Case Study

Burkhalter Group – at the cutting edge of digitization

Through the introduction of electronic processing for accounts payable, the Burkhalter Group has achieved significant efficiency gains and cost reductions. During a second step the leading Swiss electrical engineering group migrated all of its personnel dossiers to a completely digital management solution. Together with Arcplace, a comprehensive solution for the electronic processing and legally compliant archiving of the (previously paper-based) personnel dossiers was implemented.

With around 3000 employees, the Burkhalter Group is the leading Swiss provider for electrical engineering solutions on buildings. The Burkhalter network includes 45 virtually autonomous companies at 99 locations in all four parts of the country. The Burkhalter Group offers an extensive service portfolio, which includes all electrical engineering services for industrial, commercial and residential buildings. From high and low voltage installations, to telecommunication and IT networks, to security and KNX bus technologies as well as complete building automation solutions. IT services within the Group are provided centrally via the internal IT team of Burkhalter Management AG.

“The electronic dossiers have resulted in measurably more efficient processes in HR administration.”

Susanne Fischer, IT specialist, Burkhalter Management AG

Initial situation

In 2013 the Burkhalter Group – supported by Arcplace – successfully migrated to automated invoice processing for accounts payable. The significant improvements that were achieved and the cost savings resulted in the “Electronic personnel dossiers” project being launched. A solution was wanted that could work on the existing technical infrastructure and enable 100% digital processing and storage of the personnel dossiers. The project objectives were defined as follows:

  • Simpler processes with much less paper
  • Faster and simpler retrieval of information
  • Access to information irrespective of place or time
  • Compliance with data protection policies (access rights)
  • Strong data security and legally compliant archiving
  • Significant saving of space in the archive

Arcplace was chosen again as partner for the implementation – due to the good experience made during former projects.

Solution

The solution from Arcplace contains the DMS system Kendox InfoShare as a central component, which the Burkhalter Group is already using successfully for the electronic invoice archiving. The existing paper-based personnel dossiers, which are stored in vertical folders, were scanned internally by employees and then transferred to Kendox InfoShare. The original structure of the dossiers under Contracts, Personal Development, Communication, Insurance and Case Management, Equipment and Salary Administration was maintained in the digital dossiers. Susanne Fischer, who was responsible for the project at Burkhalter Management AG, added: “The biggest job was the systematic inspection of the personnel dossiers, which included assigning the documents to the defined categories.” The solution was configured by Arcplace in such a way that the personnel master data could be retrieved directly from the HR management system used by Burkhalter, Xpert.HRM. What’s more the solution was integrated seamlessly into the existing Office environment. Correspondence in emails can be retrieved directly from Outlook for use in the personnel dossiers. Word, Excel and PDF files can be added to electronic personnel dossiers with a few mouse clicks.

Results

The Burkhalter Group is very satisfied with the way the project has gone and with the results achieved. IT specialist Susanne Fischer: “The electronic dossiers have resulted in measurably more efficient processes in HR administration. Information can be found really quickly via the full-text search function of Kendox. Authorised users can now access personnel information using different kinds of devices, irrespective of the place or time. The corresponding access rights can be defined precisely in Kendox.” The solution from Arcplace includes archiving, which complies with the strict compliance requirements, as logging takes place whenever documents are viewed or changed.

Susanne Fischer also emphasises the user-friendliness. “The “Single-Sign-On” solution implemented by Arcplace increases convenience, as all functions of Kendox are available immediately after logging in to the corporate IT system. The powerful search functions and drag & drop function are really appreciated by the users. The employees are obviously also pleased about the extra space they now have due to the removal of the bulky archive cabinets.” Kendox InfoShare can be extended easily. In addition to the electronic personnel dossiers already implemented, Burkhalter also decided to extend the range of functions of Kendox. Sub-processes for the approval of absences or viewing weekly reports or salary information will soon also be mapped within Kendox, which means they will be available simply and quickly for all involved areas and employees.

At a Glance

  • Complete solutions for the electronic processing and legally compliant archiving of personnel dossiers
  • Functional extensions with processes for weekly reporting, absence approvals and payroll accounting
  • Fast retrieval of information thanks to full-text searches
  • Access to personnel information irrespective of time or place
  • Significant space-savings in the archive
  • Compliance with data protection policies through access rights
  • Fulfilment of compliance requirements thanks to the logging of all activities related to viewing or changing documents
  • Automatic transfer of information and documents from third-party applications (HR systems and payroll accounting)
  • Simple integration of documents in Office applications

“The employees are also pleased about the extra space they now have due to the removal of the bulky archive cabinets.”

Susanne Fischer, IT specialist, Burkhalter Management AG

 

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