KION GROUP, Moving (Also) Information

KION Group, a German multinational with over 33,000 employees in more than 100 countries and €8 billion in revenue in 2018, is the European leader in forklift production (over 1.4 million units) and the world’s second-largest provider of supply chain and warehouse automation technologies. The company has delivered more than 6,000 warehouses to customers across six continents. It operates through well-known brands such as Linde, STILL, Dematic, Baoli, Fenwick, and OM Voltas.

The Challenge


With a long history of innovation, KION Group aims to become a "double-digit company" through its Strategy 2027, which focuses on automation, digitalization, and innovation. As part of this transformation, the company is evolving its IT structure and has introduced the role of Digital Officer to lead the change.

The goal is to develop a portfolio of digital services that generate new revenue streams. The Group CIO is responsible for overseeing IT services that support the business and for redesigning its IT architecture for the future. Key initiatives include migrating to Microsoft Azure and Office 365, upgrading global networks, and enhancing collaboration among distributed teams.

Since 2019, KION Group has also had to adapt to the mandatory e-invoicing regulation for B2B transactions, facing challenges in handling exceptions that SAP does not yet support – such as sending courtesy invoices via email to specific customers.

"Thanks to the new governance model, we’ve been able to share IT best practices across all group companies. A prime example is the legally compliant digital archiving service developed at STILL in collaboration with Yubiq," confirms Stefano Tagliabue, Senior Director IT EMEA South East at KION Group.

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The Approach


KION Group has maintained a decade-long partnership with Yubiq, starting with OM Carrelli Elevatori and now with STILL, for integrated document management with SAP. This collaboration includes invoice mailing, digital archiving, bulk mailing services, invoice verification, public administration invoicing, and certified email (PEC) archiving.

A major IT reorganization in 2015 positioned IT as a corporate function independent of brands and regions, fostering synergies between IT teams and legal entities within the Group.

When mandatory e-invoicing was introduced in Italy in 2019, KION once again chose Yubiq, whose solution provided the flexibility needed for IT and finance teams to adapt to regulatory changes. The project unified public administration (PA) and B2B invoice flows, eliminated the need for the “spesometro” (transaction reporting), and introduced the “esterometro” (cross-border reporting).

Alongside these regulatory changes, digitalization reduced manual processes in accounts payable for Italian suppliers but also introduced new challenges in Intercompany transactions. Despite these complexities, KION continues to optimize its document processes, with IT playing a key role in managing and evolving these solutions.

"On the accounts receivable side, we introduced all the business-specific functionalities required for effective management of events returned by the Italian exchange system (SdI), as well as key search criteria for document retrieval", explains Stefano Tagliabue.

The Impact


The project involved multiple departments, including finance, accounting, and business process owners, with the goal of improving operations through new technologies. While KION had already automated invoice management before e-invoicing, the process further reduced the need for dematerialization in accounts payable.

Specifically, the management of PDF invoices sent via email by Italian suppliers was minimized. The introduction of e-invoicing streamlined PA and B2B workflows. STILL currently operates a PEC archiving service, but a more advanced system is needed for efficient communication management. Yubiq’s Flowee platform has been identified as the ideal solution, with project implementation planned for 2020.

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