Zondervan

Zondervan Groep is a mechanical installation contractor that supports clients with service, maintenance, renovation and transformation projects. For some of these clients, work orders come in by email, often as a PDF attachment.

Previously, the administration team had to open these work orders, check them and create them by hand in Syntess. That meant monitoring mailboxes, retyping data and making sure every order was in the system on time.

VionA developed a robot that runs this process automatically. Since October, the automation has handled 3,500 work orders.

The problem: manually copying work orders from email and PDF

For new work orders, Zondervan Groep received an email with a PDF attachment. That PDF contained the information needed to create a work order in Syntess.

The process consisted of several manual steps:

• Monitoring the mailbox for new work orders.
• Opening and checking the PDF.
• Entering the client.
• Entering location and resident details.
• Retyping the problem description.
• Adding notes, for example about appointment dates.
• Adding attachments (work order & photos)
• Checking whether a work order already existed or another work order was still open.

Each work order took about 3 minutes by hand. That may not sound like much, but with large volumes and fluctuating inflow it adds up quickly. Especially when work orders come in during a lunch break, just after office hours or on days with less administrative capacity.

The result: work orders didn’t always make it into the system right away, while the administration team had to keep a constant eye on the mailbox.

The solution: creating work orders automatically with AI and RPA

VionA automated the process from email to work order in Syntess. The robot processes incoming emails, reads the PDF and automatically creates the right work order.

This works as follows:

• Email as trigger: As soon as a work order arrives in the mailbox, the robot automatically starts processing it.
• AI reading of the PDF: The robot extracts the relevant data from the attachment, such as client, location, resident, problem description and notes about appointment dates.
• Automatic entry in Syntess: The robot opens Syntess and creates a new work order based on the extracted data.
• Check for existing work orders: Before creating a work order, the robot checks whether a work order already exists or another work order is still open.
• Smart error handling: When a work order can’t be created automatically in a safe way, the robot stops the process and the exception is handled separately.
• Scalable processing: The robot currently processes work orders for some of the clients connected to Zondervan Groep. The same approach can be extended to other clients with a similar way of working.

This means there’s no extra pressure on the administration team when a lot of work orders suddenly come in. The robot keeps processing, even at times when employees aren’t actively checking the mailbox.

The results

• 3,500 work orders handled in 8 months: Since October, the automation has been running stably and thousands of work orders have been processed for some of Zondervan Groep’s clients.
• About 77% created automatically: Of the 3,500 work orders handled, around 2,700 were created automatically in Syntess.
• Around 800 exceptions caught safely: For example, situations in which a work order already existed or another work order was still open. This way, the robot prevents work orders from being created twice or incorrectly.
• More than 116 hours of manual data entry saved: With 3,500 work orders and 2 minutes of manual work per work order, more than 116 hours of manual retyping have been saved in 8 months.
• Work orders in the system faster: Work orders no longer have to wait until someone checks the mailbox. Processing starts automatically as soon as the email arrives.
• Less dependent on peak moments and staffing: Work orders that come in during lunch breaks, busy workdays or just after office hours don’t sit around unnecessarily.
• Ready to scale further: The robot currently processes work orders for some of the connected clients. Now that the foundation is in place, Zondervan Groep can extend this to more clients and workflows.

Who is this relevant for?

This automation is relevant for installation companies, maintenance providers and contractors that receive work orders by email and create them by hand in Syntess or similar software.

Automation already becomes worthwhile from a few hours of manual data entry per week. Especially when work orders come in throughout the day, the administration team experiences peak moments or employees spend a lot of time checking mailboxes and retyping PDFs.

The approach works not only for work orders, but also for similar administrative processes in which data from emails, PDFs or portals has to be transferred into a business system.

Want to create work orders automatically too?

Does your organization receive work orders by email that are still entered by hand in Syntess or a similar system?

Then within 30 minutes we can show you how much time and capacity you can save with automation.

Schedule a call right away to discover which administrative processes in your organization can be set up smarter, faster and more scalably.

Zondervan Groep regularly receives approval emails for quotes. As soon as a quote has been approved, a follow-up work order has to be created in Syntess based on the original work order and the new information from the quote.

This used to be a manual process. Employees had to check the approval email, open the attachments, read out reference and work order numbers, look up the old work order in Syntess, copy it and then complete it with the right new details.

VionA developed a robot that runs this process automatically. The robot recognizes approval emails, reads the attachments with AI, looks up the right old work order in Syntess and independently creates a complete follow-up work order.

This automation has been running live and stably since December. The robot has now handled 90 approved quotes.

The problem: manually turning approval emails into follow-up work orders

When a quote was approved, an email came in with specific approval text and two attachments: the quote and the original work order.

To process the approval properly, an employee had to go through several steps:

• Checking the mailbox for approval emails.
• Recognizing the email as an approved quote.
• Opening the quote and the original work order.
• Extracting reference and work order numbers from both documents.
• Looking up the original work order in Syntess.
• Copying the old work order.
• Carrying old details over to the new work order.
• Adding new information from the quote and approval email.
• Updating notes according to the usual procedure.
• Adding the approval email and attachments to the work order.

This process took an average of 5 minutes per approved quote. Searching for the right original work order and carefully copying over details in particular made the process time-consuming.

Peak moments also added extra pressure. Approval emails can come in throughout the day, while administrative capacity differs from day to day. This created the risk that approved quotes were picked up later than desired.

The solution: an extra robot for quote approval emails

VionA set up a separate automation for quote approval emails. This robot runs on the same mailbox as the work order robot, but decides independently which flow needs to be started.

Does a regular work order come in? Then the work order flow starts.
Does an approval email for a quote come in? Then the quote flow starts.

The robot recognizes emails with the text “Hierbij akkoord op offerte Zondervan” (approval of the Zondervan quote) and then processes the attachments automatically.

The flow works as follows:

• Recognize approval email: The robot checks incoming emails and recognizes approval emails based on the text in the email.
• Download attachments: The quote and the original work order are retrieved from the email automatically.
• Read documents with AI: The robot analyzes both documents and extracts, among other things, reference and work order numbers from the attachments.
• Find old work order in Syntess: Based on the extracted details, the robot looks up the original work order.
• Copy work order: The old work order is copied, so relevant existing information is preserved.
• Add new details: The robot fills in the title, reference, description and remarks on the new work order.
• Process notes neatly: Old notes are colored red and new descriptions and remarks are added.
• Upload documents: The approval email and attachments are added to the work order in Syntess as external documents.
• Safe error handling: If Syntess returns an error or the robot can’t complete the process reliably, the email is forwarded to Zondervan Groep for manual processing.

The robot follows the same layout and procedure as an employee would. This way, the new work order fits the existing way of working within Zondervan Groep.

The results

• 90 approved quotes handled automatically: Since December, the robot has been running live and stably and has processed 90 quote approval emails.
• 7.5 hours of manual work saved: With an average of 5 minutes of manual work per quote, about 7.5 hours of manual processing have been saved across 90 quotes.
• Faster follow-up after approval: As soon as an approval email comes in, the robot can start right away. Processing is therefore less dependent on mailbox checks or employee availability.
• Consistent processing in Syntess: The robot always follows the same steps and layout. As a result, follow-up work orders are created in a uniform way.
• Less searching for employees: Looking up original work orders and copying reference details happens automatically.
• Exceptions handled safely: When the process can’t be completed reliably, the email is forwarded to Zondervan Groep. This keeps control in place and exceptions aren’t forced through.
• One mailbox, multiple smart flows: The automation decides for itself whether an incoming email belongs to the work order flow or the quote flow. This allows several processes to run side by side without employees having to pre-sort the mailbox by hand.

Who is this relevant for?

This automation is relevant for installation companies, maintenance companies and service organizations that have to manually turn approved quotes into follow-up actions in their ERP or service management system.

Especially when approval emails contain attachments, old work orders have to be looked up and data from several documents has to be combined, a lot of repetitive administrative work builds up.

VionA automates exactly these kinds of processes: recognizing emails, reading documents, checking data and carrying out actions in systems such as Syntess.

Want to process approved quotes automatically?

Does your organization receive approval emails for quotes that are still processed by hand in Syntess or a similar system?

Then we can show you which steps can be automated and how much time that saves.

Schedule a call and find out how VionA makes your administrative processes faster, more consistent and scalable.