Puma Group, a leading Spanish company specialising in the manufacture and sale of construction materials with more than four decades of experience and international presence, has improved and automated its management of invoices, contracts and delivery notes from suppliers through the use of information management technologies and solutions provided by Canon.
Headquartered in Andalusia, Grupo Puma has established itself as a leader in the production of adhesives and mortars, currently exporting to 55 countries. This global expansion required the implementation of innovative and efficient processes. The company’s complex and extensive structure, which encompasses the management of both digital and printed materials, led the company to choose Canon to optimize its information management.
Following an initial consultancy and advisory process, Canon implemented its Therefore™ document management software to reduce costs and time spent on managing invoices, logistics documents and customer contracts. Thanks to this solution, digital supplier invoices are automatically archived and classified, while physical invoices are digitised, certified and stored by analysing relevant metadata, made possible by the advanced capabilities of the Therefore software.
“For this project, we considered various supplier options, analysed the responses they gave us and finally decided on Canon for several reasons. Firstly, because the interface seemed more user-friendly and simpler, so we understood that it would be easier for users to adapt. Lastly, with Canon we achieved full integration with our ERP, which allowed us to increase the efficiency and operability of the entire process,” explains Manuel García, Project Director at Grupo Puma.
Puma Group and Canon in document management
Therefore was implemented gradually, first launching a pilot at one of the Grupo Puma headquarters in 2021 and then gradually expanding it to the rest. Now, after this time, all the planned objectives in terms of reducing costs and time spent on document management have been achieved in less time than expected.
Canon’s information management technology has enabled Grupo Puma to optimize its business processes
“When we analysed the project, we estimated a return on investment (ROI) of 4 years. However, after just over three years we have already fully recovered the investment. Thanks to Therefore we have achieved significant savings in the management of supplier invoices, which until now we had to do physically. This took between 2 and 3 days of work and currently takes around 1 hour,” explains Francisco Bocanegra, Systems Director at Grupo Puma.
In addition to invoice management, Grupo Puma has also managed to implement a project to digitalise the documentation of its logistics operations, which is now signed and sent to customers digitally and then archived in Therefore. The result is a more efficient process, which allows for the monitoring and control of shipments in real time, as well as speeding up the consultation of documentation.
A process for managing customer contracts digitally has also been successfully implemented. When commercial terms and conditions need to be changed, a change request is sent by email via Therefore, the customer’s signature is digitally collected and automatically archived in the document manager. This controlled and standardised process allows for better monitoring of contracts and commercial terms, secure storage, easy accessibility and significant savings in time and costs.
