PKP - Polish Railways
Development of SAP interfaces, SAP Fiori app for Real Estate Management
Document flow automation, mobile management of real estate objects
PKP S.A. is one of the largest real estate owners in Poland. The company’s resources include approximately 100 thousand hectares of land and about 57 thousand buildings and structures. The administration of such a number of facilities and plots is very complicated and time-consuming, therefore, in connection with the plan to optimize the lease of real estate, PKP S.A. decided to implement an SAP Fiori mobile solution.
Moreover, the nature of PKP S.A. operations is associated with the need to record large numbers of electricity invoices. Because of the problems related to the registration of these processes, the company decided to introduce a solution that will help automate and optimize the circulation of accounting documents.
01 Case study
This solution was implemented based on the IT infrastructure already existing at PKP S.A., expanded with a new integration platform component, which significantly shortened the workflow without exposing the client to any additional expenses.
Quick return on investment in the form of significant optimization of document flow, noticeable immediately after project completion, and low implementation costs – are the main success factors of the project.
Results achieved
- automation of document circulation
- changes in entering and processing invoices
- ability to link and update contracts for individual invoices
- automatic transfer of accounting results to the Financial and Accounting Document Circulation System
- ability to enter utility meter readings into the SAP system
- time savings resulting from the automation of invoice circulation
02 Case study
PKP owns almost sixty thousand real estate objects. In order to streamline administrative processes, the company needed a powerful and intuitive solution. It was looking for a “mobile knowledge base” on facilities – so that an employee operating in the field could quickly receive a set of information about a given building or plot of land.
The choice fell on SAP Fiori – a user environment characterized by mobility and ease of use combined with a wide range of functionalities. Using SAP Fiori, the Hicron team prepared a suite of applications enabling control and management of all aspects of real estate objects.
The first stage of the project was to create interactive prototypes of the entire solution. Then the team started working on the implementation of SAP Fiori. One of the most important tasks was to create an architecture including 7 dedicated modules, providing on-line access to SAP RE data:
- Real estate units
- Buildings / structures
- Land
- Lease Facilities
- Business partners
- Meters
- Contracts
Implementation benefits
- The possibility of mobile execution of business processes
- Efficient, fast, and intuitive real estate management
- Remote and direct access to the data in the SAP RE system for all managers and real estate administrators of PKP S.A.
- The possibility of real-time data transfer, allowing for immediate estimation of the potential and maintenance costs of real estate
- Increasing the comfort and pace of work
SAP Fiori – applications available on any device
The key requirement of the client was the preparation of a solution that would give employees convenient access to SAP RE (Real Estate management). As employees often worked in the field, the solution had to be available on mobile devices. SAP Fiori turned out to be the best choice in this case.
Fiori applications are responsive – they can be used on any device, including smartphones and tablets. They are also connected, so that switching between different functionalities takes only a moment. However, in order for them to have access to data from the SAP RE system, a special infrastructure was needed, consisting of additional Fiori solutions. Hicron focused on their preparation.
The biggest challenge of the project was its schedule – the Hicron team operated within a very tight time frame. However, we rose to the occasion: the client received the first phase of the project after only a week of cooperation. We provided the client with high-quality code. The consultants, thanks to their experience, perceptiveness, and high discipline, were able to instantly detect technical failures and correct them immediately. Thus, despite the demanding schedule, we implemented a ready-made, fully functional solution on time.
100% remote project
The implementation of SAP Fiori was unique for PKP also for another reason. The project was implemented 100% remotely – which in 2019 was not yet common practice. The client appreciated the professionalism of Hicron consultants and the timeliness of our work in such – then unusual – conditions. For us this was not surprising, as we have many years of experience both in running projects on site, remotely, or partially remotely.
