The client and project context
At the time of the project described here, Lafarge Polska had operated in Poland since 1995 and was the country's largest producer of raw materials for construction materials: cement, aggregates, and concrete. The company had more than 40 plants and employed nearly 1,500 people. It belonged to the global Holcim Group, which employed about 70,000 people in approximately 70 countries.
In 2022, Lafarge Polska expanded into the construction chemicals market. The merger with Izolbet opened growth opportunities in renovation, thermal insulation supporting energy efficiency, and building finishing.
The challenge
The “zero paper” concept was part of the Sustainability Strategy through 2026 in effect at the time. The company wanted to reduce the number of paper documents, strengthen data security, and improve the working experience of people involved in its processes.
Employees processed documents manually and then stored them in archives at three locations in Poland. The existing document workflow application was used only to a limited extent because it had not received technical support for several years.
Before selecting a new platform, the company calculated the total cost of working with paper documents. The estimated return on investment was approximately 0.7 years—less than one year.
The solution
The “zero paper” policy was implemented in smaller phases. The first phase covered the preparation and approval of sales and purchase contracts, including lease and transportation contracts, as well as marketing agreements. A shared process matrix was designed to handle the structured flow of these documents despite differences in metadata and review paths.
Solution requirements
The platform had to enable employees to:
- create contracts from a template or individually, according to the counterparty's requirements;
- digitize paper documents and store them in a secure cloud repository;
- sign contracts with different types of electronic signatures, including qualified electronic signatures, and support a mixed digital-and-paper workflow as well as an exceptional paper workflow;
- review contracts within the platform, including with external counterparties;
- measure implementation performance and solution adoption among users.
Why AMODIT
Five proposals were selected for detailed technical analysis and pricing during the selection process. According to the published project description, only AMODIT met all the stated requirements: it supported different signature types, allowed changes needed for large numbers of users and documents to be introduced quickly, and enabled solution adoption to be tracked.
“We selected a solution that supports different types of electronic signatures and provides extensive options for introducing changes quickly.” (translated from Polish)
Implementation
The objective of the first phase was to prepare at least 40% of new contracts in AMODIT. All existing contracts were to be digitized and transferred to the repository. The Lafarge team collected and cataloged approximately 10,000 documents for migration.
Agnieszka Kaźmierczyk, Head of Digital at Lafarge Polska, coordinated the needs analysis and tool implementation.
“The project's biggest challenge was examining the specifics of the existing process for creating each type of contract.” (translated from Polish)
Work on the contract approval workflow began in spring 2021 and continued through September 2021. The project used the AMODIT TrustCenter platform available at the time to support advanced electronic signatures.
The analysis revealed that approving rebate agreements was part of handling sales and purchase contracts. Instead of leaving it within the larger workflow, the team separated it into its own process.
“We planned and completed the work on this additional workflow within one week.” (translated from Polish)
For the project, AMODIT TrustCenter was integrated with the Szafir qualified electronic signature. The platform was also connected to Google Active Directory, so users did not need an additional login.
The first results were presented to about 20 people from different departments involved in contract preparation. The project took place during the pandemic. Development, testing, and preparing 200 employees from different departments were more difficult, so the stabilization and adaptation phase was extended.
First-phase results
The first phase ended in fall 2021. The share of new contracts prepared in AMODIT exceeded the original target by approximately 30%. In selected business areas, AMODIT was used to sign more than 99% of contracts.
- 1,000+ contracts processed in AMODIT;
- hundreds of contracts, both active and completed, archived entirely in the digital repository;
- more than 60% of contracts signed electronically, although not every contract could be signed this way;
- 230 active users, with the number continuing to grow.
Approval processes that had previously taken weeks took several hours or a dozen hours after implementation. The published project summary also described them as virtually cost-free. These are historical results of this specific implementation, not a statement of outcomes for other organizations.
The current Holcim implementation description is available on amodit.com.