE Connecti-vity Germany.

Identical entry and pro-cessing of sales orders and invoices

The entry of all incoming sales orders at the TE Connectivity Darm-stadt location in Germany is also in use. Every year, 60,000 purchase orders arrive in Darmstadt where they are read and archived. And-reas Bergdolt says: “While the deli-very note entry is running on the invoice reading server, another ser-ver, which has been specifically installed for sales orders, is used. It often happens that the custo-mer calls us directly after having executed a purchase order. Then a

den, Finland, Denmark, and one of TE Connectivity’s French subsidi-aries have been working with the system. What’s more, invoice reco-gnition and the SAP approval work-flow are now live at the American parent company, and Europe is following with Belgium and the Netherlands. The Chinese interna-tional subsidiary in Suzhou now deploys the solution, as well: Five scanning sites have been installed so far, and another three are in the pipeline. Processing will then take place centrally at the shared ser-vice center in Suzhou. Roll-outs are planned in other TE Connec-tivity subsidi-aries in China.

Andreas Berg-dolt learned that imple-m e n t a t i o n s take time and users need to be involved at an early stage. He now spends two weeks on-site at every roll-out, and so far they have all worked per-fectly. Regular telephone conferences with all the international key users and other parties involved accompany the global roll-out.

Cache function guarantees worldwide access in millise-conds

For high system performance at an international level within the TE Connectivity organization, the invoice reader’s cache func-tion is a must. TE Connectivity’s SAP archive is hosted in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and in Harris-burg, United States. If colleagues from anywhere in the world had to access the German or American archive server to view an invoice, they would have to wait a number of seconds. But because FCI saves all the scanned material from the past three months on a local direc-tory, FIS/edc® first checks whether

This rate is continuously improving thanks to an intelligent invoice reader and regular advice to ven-dors about how they can present their invoices in even better quality. Invoices without a purchase order

reference are put into the FIS/edc® approval workflow. This enab-les completely paperless approval, ensures that invoices flow through optimally, and increases transpa-rency for management. “Above all, our purchasing department and the cost center managers grea-tly appreciate electronic archiving and the link between the scan-ned invoice and the SAP posting document in FIS/edc®,” says Ste-fanie Hummel. “Paper invoices are no longer filed, but are only stored in the archive now. Every possible ambiguity can be traced immedia-tely using SAP and FIS/edc® by cli-cking the invoice image.”

International subsidiaries in China, USA, Czech Republic, UK, Norway , Sweden, France, Belgium…

In addition to the subsidiaries in Germany and in Switzerland and the shared service centers in Ban-galore, Schaffhausen and Stock-holm, many other international subsidiaries have now been equip-ped with FIS GmbH’s invoice recog-nition and workflow, including the Czech subsidiary in Kurim (with around 100 incoming invoices every day) and the U.K. subsidiary in Swindon (with approximately 350 invoices daily). The Swindon office also serves the TE Connec-tivity subsidiary in Ireland. Since the start of 2011, Norway, Swe-

Andreas Bergdolt, IT project lead

“With such a solution, we wanted to streamline internal processes, save un-necessary typing, and cut out potenti-al sources of error in invoice entry and data synchronization.”

Andreas Bergdolt, IT project lead

“FIS/edc® not only enables an easy and automated processing of invoices and other documents in SAP but also has an excellent value for money.”

“This enabled us to speed up our invoice processing. The invoices are no longer physically sent from one location to another, the vendors are selected practically automatically, and the invoices are also posted faster when billing and order data entry are correct”.

Volker Zimmermann, Head of general accounting

is particularly suited for the inter-national roll-out. Moreover, it is the only system to select auto-matically scanned invoices from a local cache instead of the central archive for their postprocessing at different locations. This represents a considerable benefit given the frequently missing bandwidth. FIS/edc® not only enables an easy and automated processing of invoices and other documents in SAP but has also “an excellent value for money”, explains Andreas Berg-dolt.

400 invoices every day – just in Darmstadt

The core of the project was Tyco Electronis AMP GmbH. Its accoun-ting department receives around 400 invoices every day, which are scanned, read by FCI and then transmitted to Bangalore, India. Tyco Electronics Raychem GmbH has had an accounting service cen-ter there for a number of years already. They used to send the invoices by snail mail to Banga-lore, and the Indian colleagues then entered the invoice data into the SAP system by hand. Next, Tyco

Electronics AMP GmbH became the first international subsidi-ary to make its invoices available to the service center in Bangalore in TIFF format by FTP server. Here, at validation work stations, the invoices are manually postpro-cessed if necessary and posted in SAP. With 98% of the invoices, the vendors are recognized correctly;

and the FCI software recognizes more than 65% of all documents without the need for any correc-tions whatsoever. In the second step of the project, Tyco Electro-nics Logistics AG (TELAG), loca-ted in Steinach, was hooked up. TE Connectivity uses this European sales subsidiary to process all its end-customer sales for the EMEA region. TELAG’s business concept enables TE Connectivity to pre-sent itself as a single company in the whole of Europe. In Steinach, the 250 invoices that arrive every day are scanned, exported to Ban-galore directly from the scanning application, and then processed by the accounting staff there. Pre-viously, invoice data used to be entered by hand by employees in Switzerland.

From Bavaria to Bangalore

The project gained pace: now Tyco Electronics Raychem GmbH in Bavaria also transfers its invoices by electronic means only. During a one-week implementation phase, Andreas Bergdolt set up four work stations for reading invoices in Bangalore. Volker Zimmermann,

head of general accounting and reporting, FSC India coordina-tor, and responsible for coordi-nating the shared service center in India says: “This enabled us to speed up our invoice processing. The invoices are no longer phy-sically sent from one location to another, the vendors are selec-ted practically automatically, and

the invoices are also posted faster when billing and order data entry are correct.” Bangalore is gradu-ally taking on invoice processing for all the major international sub-sidiaries with high volumes, that is, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and Ireland – in addition to Ger-many and Switzerland. Further-more, TE Connectivity has set up another two competence centers in Schaffhausen (Switzerland) and Stockholm (Sweden), which are responsible for the smaller inter-national subsidiaries, including the Nordics and Turkey. For these subsidiaries, accountants fluent in the languages required process invoices and also perform entire month-end closings.

More than 30% no-touch invoices

At all locations – from internatio-nal subsidiaries to service centers

– the scanned invoices including index data are transferred by FCI to FIS/edc® and, after various checks, an attempt is made to post them automatically. If the invoice is correct, the document is pos-ted immediately and the supply chain is closed. Stefanie Hummel, head of SAP FI/CO EMEA at TE Con-nectivity, is responsible for coor-dinating the SAP part of invoice processing. The roll-out for the SAP part of the solution with FIS/edc® is only accompanied “remote” by the experts of FIS GmbH. In cor-poration with Andreas Bergdolt and the FIS support, the SAP EMEA team executes the worldwide roll-outs at firm budgets. No FIS con-sultants are therefore required on-site which enables the execu-tion of roll-outs at firm and predic-table cost.

Stefanie Hummel estimates that the proportion of invoices with a purchase order reference from SAP MM is around 70% in the Ger-man TE Connectivity subsidiaries, around 20–30% of which are “no-touch” invoices that the emplo-yees in the accounting department no longer have to deal with at all.

FIS Informationssysteme und Consulting GmbH

Röthleiner Weg 1 Tel.: +49 97 23 / 91 88-0D-97506 Grafenrheinfeld Fax: +49 97 23 / 91 88-100www.f is-gmbh.de info@f is-gmbh.de D

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TE Connectivity

TE Connectivity is the global leader in providing passive electronic components, network solutions, wireless systems, and underwater telecommunication systems. The company develops, produces, and markets products for customers in the automotive, kitchen appliances, and aero-space and defense industries, as well as in telecommunications, computer technolo-gy, entertainment electronics, and power engineering.With a 50-plus year history of leadership, TE Connectivity is a global, $12.1 billion company that designs and manufactures over 500,000 products that connect and protect the flow of power and data inside the products that touch every aspect of our lives. Our nearly 100,000 employees partner with customers in virtually every indust-ry—from consumer electronics, energy and healthcare, to automotive, aerospace and communication networks.TE Connectivity is an independent, publicly traded company whose common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol “TEL”.

FIS GmbH

FIS Informationssysteme und Consulting GmbH is an independent company with approximately 500 employees focusing on SAP projects. FIS, an SAP fullservice provider, works on all hardware platforms released by SAP and, as an internationally operating SAP VAR partner with “Gold” status, concentrates on the “industry” and “technical wholesale” sectors. FIS develops separate solutions that can be used independently or complement and enhance the SAP standard software products. All software systems and tools offered by SAP are consulted, supported and licensed by FIS GmbH.

rapid response is required and the purchase order immediately has to be in the system without the server processing the invoice. This represents another project for the

FIS experts who were able to suc-cessfully integrate their know-how and range of products into this international project.