SAP Partner XFT from Walldorf Relies on webPDF
SAP, headquartered in Walldorf, is Europe's largest software manufacturer and is especially known for software that helps companies organize business processes such as accounting, controlling, sales, purchasing, production, warehousing, and human resources efficiently. One of SAP's main products, alongside CRM systems, is the enterprise software suite SAP ERP.
XFT as a Specialist in Enterprise Information Management with a Focus on SAP
In response to the demands of SAP users, the well-known software developer and long-standing SAP partner XFT specializes in connecting SAP systems with other applications. Based in Walldorf, with additional locations in Berlin and the United States, the software company offers a broad range of products and solutions that help control and network SAP processes across the organization.
With the help of XFT, companies can customize, extend, and improve their SAP systems. The goal behind this is to design all business processes from within SAP in an efficient and legally compliant way. The SAP partner therefore provides add-on software that optimizes the application platform and adapts it to specific business needs. In particular, the digital personnel file from XFT was developed specifically for SAP systems and uses webPDF as its conversion tool.
webPDF: A Conversion Tool Perfect for Use with SAP
webPDF is currently used as an important building block in the cross-functional core product XFT Document Composer. With XFT Document Composer, Word and Excel documents can be created and edited directly in the SAP system. This process can also be automated. The advantage is that documents are created in the secure SAP environment and no system switch is required. To describe the use of webPDF at XFT in more detail, we spoke in advance with Marcus Bonn, Head of Human Capital Management Consulting at XFT.
The Two Main Areas of Use for webPDF
"For us, webPDF is the first choice among the available conversion solutions. Such a solution is needed when you use SAP and want to convert different input formats into a single standardized format, PDF/A. As an SAP partner, we therefore looked for a third-party provider.
The second area of use for webPDF is within our XFT Document Composer product. This concerns correspondence generated from SAP, such as business letters, which you do not want to keep in Word format in the end, but in PDF or PDF/A. It is also about preparing documents properly for printing. This area of application also includes our use of barcode generation and recognition. Barcodes allow important documents to be identified and processed very quickly."
XFT Document Composer: A Look Behind the Scenes
XFT Document Composer is integrated directly into SAP ERP or SAP SuccessFactors. PDF documents are processed there immediately without requiring a system change. Completed PDF forms, for example, are automatically stored in the digital personnel file.
Marcus Bonn describes how the long-standing collaboration with SoftVision Development from Fulda began:
"As part of developing our filing solution for the digital personnel file, we wanted to make it possible to convert all documents into a uniform storage format. For long-term archiving, the requirement was and still is TIF or PDF/A. For our personnel file solution, the question then arose whether we could use an in-house development or find a tool that would meet all requirements. One thing was clear: XFT had to offer customers one specific, uniform standard. Individual customer requirements also had to be taken into account, such as the automated splitting and/or merging of documents. We first got in touch with SoftVision around 2010, and the collaboration has continued ever since."
After the initial contact and first discussions, a selection process was launched. "We sat down with a group of developers and worked out what a conversion process from SAP should look like and which tools could provide a suitable interface. After the research, one thing was very clear: if you are looking for software that runs stably, is cost-effective, and reliable, then webPDF is the first choice," says Bonn.
"The most important thing was that a large number of documents could be converted well and reliably. webPDF offered ideal implementability for us, even back then with web services, and the openness of the API and SoftVision's development work convinced us then and still does today. In this context, the support from SoftVision Development also deserves special praise. Communication works very well. The contacts are always highly competent, and we experience support as absolutely straightforward and consistently positive."
XFT's Partner and Customer Network
The company from Walldorf has since built up a large network of partners, whether in implementation, sales, or as technology partners, and these partnerships support XFT and therefore also its customers. SoftVision Development has been one of these partners for several years. Contact has existed since around 2010. Marcus Bonn emphasizes the wide range of customers where webPDF has since been used as a core component of XFT products:
"As part of our XFT Document Composer software solution, webPDF is used by a large number of customers. One thing is certain: there is an enormous range of customers using webPDF in this way as one component of our software. Our customers definitely save time, and therefore costs, with webPDF. They now only need to file documents and no longer have to convert Word documents to PDF manually. The software works reliably in the background and therefore usually remains invisible to users."
In the past, various custom adaptations were developed together with SoftVision. For example, a preview function was integrated into the product. This made it possible to generate PDF documents including a preview image while also managing access rights. With the help of webPDF, XFT was therefore able to offer SAP customers something that had previously not been possible in this form. Bonn summarizes the continued future collaboration as follows: "We continue to focus on the field of conversion. At the same time, we remain in constant contact and work on continuously improving the interfaces. This is not an area where we sit back."