Digital and Modern HR Processes

With over 300,000 customers and the annual supply of 2,000 GWh of electricity, 5 million cubic meters of drinking water and 890 GWh of district heating, Stadtwerke Flensburg is one of the leading energy suppliers in northern Germany. Around 750 employees ensure this success – through expertise, commitment and a clear focus on customer satisfaction. In order to provide them with the best possible support, the company invests specifically in personnel development and employee empowerment.

The energy supplier has also recently started using electronic employee files in order to significantly streamline its HR processes, make them more efficient and adapt them even better to the new working conditions. The result is a modern working environment that empowers employees and makes the organization fit for the future.

Digital HR processes in SAP: The next step in HR management

“The trend towards working from home has significantly changed the way we work – but in some areas we were not yet sufficiently prepared for this,” says Vanessa Petznik, Head of Payroll and HR Administration at Stadtwerke. “For example, we continued to keep paper-based personnel files that were neither accessible nor editable when working from home.”

In addition, there was the electronically supported tax audit (euBP): since 2023, employers have been obliged to transmit their pay data digitally to the German Pension Insurance. Since the beginning of 2025, this has also applied to financial accounting data such as totals and balance lists.

However, the previous processes at Stadtwerke Flensburg were not compatible with the new requirements. “Although there was the option of using transition periods, we wanted to press ahead with the necessary digitalization quickly in view of the many advantages,” emphasizes Vanessa Petznik.

A strong basis for sustainable HR management

Companies benefit directly from the digitalization of their personnel files and HR processes. Digital files save space and costs, speed up processes and noticeably reduce the burden on the organization. Authorized employees can access relevant information at any time and from any location.

However, not every digitalization project is successful. Time and again, the introduction fails because new tools are not compatible with the existing IT infrastructure – or because the selection is made without comparing it with the actual requirements. To avoid such stumbling blocks, Stadtwerke Flensburg defined its requirements very precisely in advance.

• be seamlessly integrated into the existing SAP system,
• Ensure GDPR-compliant personnel file management
• support the electronic tax audit (euBP),
• ensure a more uniform file structure,
• be scalable for other file types and
• offer extensive functions for modern, automated workflow management.

The search for a suitable system ultimately led Stadtwerke to the IT specialist top flow and its enterprise content management system top xRM.

Vanessa Petznik recalls: “Finding a suitable tool was not easy – so it was all the more pleasing that top xRM fitted our profile perfectly. It not only promised an interface-free connection to our SAP system, but also a quick-start solution with which we could work quickly and cost-effectively in compliance with euBP. It also enabled us to continue backing up employee data on our own servers.”

Stadtwerke contacted top flow to plan a comprehensive implementation project. “We were quickly able to agree on how to achieve our goals efficiently,” reports Vanessa Petznik. “This formed the basis for the collaboration.”

United approach – successful implementation

After deciding on top xRM, Stadtwerke Flensburg started the structured project planning together with top flow, beginning with an initial workshop. The aim of this was to bring everyone involved up to a uniform level of knowledge – as a basis for the subsequent introduction. In the kick-off meeting and subsequent meetings, the team defined the specific implementation steps.

The experts agreed on three main phases:

• Implementation of top xRM:

In the first step, the project team connected top xRM directly to the company’s internal ERP system – a quick and smooth process thanks to the interface-free integration into SAP. The project team then worked closely with an external service provider to digitize the existing paper files and convert them into an electronic format. It also created two access options: via the SAP GUI and via a specially created FIORI app.

• GDPR-compliant implementation of digital HR processes in SAP:

Next, the project team developed a GDPR-compliant access concept in close consultation with the works council and the company’s data protection officer. The intelligent authorization management in top xRM is a central element of this: it ensures that only authorized persons can access a file – secured by appropriate authentication.

The access rights are also finely graded: While HR and the employees concerned have full access, access for line managers or the works council is restricted to defined content. To prevent misuse, the system also logs all access without gaps.

All content in top xRM is also stored in encrypted form. Without the corresponding decryption procedure, they cannot be read out as plain text – an additional security factor for the protection of sensitive personal data.

• Preparation for the electronically supported tax audit (euBP):

Another central component of the project was preparing for the electronically supported tax audit. The starting point for this is also top xRM, which supplements automated workflows with audit-relevant information from the SAP system – such as payslips, social security statements or working time data. This information is converted into an euBP-compliant format and can be transmitted directly to the German Pension Insurance via the SAP B2A Manager (a tool for digital data transmission to authorities).

Solid foundation for digital HR processes in SAP

Thanks to the close cooperation between top flow and Stadtwerke Flensburg, the Flensburg-based energy supplier now has a modern, digital personnel file that already meets all the requirements of the electronically supported tax audit. At the same time, it makes working from home easier: HR employees can now work on the file from home, provided they have the necessary authorization, and employees can view their documents at any time. Digitization is also the basis for future employee self-services.

The modular structure of top xRM also opens up a wide range of possibilities for Stadtwerke to digitize other file types in the HR department in the future – and to extend electronic file management to other areas of the company in the future.

Vanessa Petznik draws a positive conclusion:

“With top xRM, we have created a strong foundation for modern, digital HR processes in SAP. The introduction of digital file management was just the first step. With the connection to SAP SuccessFactors and the expansion of user-friendly HR self-services – such as digital vacation requests – we are consistently driving forward the further development of our HR processes. In the medium term, we also want to map contract management more strongly via the new system. The close cooperation with top flow was a key success factor here – we are very grateful for that.”

“With the introduction of top xRM, we finally have a solid foundation for end-to-end digitalized HR management. In future, it will offer us numerous starting points for further process optimization.”

Vanessa Petznik, Head of Payroll Accounting and HR Administration at Stadtwerke Flensburg