Digital Transformation of Global Accounting at Deutsche Bahn Group: The Case of the TIM BPM Suite

(a) Situation faced: The accounting function of the Deutsche Bahn Group, a public German railway company with 320,000 employees, went through a centralization process to transfer the entire company’s accounting activities from 350 locations to three Shared Service Centers. The decentralized accounting function prior to this transformation was qualitatively and economically unsustainable. (b) Action taken: In the course of the transformation, processes had to be changed on a global level, and a workflow management system had to be introduced to automate these processes. The TIM BPM Suite, a workflow management system, was selected among several digital tools as the main pillar to make this transition possible. The organizational desire for further automation led to efforts to combine the workflow with existing third-party systems to meet regulatory requirements, to achieve faster turnaround times, and to introduce performance monitoring on a global scale. These goals were realized by using robotic process automation in combination with human workflows. (c) Results achieved: The newly centralized accounting function guarantees globally standardized digital processes. Thanks to its flexible rollout options, positive economies of scale were achieved that facilitate the integration of existing companies and new acquisitions. Moreover, the new approach meets all legal and compliance requirements. The project won the GFO organization’s “Process Solution Award 2019” in the category of workflow management. (d) Lessons learned: Acceptance of the new way to work is one of the most important key aspects of such a transformation, especially when the transformation changes the way the employees work. The early integration of all employees is essential to ensure quick acceptance.