As part of the process of converting their old ERP system to SAP S/4HANA, terranets bw planned to digitalise their signature system – with the aim of significantly reducing the processing time for each order. Project managers Philipp Schulte and Bernd Burgemeister opted for the apsolut eSignature Connector for DocuSign at an early stage. However, the plan initially took a backseat: the company had to pool all its available internal resources for its major S/4HANA project. But the original project schedule was quickly revised. Rather than waiting, terranets bw decided to start integrating the eSignature Connector into their existing ERP system straight away – freeing up valuable resources for the S/4HANA project.

Today, a fully integrated signature process is in place between SAP S/4HANA and DocuSign, thanks to the apsolut eSignature Connector for DocuSign. Users can track the current status of every individual signature process directly in S/4HANA. At the same time, the requester and supplier are automatically notified of the progress by e-mail – with no intermediate manual steps at all. Approvals are both digital and legally compliant.

The process for obtaining signatures in DocuSign is integrated into the S/4HANA Flexible Workflow for orders. With this workflow, an order is not marked as ‘approved’ in the ERP system until all signatories have provided their digital signatures. Only then will the supplier receive an automatic notification.

The click-based signature approval process and newly acquired transparency regarding the status of orders significantly reduced order processing times. According to Philipp Schulte, purchasing agent and project manager at terranets bw, the company processes around 5,000 orders annually. Previously, they had to schedule two to three minutes per transaction for answering questions about the order status – by e-mail or telephone. Today, those sorts of questions are the exception rather than the rule. Generally, everyone involved in the order process now knows exactly where an order is at all times. The amount of time the company saved here is substantial – time they can now invest in more strategic issues in purchasing.

Until the implementation of the apsolut eSignature Connector for DocuSign, Bruker’s signature process for quotes was cumbersome and lacked transparency. After creating a document in SAP, a PDF was generated to which an electronic signature was attached in a manual step. This meant that tracking the sign status was not straightforward. In the event of sickness or someone standing in for a member of staff, there was no simple method of checking if a specific bid had already been signed.

Initially, Bruker decided to implement the apsolut eSignature Connector for DocuSign for two of its companies, totalling an annual volume of around 5,000 bidding documents. The newly implemented process is scalable and can be rolled out to further companies within the group. To start with, the first signer maintained in the document receives an email with a link requesting them to apply their signature via DocuSign. Once all the signatures have been applied, the person initiating the signing process automatically receives a status update via email. The signed document and the Certificate of Completion are then automatically attached to the bidding document in the SAP Records Management. The sign status can be viewed at any time via the bidding document in SAP.

In addition, Bruker uses the eSignature Connector at its subsidiary in Portugal, where a legally binding electronic seal is now automatically attached to all billing documents.

Significantly shortened process through automated workflow Greatly reduced error susceptibility through elimination of manual steps and media discontinuities Transparency due to possibility of viewing status at any time 100 percent legal security

GESOBAU is a municipal housing company in Berlin, which manages some 45,000 residential and commercial units. The company had been thinking about an electronic solution for signing rental contracts for some time. The coronavirus pandemic and the social distancing it imposed gave them the final push to do something about it.

GESOBAU creates rental contracts in the SAP ECC system and transmits them to DocuSign. The tenants can sign their rental contracts entirely digitally after 2-factor authentication via SMS. The signed contracts are automatically returned to the SAP ECC.

To implement the eSignature Connector for DocuSign, the apsolut team entered uncharted waters, connecting the “Real Estate FX” module integrated in SAP ECC with the DocuSign cloud for the first time. At GESOBAU’s request, the implementation of the 2-factor authentication was incorporated into the connector standard and apsolut programmed a user-defined form input field.

Thanks to the automated process, GESOBAU was able to achieve significant time savings. In addition, they saved large amounts of paper, printer cartridges and postage. And there is a simpler onboarding process available for new tenants.