German investment company embraces hybrid archiving for compliance and functionality

Archiving company data might sound like a straightforward process, but it takes some serious consideration to come up with the most beneficial strategy for how and where to store data to maintain functionality and comply with regulations. 

Germany, Cologne-based investment company Aachener Grundvermögen was planning to wave goodbye to traditional archiving and move to the cloud in the long run. The company‘s IT landscape was hybrid, to start with, with both on-premise solutions and cloud services used. The ERP system played an important role as part of the new strategy as the company’s long-term goal was to switch to SAP S/4HANA in close cooperation with the Business Technology Platform (BTP).

However, to facilitate this, it needed access from SAP (ArchiveLink) and directly via the Azure Cloud as a Content Management Interoperability Service (CMIS). As a capital management company, whose processes and data protection are subject to extremely high requirements, Aachener Grundvermögen had to proceed thoroughly and responsibly in all archiving activities. For this reason, a step-by-step approach was expected to not only streamline the approval process but also to ensure that the changes brought about by digitization positively impacted employees. 

The organization had to ensure that basic compliance with GDPR was guaranteed and also that document management corresponded to the principle of proper keeping and storage of books in electronic form (GoBD) and the documentation obligation corresponded to the corporate requirements for IT (KAIT). Not least because of these complex requirements, the partners took the decision to make the move to the cloud step by step and start moving the archive. 

Gaining new capabilities while preserving the old

While researching for a possible solution, Aachener Grundvermögen came across a LinkedIn post by German archiving company KGS Software GmbH (kgs), covering the subject of CMIS and approached it with a request. Following a successful proof of concept, kgs introduced its archiving system, tia, created for the needs of SAP archiving to help the company continue with its old archiving access and rely on future-proof archiving in the cloud. It also developed a CMIS app to simplify the checking and approving of documents, such as investment applications and also archive them automatically. 

“By switching the archiving to kgs and the Azure cloud, we are not only audit-proof but also have much smarter processes and no more media breaks as before,” said Sebastian Lemke, product owner SAP at Aachener Grundvermögen.

After a gradual conversion within four weeks, Aachener Grundvermögen’s employees were able to archive their documents according to the new principle without requiring extensive training – they are easily stored in the Azure cloud and open both from the SAP system and directly via CMIS.

There is also a positive side effect – the changeover spelled less work and the entire process is audit-proof. What used to take place via manual approvals now works digitally and can be created as an audit trail, so that the auditors have easy access to everything during an audit and no longer have to search for documents.  

This company’s journey demonstrates how organizations can both prioritize innovation when it comes to archiving processes and also retain legacy features that have served them well over the years – all contributing to smart and secure archiving.