The BMW Group Netherland's ambition is to make the paperless office a reality. An important element of that ambition is to set up a solution for the electronic invoicing of the dealers - e-invoicing. StreamServe plays an important role in this technological infrastructure, which is for the benefit of all the dealers. They need to carry out fewer manual tasks in the invoice process, and BMW Group Nederland has a guaranteed efficient output process. 

Importer BMW Group Nederland supplies vehicles, spares and services to a hundred dealer companies, including BMW, MINI and BMW MotorRad. In turn, they supply the top-quality automotive products to the end customer.

Before processes such as quotations, orders, deliveries and invoicing come to a good end, the importer sends a range of documents to the dealer. Until recently, a large part of this communication was on paper and by mail.

Invoices make up the largest part - there are invoices for vehicles, spares, and warrantees. “The fact that the dealers received this information as hard copy meant that they needed to enter it manually. Manual registration is sensitive to errors and time consuming, particularly when you consider that it concerns more than 100,000 invoices on an annual basis”, says Rob van Kuik, System Development Coordinator for BMW. “This move towards digital documents gives us breathing space”.

Other document flows are also digitized with StreamServe, including stock lists, warranty certificates and the Vehicle Registration Documents (new sales). This last type of document is completed by the dealer with the buyer of the new vehicle, and is an important contact moment with the customer.

BMW implemented StreamServe to generate digital invoices in PDF format, with an ‘authenticity certificate’ and for sending the e-invoice to the dealer’s inbox folder. A script is used to store the document in the dealer’s electronic archive. “In order to enter all the information digitally on the dealer side, we developed an XML application that forms a robust and reliable solution for BMW e-invoicing in conjunction with StreamServe. And the opportunities will only increase in the future”, says Van Kuik.

He refers to the fact that StreamServe can prove extremely valuable for a range of business processes. “Documents can be set up flexibly with StreamServe. The options that are available persuaded the BMW management to invest in StreamServe.” For the time being BMW, and its dealers in particular, benefit from increased efficiency and the company realizes cost benefits by saving on handling and postage costs. And that has not remained unnoticed - BMW Financial Services is also moving to StreamServe. “We are very pleased with the cooperation”, says Van Kuik.