Drastically shortened turnaround times with the Telekom employee app increased satisfaction

The nearly 90,000 employees generate vast volumes of paper documents every day that need to be sent to central administration. A key problem arose with two specific document types: The German certificate of incapacity for work (“AU” certificate) and receipts for cash expenses. These had to be physically mailed to a scanning center for digitization. As a result, processing often took several days and created an enormous workload for all employees involved.

Due to the delays inherent in the process, it was costly, extremely time-consuming, and caused employee frustration.

Deutsche Telekom wanted to offer all employees a simplified workflow for submitting medical certificates and cash receipts. This required a digitization tool that is easily accessible to all employees. Simply having employees take photos of the documents with their mobile devices to transmit them digitally, however, did not produce suitable scans. High scan quality is crucial for back-office employees because modern approaches, such as automatic processing of documents in the backend, demand excellent image quality.

The main goal was an entirely digital transmission of medical certificates and cash receipts. As opposed to mailing, this only takes seconds and produces top image quality. By enabling their employees to digitize their documents themselves, Deutsche Telekom wanted to speed up processing in the back-office. This would guarantee timely reimbursement of cash expenses and spare sick employees the effort of sending their documents by post.

Accordingly, the focus was on integrating an easy-to-use scanning and data extraction function into the existing internal MitarbeiterApp. It needed to deliver high-quality results for processing and be equally compatible with both iOS and Android.

The Scanbot SDK was the optimal solution here. Its versatile functions for scanning and extracting data from documents deliver first-class quality, ease of use, and maximum data protection. Based on years of experience working with companies from various industries, our team of experts has gained extensive insight into the best practices and requirements of document digitization. Developers can integrate the components within a few business days, and easily adapt the user interface to the corporate design.

Let’s now look at the original document capture workflows to gain a more accurate understanding of Deutsche Telekom’s requirements. The optimized workflow after the integration of the Scanbot SDK is given below for comparison.

Transfer of certificates of incapacity for work in case of illness

The former process

1. The sick employee receives a paper medical certificate.
2. Now, they must print out a barcode cover sheet via a company computer.
3. They send this sheet and the certificate to the scan center via mail.
4. Once they arrive, employees scan the documents manually.
5. Finally, the sick employee needs to inform their supervisor by e-mail or phone call.

The process with Scanbot

1. The sick employee receives a paper medical certificate.
2. They open the scan function provided by the Scanbot SDK within the employee app.
3. Here, they scan their certificate. The data on the document is read out automatically and put into a structured form.
4. Now, the employee only needs to confirm that the information has been extracted correctly. Then, they can then forward the digital copy immediately.
5. After the successful transmission, the employee’s manager is automatically informed of their absence

The former process

1. In many situations, employees need to advance small amounts of money. To receive a refund for these cash expenses, they must keep the relevant receipt safe until they can access a printer and scanner.
2. They then need to print out a barcode cover sheet and add it to the receipts.
3. All these documents are then sent to the scan center by mail.
4. Once they arrive, employees scan the documents manually.
5. The reimbursement can be initiated once all data is entered correctly.

The process with Scanbot

1. The employee receives a receipt for cash expenses incurred.
2. They can now digitize this receipt using the Scanbot SDK and transmit it to the head office right away
3. The reimbursement is initiated automatically.

Workflow optimization through mobile scanning

Sending the documents by mail was the biggest sink of time and effort in the process. Processing usually required several days, since just delivering the documents to the scan center already took at least one business day.

Thanks to smart user guidance, data extraction from German AU certificates, auto-crop, auto-rotate, and image-enhancing functionalities, the Scanbot SDK integrated inside Telekom’s mobile app delivers flawless results perfectly suited for manual and automatic further processing. Due to the fast digital transfer of the documents, Deutsche Telekom cut turnaround time drastically.

By integrating the Scanbot SDK, Deutsche Telekom benefits from the following results:

• Cost savings
• Less time spent on administrative and back-office tasks
• Enhanced employee experience
• Increased precision in document processing

In addition, other exciting areas of application for the Scanbot SDK in the employee app are continuously emerging, benefiting both employees and employers.