Markant Handels und Service GmbH

The cost accounting workflow system provides an application system based on Internet technology for cost accounting invoice control, and is integrated in the Markant portal. In 2008, MARKANT processed 16.8 million invoices in Europe as a central settlement body.

The MARKANT Group is controlled by Switzerland based MARKANT AG as the holding company. The remit of the MARKANT retail cooperation is to safeguard the independence and autonomy and therefore also the future of medium-sized trading. As an important market corrective, MARKANT brings together the potential of many independent wholesale and retail companies in order to open up the advantages of cooperation to all trading partners. The focus of this cooperation is on purchasing, central settlement, guarantees, logistics, marketing, communication, financing and eServices on the www.markant.net Internet platform.

The new European Central Regulation of MARKANT is one of MARKANT's core services. It has client, currency and language capability. Its functionalities ensure that it has the necessary flexibility to adapt to all requirements in the regulatory environment. MARKANT Central Settlement deals with the financial processing of the invoices and credit notes of approximately 7,000 industrial companies to more than 100 trading companies affiliated with MARKANT. Central settlement is the starting point for comprehensive information technology processes such as digital archiving, preparation of electronic settlement data and the consolidation of document data at member level.

Document-less settlement with the MARKANT member is realized. For the MARKANT member, the electronically transmitted data is the basis for automatic entry, automatic invoice checking and many other processes. With a document volume of more than 30 million documents per year, MARKANT continuously reviews the process optimisation options. In order to exploit other time and cost advantages and improve quality aspects, verifiability, security and customer satisfaction, the framework conditions and the selection procedure of the cost accounting workflow were developed in a MARKANT business information systems diploma thesis. In addition to the general criteria such as the attractiveness of the licensing model, the usability of the software, the implementation and extensibility of the workflow and the installation effort, monitoring and support, the KO criteria of database support, runtime environments, display of client data and single sign-on were defined.

Partner bpi solutions impressed in this selection process with numerous features which are already included in the standard solution. Stefan Tombi, Head of Archiving at MARKANT Handels und Service GmbH, explains: "bpi came out on top by far as the best service provider for integrating the cost accounting workflow that we required! All requirements are covered. With other providers, these would first have to be developed or could not be implemented in principle."

MARKANT sees the advantages in shorter document run times, additional savings on office supplies and a significant reduction in the time spent on document management. In this way, MARKANT makes even better use of the rationalisation potential within the Markant Group and as a service for its trading partners, and contributes to efficient processing between MARKANT members and industrial partners, in line with the motto: Acting successfully together.