Everything in sight: The webPDF preview feature for digital personnel files
A leading manufacturer of rubber floor coverings has been using webPDF from SoftVision Development since 2014 to maintain visibility across hundreds of digital personnel files and find documents quickly.
Rubber "Made in Germany" - nora systems
nora systems GmbH is a globally recognized manufacturer of resilient rubber floor coverings and related system solutions. Based in Weinheim, the company works closely with architects and builders to create practical, aesthetic, and comfortable interior spaces. Its customer-focused services and high product quality are key differentiators.
Today, nora systems employs more than 1,000 people, around 850 of them at its headquarters in Weinheim. The company operates in about 80 countries with 15 international offices.
webPDF in daily use at nora systems
The connection to webPDF initially came through the SAP expert XFT in Walldorf. XFT has relied on SoftVision solutions for many years, helping increase security for sensitive SAP data. In work with digital personnel files, XFT uses the proven PDF format and required a tool that supports PDF and PDF/A conversion for Microsoft Office formats while also providing thumbnail previews. The highly adaptable webPDF solution from SoftVision met these requirements and integrates well with SAP environments.
Many companies have already digitized their workflows and related documents to save time and cost. This also applies to personnel data and employee records. In everyday work with digital files, however, users often struggle to locate specific documents when file names are similar or when files contain 100+ pages. This slows processes and frustrates teams. The webPDF preview feature addresses exactly this problem.
For this reason, nora systems worked with XFT to optimize digital personnel files by integrating webPDF into the existing process landscape.
Implementing webPDF at nora systems
"The strong collaboration with SoftVision Development is especially worth highlighting," says Torsten Bachert (IT Solution Architect at nora systems). "Implementation went smoothly, and we have needed very little support from SoftVision so far. We did not encounter any major technical issues during rollout."
"Our personnel files are provided via the XFT module, while the rest runs automatically in the background. Users are not disrupted in daily work and are not directly involved with webPDF, because it runs as a background web service integration. As a result, user satisfaction remains high."
What is webPDF used for at nora systems?
"We use webPDF to display preview images for our digital personnel files. We have around 1,100 employees worldwide and work with about 850 personnel files at our site, some of which contain more than 100 pages. During digitization, we needed preview images to find specific documents quickly. webPDF proved to be the ideal solution and has been in use here since late 2014. So far, around 36,000 documents have been digitized."
"Before introducing webPDF, two requirements were critical for us," Bachert adds. "First, it had to be easy to implement. Second, it had to require little to no maintenance and run reliably in the background. webPDF met both requirements without issues. Around 10 users at our Weinheim headquarters work with this server-based setup and value its ease of use. For us, the key benefits are quick document retrieval, better file-level visibility, and additional PDF processing options that we may use more extensively in the future."
Additional webPDF capabilities
As a central PDF server, webPDF converts a broad range of file formats into PDF and then enables convenient editing, signing, exporting, and archiving. It can be accessed through any web browser or through the integrated web portal and can be adapted to specific customer requirements when needed.