SchwörerHaus builds digital customer file with IBM Content Manager

The prefabricated house specialist SchwörerHaus KG has relied on IBM technology for many years to set up a digital customer file. TIMETOACT GROUP is supporting the project and, in the course of this, also managed the switch from IBM Document Manager to Content Navigator.

Documents from SAP have since been stored via ArchiveLink in the digital file based on IBM Content Manager, including many contract documents from SAP SD. Digital invoice capture in SAP was also implemented. IBM has since discontinued the Document Manager as a front end. In the latest project step, the TIMETOACT team therefore replaced it with the Content Navigator.

The IBM Content Manager is now the basis and the Content Navigator is used as the frontend for indexing and storing Office documents. But not only these: Quality assurance documents also find their way into the digital customer file. These are forms on which the correct execution of activities is confirmed. They are scanned, indexed via a Java API and moved to the archive. There is also an interface to the CAD system. This converts CAD plans to PDF and stores them in the archive. Documents are thus transferred to the IBM archive from four applications: Office, SAP, the CAD system and the scanning system.

SchwörerHaus has almost 41,000 customers. A digital customer file has now been set up for the current customers. "However, we also offer modernization to existing customers. As soon as new orders arise within the customer relationship, we also file the associated documents digitally," says Markus Schwörer.

At SchwörerHaus, almost 250 employees work with the digital file every day. They can export individual elements from the customer file manually via an API and store them in the file system. From there, they are exported to the SharePoint customer portal. The customers hold an account for this, log in via their Microsoft account and can view the static calculations. In addition, they receive a lot of other information, such as the status of the construction project. This allows them to see at any time which work has already been completed, who is responsible for it and what is due next. This information is transferred directly from SAP to the portal without using the IBM Content Manager.

In the field of prefabricated house construction, the entire value chain remains within the company, i.e. everything from the timber trunk to assembly is done in-house, without any external services. In the multi-storey construction sector, however, Schwörer Haus also works with various planning offices, both from the heating/ventilation/sanitary sector and from electrical installation. Here, the HCL Connections Cloud solution is used, via which SchwörerHaus makes plans available to the planning offices. A third business unit, based in Ahrensfelde near Berlin, is wet room production for hotels and nursing homes.

Markus Schwörer: "We have a close relationship with the TIMETOACT team with Benjamin Just, characterized by extremely fast response times and a high level of expertise. We also benefit significantly from Yvonne Kießling's high level of expertise in IBM licensing issues. With TIMETOACT, you simply know how the land lies at IBM!”