A+W Software GmbH Success Story| projectfacts

A+W Software GmbH
Success Story

Success thanks to a clear view

For the German market leader among software manufacturers for the glass, window and door industry, image comparisons such as the one in the headline are simply obvious. Since 1977, A+W (then still known as Albat+Wirsam Software GbR) has been providing end customers with a clear view.

What began as cutting optimization for flat glass has developed over time into complete ERP and PPS software solutions that many well-known manufacturers around the world rely on.

A success story that did not go unnoticed

Since 2013, A+W has been part of the Canadian company Constellation Software Inc. and enriches the portfolio of the FOG Software Group. Despite its strong growth and international orientation with branches in Europe, America and Australia, A+W remains true to its Hessian roots.

After the third relocation, the company has been based in Pohlheim since 2014. Around 200 employees worldwide are working on the company’s two flagship products: CLARITY and CANTOR.

From sales to production and transportation, A+W software solutions cover the entire process chain in glass production and window manufacturing.

In search of more perspective

While the Pohlheim-based company had already helped numerous customers to optimize their business processes, the processes in their own company were rather difficult. Although the company had already given some thought to digitalization and had even developed its own tool for project time recording, it was basically a case of moving from one application to the next.

While customers and orders were managed in the CRM system, times were documented manually in Excel. The employees recorded the project times in their own tool in order to import them into the financial accounting system for invoicing.

The sea of isolated solutions brought with it a number of difficulties:

The HR department had to actively collect the documented times on a regular basis.
It was not possible to check the recorded times for accuracy and consistency.
A lot of work had to be done to summarize the lists at the end of the month.
It would not have been possible to reconcile working and project times without considerable effort.

As there was also no interface between the in-house solution and the billing system, project times had to be transferred manually and invoices had to be created manually afterwards. Reports or activity reports for the customer therefore became a real challenge. It was clear that a new, comprehensive solution was needed.

A software solution on the horizon

When looking for new software, the focus was on a complete solution that would allow all relevant business processes to be mapped in one application. The isolated solutions were to be abolished.

“We were looking for an all-in-one suite.”

Specifically, this involved the areas of time recording, project billing and support tickets. In addition to projectfacts, two other systems were tested, each of which was measured against three core objectives:

Create a direct link between time recording and projects.
Enable better reporting on project and financial key figures (e.g. contribution margins).
Processes simpler, leaner and mapped in a single software.

New perspectives thanks to projectfacts

“The introduction was carried out in two phases,” explains Mattig. The first phase involved HR, time recording, vacation and overtime. He has pleasant memories of the collaboration with 5 POINT AG, as good solutions were found quickly.

“The collaboration with projectfacts has always been very good.”

The internal changeover was the biggest hurdle, as the employees had become accustomed to Excel data entry over time and first had to be convinced of the new solution.

In the second step, the team focused on the ticket system for the support department. There was hardly any need for customization here, as the software already provided all the important functions out of the box: “The projectfacts standard for tickets is already a very, very good solution.” With projectfacts, a standardized ticket workflow was established with which the employees quickly became familiar. Mattig believes that this has also contributed significantly to process quality.

When asked about the advantages of working with projectfacts, Mattig mentions three aspects: Transparency, streamlining and a better data basis for evaluations.

“Both in support and in project planning, employees have access to orders and invoices. That wasn’t possible before.” Mattig sees a clear gain here in terms of transparency. As the team can use the links within projectfacts instead of relying on different systems, the processes have also become significantly faster and simpler.

“We have definitely streamlined processes.”

Work has also been simplified for specific departments such as Controlling. “With projectfacts, it is much easier to access and evaluate data,” says Mattig. Overall, he draws a very positive conclusion here too.

This effect can even be seen externally. A+W has noticed this above all in its own customer portal. Customers can use it to create and view tickets directly in the system.

“The data basis has improved considerably thanks to projectfacts.”

While the support process used to depend on which team looked after the customer, the department now uses a standardized workflow. This offers tangible benefits “for both the customers and for us.”

A look into the future

Mattig sees further potential for improvement in the future, particularly in commercial processes. Quotations and order confirmations are currently created in an external CRM system. From there, the documents are forwarded to order processing, where they are entered into projectfacts again. This double entry is to be eliminated in future. Instead, A+W wants to map the entire process chain in projectfacts, from quotation to invoicing. “The potential has been recognized,” says Mattig and

This also excludes a potential source of error. QM documents will also be increasingly used in the future. They will keep customers up to date on their projects in the form of weekly status reports. Leon Mattig and his team are convinced that they have made a good choice with projectfacts. Mattig sees the greatest strength of projectfacts in the combination of simple time recording and direct invoicing. This makes the software valuable for service companies of all kinds.

“projectfacts is definitely the right software for us.”

He would like to recommend that interested parties work more with the projectfacts standards and think less in terms of their own processes. The right question to ask first is: “What is the optimal process in the system?” Then you can think about making adjustments.