24th May 2016, Brno – Henkel Company, a leading global supplier of consumer goods and also an innovator in the area of implementing electronic business documents interchange, has extended their usage on the domestic market also to the division Beauty Care Professional – Schwarzkopf Professional. The Czech branch office has also become the first in Europe that has started using EDI for professional hair care products. The initial project of electronic invoices interchange in the structured formats UN/EDIFACT and ISDOC has been launched with a chain of hair salons Klier. 

The division Beauty Care Professional – Schwarzkopf Professional in Henkel ČR, producing and selling professional hair care products of brand Schwarzkopf Professional, is the next part of Henkel ČR company which business partners can interchange documents in a structured electronic format with. The first recipient of the invoices being processed automatically has become a network of domestic hair salons Klier.

The Czech branch of Henkel Company thus has become, after the segment of retail, adhesives and construction machinery, a pioneer in implementing EDI in yet another field – professional hair cosmetics. „We are already interchanging electronically with partners approximately two thirds of documents and we are always striving to be increasing this number,“ says Eva Malíková, EDI Project Manager in Henkel ČR, and adds: „Besides electronic invoices, we are commonly working with more than 10 other business and logistics documents in electronic form and that includes electronic delivery notes with identification of goods by SSCC codes that we have put into operation on the domestic market as the first ever.“

Integrating electronic formats

For the communication with the Klier chain was on the side of Henkel ČR used an international EDI format UN/EDIFACT. The electronic invoices are sent in it from SAP system into a clearing centre ORION EDI from CCV Information systems. Here, they are translated into various versions of ISDOC format, which is used for e-invoicing by some domestic ERP systems. 

For sending for automated processing from ERP system Pohoda that the buyer Klier uses was used a format ISDOC version 5.2.3. All the documents are for the purpose of ensuring the origin and subsequent trustworthy archiving provided with an electronic signature.

„The combination of traditional EDI in a multinational entity with a proprietary Czech format of electronic invoices ISDOC implemented in ERP from a domestic supplier is a very nice example of easiness and effectiveness of the current electronic communication,“ says David Reichel, an architect of ORION EDI solution and a managing director of eBusiness division of CCV Information systems.

„Currently, within our division Beauty Care Professional – Schwarzkopf Professional, we are interchanging with the Klier chain monthly about 500 electronic invoices which represents not only significant financial streamlining on our side but also time and human savings at us and our customer too,“ says Jana Holá, Customer Service Manager in Henkel Company, responsible for the customer service in Schwarzkopf Professional division, and adds: „Therefore I believe that in this way of electronic document interchange, we will soon extend it also to other representatives of professional hair cosmetics.“

The conversion of EDI invoices into ISDOC format can be also used outside the commercial sector. In accordance with the government policy statement, ISDOC since version 6.0 can be used also for electronic invoicing to state administration organisations for public tenders. It is a reaction to the Directive 2014/55/EU, according to which in November 2018 at the latest, all public contractors in Europe will be obliged to enable suppliers to invoice electronically.

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