Contract and Counterparty Workflow Automation — Nibulon

Challenges

Nibulon is undergoing active digital transformation and together with partner KPMG approached soft Xpansion in 2023 to automate a range of company processes. The primary challenge was automating commercial interaction with clients and partners (counterparties) and contract document workflow.

Key problems requiring urgent resolution:

• Critical delays in document processing from farmer signing the contract to the company manager processing it. Documents were frequently lost in transit.
• Significant time spent on transporting physical documents — managers had to mail contract documents from regional offices to headquarters or directly from counterparties.
• Routine errors consuming considerable time to correct, generating additional issues with process execution control.

Project Objectives

After initial analysis with KPMG and Nibulon teams, soft Xpansion proposed two products based on its Low-Code/No-Code softXspace platform, with the following main objectives:

• Provide a convenient service for 4,000+ Nibulon counterparties to exchange legally-binding documents and other information.
• Create a unified digital workspace for employees for contract management, digital signing, process control and 24/7 access.
• Automate internal contract document workflow processes (counterparty accreditation, contracts, addenda, invoices, specifications, delivery notes).
• Rapid MVP implementation before agricultural season and active contract period (1 month from project start).

Project Implementation

The project implementation can be divided into two main phases: MVP before the agricultural season and further solution development.

The first phase included adapting two ready-to-use products on the softXspace platform to the customer's requirements: softXspace.Contract for internal contract document workflow automation, and the external softXspace.ClientPortal for automating interaction with suppliers, clients and partners.

Phase I — Counterparty Portal and Employee Workspace

Project teams managed to implement the MVP in just 1 month, with the key goal of launching the Supplier Portal (based on softXspace.ClientPortal) and providing employees with a modern digital workspace for contract management (based on softXspace.Contract).

Automated processes:

• Contract initiation, approval and signing
• Counterparty accreditation initiation and processing

Key capabilities for counterparties on the Supplier Portal:

• Personal portal accounts for employees
• Accreditation/re-accreditation requests with statutory documents
• Contract initiation, approval and signing with QES
• Comments on files and cards, notifications from the Company

Employee capabilities in the unified digital workspace:

• Convenient task management (aggregation in one place), document and counterparty registries
• Processing requests and documents from counterparties for reputation and risk assessment
• Entering accredited counterparty data into registry and accounting system
• Initiating contract preparation (standard or non-standard) including from templates
• Viewing and working with document content directly in the system
• Approving and signing documents using QES
• Viewing consolidated structure of all contracts with a specific counterparty via automatic bidirectional links
• 24/7 access to all necessary documents from anywhere, process monitoring, execution control

Phase II — Portal development, contract management, ERP integration and new processes

After Nibulon successfully entered the active contracting season in the new system, soft Xpansion immediately began the next project phase including functionality development, ERP integration, and automation of new processes.

Phase II automated processes:

• Addenda initiation, approval and signing
• Specification initiation, approval and signing
• Invoice initiation, approval and signing
• Delivery note initiation, approval and signing

ERP integration implemented:

• Automatic document creation from ERP
• Status and change transmission for documents
• Transfer of signed documents after each signature application

Client Comment

"Document workflow automation became the starting point for a larger-scale digitalization of interaction with our suppliers. Its goal is to maximize their profit both through increased production efficiency and through transparent and flexible access to global market opportunities. Through the joint efforts of our teams, we quickly implemented a fully paperless contract document workflow system that accelerated document exchange and improved process control. This not only optimized cooperation with thousands of partners but also laid the foundation for further digital solutions that make business more technological and flexible."

— Volodymyr Slavinskyi, Director of Trade at Nibulon LLC

Project Results

Through coordinated teamwork, all project goals were achieved and development of Nibulon's information systems continues.

As of March 2024:

1. 4,000+ counterparties work on the Supplier Portal and exchange contract documents with the company daily.
2. Approximately 100 company employees from different teams work daily in the modern digital workspace.
3. 5 document types fully automated (contracts, addenda, invoices, delivery notes, specifications).
4. Over 50,000 documents processed digitally in six months of system operation.
5. No more time wasted on paper signing, mailing physical document copies, or searching for signed documents.
6. Reduced manual errors, improved contract obligation control.

Solutions deployed in cloud infrastructure ensuring 99.99% guaranteed application availability and fault tolerance. Based on the softXspace Low-Code/No-Code platform, enabling rapid automation of other company processes.

Related cases: Contract document workflow — UKRSIBBANK, Contract management — Risoil S.A., Contract management — NOVUS.

→ Client profile: Nibulon