The challenges posed by the Corona pandemic and the increased work from home provided the impetus for Hendrickson Europe to modernize its document processes. The production facilities in France and Austria have taken advantage of this opportunity to digitally transform their signature workflows. By implementing sproof sign’s digital signature solution, Hendrickson was not only able to significantly speed up the processing of documents and significantly reduce administrative burdens, but also to comply with international data protection standards.

Hendrickson Commercial Vehicle Systems Europe GmbH is part of Hendrickson, a leading global supplier of chassis systems and components for heavy-duty vehicles. The headquarters of the European Hendrickson Group is located in Fohnsdorf (Austria), in the heart of Styria. The production facilities in France, Poland, Romania, Great Britain and Austria produce and supply parabolic and multi-leaf springs, parabolic arms, stabilizers, lift axles and suspension systems for commercial vehicles. The chassis solutions are used in various transport categories, including on-road and off-road vehicles, buses and other special vehicles.

Company Name: Hendrickson Commercial Vehicle Systems Europe GmbH

Short description of the project:
Digital transformation of signature processes: Introduction of digital signatures to optimize and increase efficiency of administrative processes at Hendrickson in France and Austria.

Why sproof sign:
“What we like about sproof sign is not only the location in Austria and the user-friendly interface, but also the error case support and the customer friendliness for general inquiries. The team around sproof is very committed and fully motivated to drive your product forward with innovations.”

How did the decision to introduce the digital signature come about?

For several years now, Hendrickson Europe has been talking about the digital signature and a solution for it, but only in the background. Other projects related to ERP and MES were increasingly important for the plants in Europe. Since Corona and home office, the definitive requirement for a digital signature solution came from a plant in France. Since local signature solutions were already in use in other plants, a practicable solution was now sought for the two French plants and the holding company in Austria and found with sproof sign.

What criteria were decisive for you in your search for the right e-signature provider?

With my French colleague, we evaluated and tested several providers. We stuck to the simplicity of operation, because the requirements from France and Holding Austria were clearly defined. At the same time, a P2P solution was also introduced for our SAP plants and there was the assumption through the solution with the approval workflows in this SAP software add-on that a digital signature was no longer needed, but the opposite was the case. Another decision criterion was that sproof sign is an Austrian solution.

For which use cases is the digital signature used?

In France, most use cases are currently found in quality management, here in the holding company in Austria it is currently still NDA’s and other contracts that are digitally signed. It is not yet clear which other use cases will be added in both countries.

As a global player, we naturally attach great importance to data protection in accordance with the GDPR and are of course happy if our data is stored in the EU.

DI (FH) Viktor Gruber, MBA
Group IT Manager Europe

How did the integration of the cloud work?

As a global company, we already use a number of software solutions from the cloud, so this step was not a big challenge for us and sproof sign fits seamlessly into the rest of our application landscape.

What standards in terms of data security and compliance must a software solution meet in your company?

As a global player, we naturally attach great importance to data protection in accordance with the GDPR and are of course happy if our data is stored in the EU.

What do you particularly like about sproof sign?

What we like about sproof sign is not only the location in Austria and the user-friendly interface, but also the error case support and the customer friendliness for general inquiries. The team around sproof is very committed and fully motivated to drive your product forward with innovations.