Corporate Procurement in the division of Group Organization & Security at Commerzbank AG has been using the contract file management solution “EASY nextPCM Contract Manage-ment” as a central tool for managing supplier relationships since 2011. The-re, strategic and operational purcha-sers can find all general and individual contracts concluded with suppliers, as well as associated correspondence. The advantages speak for themselves: data is collected in a central spot and fully integrated into the SAP® system. This also facilitates global purchasing management.

Until the merger of Dresdner Bank and Commerzbank in 2008, both compa-nies used local systems to store digital information on purchasing. Following

a bid process in 2011, central Corpora-te Procurement decided to introduce EASY nextPCM Contract Management to store purchasing files for all cont-ract documents worldwide related to strategic and operational purchasing.

Easy to Implement “EASY nextPCM products are espe-cially easy to implement,” reports Jörg Merkel from Central Purchasing Controlling at Commerzbank. Purcha-sing began using the file in 2011, buil-ding on previous experience with EASY. The company is already using an SAP integrated EASY nextPCM solution to manage real estate files in the Corpo-rate Real Estate Management division.

Commerzbank had already begun buil-ding its supplier file in 2010. It included

Pic:

Com

mer

zban

k AG

Better Arguments for Strategic PurchasingData is collected in a central spot and fully integrated into SAP system with EASY nextPCM Contract Management

CLIENT

Commerzbank AG

Kaiserplatz

60261 Frankfurt

Deutschland

www.commerzbank.de

INDUSTRY

Banking and finance

SOLUTION

EASY nextPCM Contract Management

REFERENCE

some transactions for which initial pages with bar codes had been created for purchasing agreements. They were able to scan these documents and link them immediately with files in SAP NetWeaver® Folders Management. Now, Commerzbank has programmed its own authorization groups for the so-lution. These are simple to migrate to EASY nextPCM in case of changes. The nextPCM purchasing files are based entirely on SAP NetWeaver Folders Management, and serve as a front end for displaying metadata.

Technically at Home in Operational PurchasingCorporate Procurement created three basic categories in the file solution: fra-mework agreements, individual agree-ments, and other. Licensing, service, and other contract types are located one level lower. Carsten Mohr is the Team Leader for Operational Purchasing at Commerzbank, which is responsible for technical operation of the contract databank. “We have completely adap-ted the purchasing files in nextPCM to our needs,” he reports. “For instance,

we wanted many more information tabs for customer data than the initial screen in the SAP module displayed: product segment, duration, deadlines, outsour-cing relevance, and others.” An order generated in SAP ERP MM, for instan-ce for IT services, is now automatically linked with the associated framework agreement Commerzbank concluded with the external service provider.

Before the file can be used in operations, Commerzbank imports purchasing contracts available in digital form from Dresdner Bank and its London location. Purchasing at international Commerzbank locations is controlled from London. Corporate Procurement had to first add missing header data for a large number of the documents it wanted to migrate so that they could be attached correctly in “EASY nextPCM Contract Management.” In a very short time, all framework and individual contracts world wide had been moved from Purchasing and into the file – today, the solution encompasses around 15,000 purchasing agreements from all national subsidiaries.

About the company: Commerzbank AG Commerzbank is a leading bank in Germany

and Poland. It also serves its customers as

an economic partner in all relevant global

markets. Through its business units Private

Customers, Mid-sized Banks, Corporates &

Markets, and Central & Eastern Europe, it

offers private and corporate customers, as

well as institutional investors, the banking

and capital market services they need. With

around 1,200 branches, Commerzbank has

one of the densest networks of locations in

German private banking, and is on the way

to becoming a modern multi-channel bank.

It advises a total of almost 15 million private

and 1 million corporate and business custo-

mers. In 2014, with around 52,000 emplo-

yees, it generated gross revenues of more

than 9 billion euros.

Pic:

Com

mer

zban

k AG

REFERENCE

“We have completely adapted the purchasing files in nextPCM to our needs. The biggest benefit of the so-lution is in the electronic availability of purchasing information.” Carsten Mohr, Team Leader for Opera-tional Purchasing, Commerzbank AG

Purchasing File Grows by 4,000 Documents in One Year Commerzbank creates around 4,000 new purchasing agreements per year and stores them in the purchasing file. All new contract documents are digitized by a subsidiary company in Erfurt as part of the general scanning process for incoming invoices. Emplo-yees in Operational Purchasing are re-sponsible for contract administration, maintaining the metadata in the cont-ract databank, and initiating the scan process. New purchasing documents that are to be entered into the file are created during strategic or operational purchasing at Commerzbank. Strate-gic purchasers work with their internal customers, the professional divisions, to analyse current needs. Then service providers are selected through a bid process, and the company concludes framework agreements with them. Ba-sed on these framework agreements, the service provider concludes indivi-dual agreements or provides individual services for the bank. Inspiration for Discussions with Internal Customers Strategic Purchasing uses the EASY nextPCM purchasing file for research into purchasing documents across

locations. “The quick availability of in-formation allows us to give purchasers valuable inspiration for discussions with professional divisions,” reports Jörg Merkel. “Through these, they get an indication of how to actively appro-ach the internal customer to be able to extend or change the contractual rela-tionship.”

In the future, Corporate Procurement wants to provide additional reporting functions beyond the purchasing file for contract term analysis and contractu-al duties in a simpler format similar to a dashboard. This will allow Strategic Purchasing to generate simple reports, so they do not have to work in individual solutions within the contract databank. Selective Access for Specific DivisionsAs the global “Functional Lead,” Stra-tegic Purchasing has access to all purchasing documents. Strategic purchasers in the international loca-tions can view their local agreements.

Operational Purchasing uses the file solution to quickly understand cur-rent business transactions. Corporate Procurement can distribute selecti-ve access to specific divisions using

REFERENCE

reporting groups, such as revision or data privacy. If, for instance, the Finan-cial Division notices discrepancies bet-ween an invoice and an order, Carsten Mohr and his team can quickly clarify these deviations by taking a look at the purchasing file.

With purchasers and Purchasing Controlling, temporary users with limited authorizations, and internati-onal strategic purchasers, there are a total of 150 purchasing file users at Commerzbank.

Carsten Mohr continues: “The biggest benefit of the purchasing file for us in Corporate Procurement is in the elec-

tronic availability of information. We can use it to create transparency, facili-tating national, international, and cross product-group purchasing control.”

As it continues to expand file functions, Commerzbank is glad to be able to rely on the knowledge of the Hamburg IT service provider. “We have a very close and very good relationship with EASY SOFTWARE AG; I’ve rarely seen such flexibility in responding to customer requirements,” says Jörg Merkel. “The experts understand new requirements immediately because they understand our business model, which also means they are able to continually bring in their own ideas.”

Pic:

Com

mer

zban

k AG

REFERENCE

SUBSIDIARIES

AUSTRIA

EASY SOFTWARE GmbH

Sebastian-Kneipp-Straße 12

A-5020 Salzburg

Phone: +43 662 461546

Email: office@easy-austria.at

Web: www.easy-austria.at

HEADQUARTER

GERMANY

EASY SOFTWARE AG

Am Hauptbahnhof 4

D-45468 Mülheim an der Ruhr

Phone: +49 208 45016-0

Email: info@easy.de

Web: www.easy.de

GREAT BRITAIN

EASY SOFTWARE (UK) PLC.

Reflection House, The Anderson Centre,

Olding Road, Bury St. Edmunds

Suffolk, IP33 3TA, UK

Phone: +44 1284 727870

Email: info@easysoftware.co.uk

Web: www.easysoftware.co.uk

USA

EASY SOFTWARE INC.

102 Pickering Way, Suite 503

Exton, PA 19341 USA

Phone: +1 610 240 9260

Email: sales@easysoftware.us

Web: www.easysoftware.us

TURKEY

EASY SOFTWARE Türkiye

Phone: +90 216 53774 50

Email: info@easy.de

Web: www.easy.de

SINGAPORE

EASY SOFTWARE

(ASIA PACIFIC) PTE. LTD.

4 Battery Road

Bank of China Building, #25-01

Singapore 049908

Phone: +1 610 3508677

Email: info@easy.de

Web: www.easy.de