Slovnaft to capitalize on the benefits of EDI
The cooperation with Slovnaft started in 2015 when Lukoil gas stations in the Czech Republic were taken over by MOL Group. Lukoil ended its activities in central Europe, the CZ side of the business was acquired by MOL Group and operations were successfully transferred to MOL Czech Republic, s.r.o.* Given that some tools that supported electronic document exchange already existed, MOL CZ and its sister company SLOVNAFT, a.s., decided to keep them and upgrade them with additional modules. Today, for example, the technology part of EDI (the so-called backend) at MOL CZ is managed by Slovnaft in Slovakia and operated by EDI coordinators in the Czech Republic.
“The implementation of EDI at Slovnaft started from scratch. This means that there was no need to migrate from one system to another as it happened in the Czech Republic. Initially, the EDI system was only used to manage invoices. EDITEL provided the client with a software solution for the formal assessment of invoices and electronic signature verification (validation). These are basic mathematical calculations, for example checking if the total value of the invoice equals the sum of the items etc. “This avoids mistakes before the entries are made into the centralized information system SAP,” says Štefan Sádovský, executive director of EDITEL SK s.r.o.
The next step in the cooperation with Slovnaft and MOL CZ was the implementation of a module that allows orders to be sent to business partners electronically. It is now fully operational. Expressed in numbers, Slovnaft will exchange approximately 11,000 invoices and about 6,700 orders with its partners this month.
Slovnaft experienced the use of these EDI modules as very beneficial, and in cooperation with experts at EDITEL, was looking for ways to streamline its processes even further. Slovnaft identified significant potential, especially regarding delivery notes for goods (the so-called dispatch advices). Usually, delivery notes can have up to approximately 300 items, which the service station staff previously checked manually and entered into the information system.
During peak times, goods are received well after the supplier has already left. As a consequence, the supplier did not know whether the receipt was OK or if there were discrepancies between the physical status and the items listed on the delivery note. The aim of the project was to implement the despatch advice processing module and generate electronic confirmation for the supplier.
As soon as the system is fully operational, the supplier will not have to wait for drivers to hand in their delivery notes, the software will be able to compare the receipt (receiving advice) with the associated delivery note and subsequently issue an invoice. One of the benefits is that this approach makes the use of different credit notes obsolete. In addition, thanks to EDITEL’s EDI archive, Slovnaft will now be able to monitor all business transactions, from orders to despatch advices and associated invoices, credit notes and other documents, relying on a single solution.
“One of our first EDI partners is our exclusive logistics supplier PF Distribution a.s. This company supplies all Slovnaft gas stations and delivers a large part of our range of products. After a test run with them, we knew that the project was fully functional. Thanks to the professional services provided by EDITEL, I am positive that we will be able to reach our goals before long, ”said Roman Rybanský, head of enterprise application management, Information Technology, SLOVNAFT, a.s.
