4 a closer look at saperion ecm contract records - Saperion AG

Putting Contract Records into context
5 PUTTING CONTRACT RECORDS INTO
CONTEXT
While an introduction to electronic contract records may be useful and important,
contract records are only rarely implemented as an isolated and completely independent
solution.
Integration with ERP or CRM solutions
Employees at larger corporations, in particular, very often use solutions that support
management of sales- and tax-relevant data. These "Customer Relationship
Management" or "Enterprise Resource Management systems from providers like
SAP, Siebel, Microsoft, or DATEV serve as the lead application in such situations. In
these cases, electronic contract records act as a sort of electronic file folder from
which the lead system retrieves data as needed. Nevertheless, the contract records
can be used effectively without the lead system. An employee of the company who
wishes to view the file rarely needs access to the data stored in the CRM or ERP
system. It is usually adequate for him or her to have a look into the "file folder".
But how do new documents get into the record?
Creation of new contract documents or annexes must likewise proceed as seamlessly
as possible. Employees commonly create individual documents with Microsoft
Word. Ideally, existing data like address, contract number, and title will be
loaded directly into the Word template, thereby relieving the employee of this
task. Once the Word document is created, it can be archived directly into the relevant
record so that it is never without context. Put another way, there is never a
time when it is simply "lying around" on a virtual desktop. Even documents created
by third-party systems (such as invoices from SAP) can be automatically filed into
the proper location of the correct record (very important!) without additional user
interaction. In most cases, a unique identifier like an contract number is used to assign
documents to the proper record.
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