Industry profile
The digital transformation is creating opportunities and challenges around the world and across industries. In the mechanical and plant engineering sector in particular, this means that managers will have to rethink and redefine existing business models. PALFINGER, recognized as a highly innovative leading manufacturer of lifting and loading equipment, is proactively pursuing its digital transformation to incorporate in-house corporate processes as well. In this context, the company has succeeded in elevating its contract management to a modern digital platform.
Baseline situation
The Austrian corporation’s collaboration with numerous partners around the globe is governed by a host of non-disclosure agreements, supplier contracts, dealer agreements, and other contractual documents. In the absence of central document management, staff in the legal department faced major hurdles on a daily basis: time-intensive searches, inefficient deadline management, and a lack of overview.
Even the use of a popular web application failed to deliver the desired results. This meant that compliance with agreements, rapid access to the details, and automated workflows were impossible to guarantee. As a result, PALFINGER sought a standardized solution for managing its company-wide contract portfolio in a single location. The objective was to not only tap into the full optimization potential of digital contract management, but also to store and manage the data in a highly secure European data center.
For those reasons, PALFINGER chose Contracts. The highly automated out-of-the-box cloud solution now supports PALFINGER with its day-to-day contract management, and to master existing challenges successfully.
Information, deadlines, and appointments at a glance
The legal department acts as a service unit for the entire enterprise, assuming responsibility for centralized storage, management, and monitoring of all existing contracts. With Contracts, the team benefits from features like the semantic full-text search, Fabasoft’s “Time Travel,” and the integrated calendar, complete with deadline management.
“Contracts offers semantic full-text search. The extensive search and filter options enable us to find contracts, the accompanying documents, or the details we need in no time and pass them on to our colleagues,” explains Alexander Mestian, Data Privacy Officer at PALFINGER.
The Fabasoft “Time Travel” feature makes it easy to compare and restore older contract versions. Changes made by co-workers during the editing process can thus be fully traced. Revision-secure documentation, together with archiving in the cloud, means that the compliance requirements are completely satisfied.
Integrated deadline management is another major advantage of the digital contract management solution. “Thanks to Contracts, we can adhere to every deadline. The automatic reminders for expiration and renewal deadlines make our day-to-day contract management far easier,” adds Alexander Mestian.
All contracts, files, and deadlines are integrated in Contracts and hence also in the Outlook calendar. This minimizes risks by eliminating inconsistencies between the contract file and the calendar.
Ready for immediate use without an IT implementation project
Since 2019, PALFINGER has relied on Contracts, the off-the-shelf product for digital contract management. For the technology and machine engineering company, it was particularly important to be able to implement the software without running a costly, time-intensive project. Among the deciding factors in favor of Contracts were the solution’s clearly arranged user interface, its intuitive menu design, and its high degree of scalability. PALFINGER implemented the software throughout the company within a very short time, with no need for consulting. Since then, staff at PALFINGER have been saving valuable time and staying on top of things at all times. “Fast, simple, and intuitive, both in terms of its use and its implementation,” concludes Alexander Mestian.
Highly secure administration in a European data location
For PALFINGER, data management and storage in a European data center has a crucial role to play. “Fabasoft Business Process Cloud’s extensive certifications verify compliance with the most stringent security standards. That was a decisive criterion behind our decision to go with Contracts,” explains Mestian.
This factor also provides added value in terms of communication with the supervisory board: Fabasoft Business Process Cloud is ideally suited for exchanging sensitive documents securely. Using two-factor authentication, members of this board can access all relevant information in a securely protected environment.
PALFINGER, an international technology and machine engineering company, is the world’s leading provider of pioneering crane and lifting solutions. With some 11,000 employees, 34 production sites, and a global sales and service network of around 5,000 support centers, PALFINGER guarantees immediate and optimal proximity to its customers. PALFINGER AG has been listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange since 1999 and generated revenue totaling EUR 1.53 billion in 2020.
