Document Management for an Office Furniture Manufacturer

Sedus Stoll, a leading European manufacturer of office furniture, was facing challenges with its document management process. The process for purchasing production materials was complex and divided between several departments and locations. This decentralized process caused long delays in accessing information, resulting in numerous copies of documentation being sent to different offices. The internal mailing service was overloaded by the delivery of so much paper. Over the years, more and more working copies and local subdirectories of information were created; soon anyone looking for information was forced to also rely on the memory of coworkers. Too often, this information was exchanged by phone, making the transmission of figures especially error-prone. In addition to numerous private subfolders, the purchasing information was also available on microfilm. The Sales and Accounting departments had access to two microfilm readers in order to retrieve order confirmations and invoices. With so many working copies of information, finding needed documents became more tedious and difficult.

Founded in 1871 by Albert Stoll, Sedus Stoll AG is one of the leading European manufacturers of office chairs, furniture for communication equipment and multipurpose furniture. With 1123 employees in eight European subsidiaries and over 30 international sales offices, the company had total revenues of 124.3 million Euros in 2003. The company has received high-ranking awards and the DIN ISO 9001 certification for document compliance and was the first German furniture company to go through the Ecological Audit according to EU standards. Quality, environmentally sound production coupled with flexible, order oriented production processes are the most important characteristics of Sedus Stoll. Innovative, ergonomically well designed furniture, as well as customer orientated sales and service are the prevailing strengths of the company.