eMudhra helps Aditya Birla Group go paperless in their Document process such as tenders, invoices etc.: Manufacturing Industries

The cement industry is heavily dependent on suppliers, distributors and retailers. Process automation is largely limited to machines and there is still a heavy reliance on paper-based methods which causes significant time delays in contract closures.

Aditya Birla Group wanted to therefore automate most of the above functions to reduce turnaround time and reduce rework by making use of re-usable templates. eMudhra outlined the following key areas where emSigner combined with Digital Signatures would significantly improve and streamline the document process of Aditya Birla Group and reduce cost:

• Signing documents like Purchase Orders, Invoices, RPF/RFQ, Tenders, Contracts etc. as well as timely reminders of the same via email or SMS
• Get vendors on board with a simple and intuitive workflow-based solution
• Get multiple approvals using parallel or sequential signing, based on user role in the organization
• Embedding emSigner into the organization’s existing inventory management forms and processes, saving time, reducing errors and increasing visibility
• Encryption and decryption of sensitive documents using eVault service
  

Business Matters

One of India's biggest manufacturers and exporters of cement, based out of Mumbai—Aditya Birla Group—goes completely paperless by using emSigner’s workflow and Digital Signature capabilities to generate and sign invoices, POs, RFQs and tenders instantly and integrate it with existing systems.

Business Needs

In a hyper competitive environment, relying on outdated paper processes can be fatal. Existing processes are not only time-consuming but also error-prone. The need of the hour is to go digital so that movement of documents takes place within or outside the company in a paperless manner.

Approach

Deploy an integrated solution to digitally sign and encrypt documents that are legally binding and guarantee authenticity, integrity and confidentiality of data.

The department should be able to use emSigner Multi-party physical signatures and real-time signing of documents related to invoice processing, regulatory compliance audit sign off, expense reporting and inventory sign off. In a phased manner Aditya Birla Group would integrate all its internal as well as external applications with emSigner to facilitate signing of approximately 10,000 invoices, 500 Proposals and Contracts & 50,000 other documents per month.

The Solution

eMudhra implemented emSigner – Secure Paperless Office solution to enable Digital Signature based approvals for the following workflows:

• External flows for Vendor Onboarding and Vendor Payments
• Internal flows between Departments and Finance
• Bulk signing of documents for sending proposals to vendors

emSigner was integrated with the ERP application over Web service APIs for digital signing of documents. Deployment was done on premise which allowed Aditya Birla Group greater degree of control and customization and allowed them to retain data on premise to maintain confidentiality.

• For individual signing, individual digital signature certificates were issued to Authorized Signatories
• For Bulk Signing, Class 3 Document Signer Certificate was used which gave a higher risk assurance to relying parties for a critical use case such as Invoice Signing
• From a security and risk standpoint, a Hardware Security Module was used to store the Class 3 Document Signer certificate

The Paperless Office Solution Uses the Following Broad Modules:

• emSigner
  On-premise Digital Signature enabled workflow management solution used for defining paperless workflows
• Hardware Security Module
  Protect the cryptographic infrastructure of some of the most security-conscious organizations in the world by securely managing, processing, and storing cryptographic keys inside a hardened, tamper-resistant device
• Class 3 Document Signer Certificate
  To sign critical documents such as invoices
• SecurePass
  eMudhra authentication server which was used to automatically validate the signed documents that were received by Aditya Birla Group

Digital Signature Technology

The Digital Signature Technology works on the Public Key Infrastructure framework which uses a Cryptographic Key Pair – Private and Public Key for secure access and transmission of Information.

Digital Signatures are generated by the issuer for Aditya Birla Group in a secure device.

Benefits

Aditya Birla Group reaped significant benefits by implementing digital signature based workflow signing. These include:

• Access all Master Service Agreements anywhere, anytime
• Reduce procure to pay cycle time
• Better compliance as a result of complete traceability of documents for audit purpose
• Tracking real-time signature progress on documents initiated for signing
• Importing files from multiple clouds and file storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive into emSigner
• Faster turnaround time, increased employee efficiency, productivity and transparency
• Online and Offline signing Capabilities