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How Simon Hegele is driving smart automation and full transparency in service billing

20.01.2026

When services are tailored to a customer’s exact processes, billing models often become more complex than traditional rate sheets can handle.

Special services, tiered pricing, volume thresholds, surcharges or location specific conditions are standard components in many service agreements. In highly specialized environments such as healthcare, pharma or industrial production, expectations for transparency, speed and scalability are rising fast. For the Simon Hegele Group, a global leader in complex supply chain operations with more than 50 sites worldwide, this is everyday reality. Roughly 2,800 employees manage specialized logistics services across 450,000 square meters, customized to each client’s needs. A newly awarded enterprise scale customer project significantly increased both daily order volumes and billing complexity. The legacy processes, built over many years and largely Excel based, hit their limits. What the company needed was a solution that could document all billable activities, reflect contract terms digitally and produce automated and fully traceable billing for internal stakeholders and customers alike. They selected Contract and Billing (CnB) from the Ehrhardt Partner Group (EPG) as an extension of their existing EPG ONE Supply Chain Execution Suite.

Billing Goes Digital and Real Time

With CnB, the contract logistics leader implemented a platform that unifies rating, billing and operational logic. The unique advantage is the direct integration with LFS, the warehouse management system already established at Simon Hegele. Every activity performed in the warehouse such as receiving, picking, packing or shipping prep is captured in LFS and passed automatically to CnB. »The seamless integration of CnB into LFS was one of the decisive factors. The systems speak the same language, which allows us to mirror our operational performance one to one in the billing engine«, explains Stefan Wirscheim, Head of Competence Center WMS at Simon Hegele. All service contracts are stored in CnB, including individual pricing and discount rules, tiers and additional conditions. Both data sources are combined to create a complete, rule based invoice automatically. Even special services that previously had to be broken out manually, such as product kitting, rework, expedited handling or narrow delivery windows, can now be assigned clearly and accurately to each customer.

»We used to rely heavily on expertise combined with many manual steps. With the complexity of a new large scale client, it became clear that we needed a system to guide us through the entire process. CnB gives us traceability, scalability and a future proofed billing workflow«, Wirscheim adds.

More transparency, fewer errors, faster month end

The impact on month end billing is significant. What once took several days of data preparation, validation and reconciliation is now fully automated. Every warehouse activity is matched against the customer’s contract conditions in the background. Results are available within minutes, documented, verified and ready to bill. »We not only save a substantial amount of time, we also reduce errors dramatically. At the same time customers receive a far more transparent invoice«, Wirscheim says. On the customer side, the shift is clearly noticeable: fewer questions, fewer disputes and improved clarity. CnB generates structured invoices broken down by service type, quantity, price and timestamp, including automatic documentation from LFS. This level of detail strengthens customer relationships and accelerates payments because review and approval cycles are shorter.

A system designed to grow

By introducing CnB, Simon Hegele not only solved a pressing operational challenge but also built a long term foundation for modern contract and billing management. The solution is designed to scale with the business. Its modular architecture and intuitive interface allow for rapid adjustments to changing requirements. Contract logic can be expanded, new price structures defined or existing services redesigned without touching the source code. A key strength is the autonomy granted to business teams. From setting up new contracts to applying updated terms or integrating additional billing logic, departments can handle configurations on their own. Time consuming IT tickets and external development work are no longer required. Instead of becoming a rigid tool, the solution evolves as part of the operational landscape. Upcoming requirements such as electronic invoice formats or international VAT rules are already supported or can be added through standard modules.

Efficiency gains for employees

The benefits extend well beyond customer billing. Internally, teams experience noticeable relief. Where once numerous manual checks, reconciliations and corrections were necessary, employees can now focus more on core tasks. Supervisors no longer need to maintain separate lists because all activities are captured in the system and automatically allocated to customers. Operational teams gain visibility and clarity. Customer inquiries that previously generated extra effort have dropped sharply. Month end cycles are shorter and finance and controlling teams feel the difference. Duplicate data maintenance and unclear workflows are a thing of the past.

»With CnB we have left many repetitive tasks behind. No more double Excel lists, fewer queries and cleaner process flows. It makes everyday work easier and allows us to serve our customers faster and more transparently«, says Oliver Urich, CIO and Managing Director at Simon Hegele.