How CRH Denmark unified document management across 3 subsidiaries, 17 factories, and two ERP systems

A major player in Danish construction since 1935

Since 1935, CRH has been a major player in the Danish construction industry. The company produces 1.5 million m² of sustainable concrete elements each year, holds half the market, and has delivered 2,000 housing and commercial projects with 1,600 professionals. Volumes like these demand efficient IT management.

Three subsidiaries, two ERP systems, one document platform

CRH Denmark is part of CRH plc, a Fortune 500 company, and has a strong local history. The company has built its growth through acquisitions of several market-leading brands. As a result, CRH Denmark operates across a complex IT landscape with ASPECT4 and Business Central at the core. When rapid growth puts pressure on operations, shared processes keep work aligned across existing and new subsidiaries.

Our users get access to all relevant documents no matter if they work with Next Digital Workplace integrated to ASPECT4 or Business Central.
— Henning Mikkelsen, ERP Manager, CRH Denmark A/S

From physical binders to process automation — starting in 2004

CRH was among the first in its industry to embrace digitisation. Next Digital Workplace has been part of that journey since 2004. It started with replacing physical binders with a digital archive (Next Enterprise Archive) for critical documents such as paychecks — then gradually removing the manual work from invoice processing (Next Invoices).

In 2015, a wave of new investments and growing sales volumes increased the demand for automation. CRH Denmark needed more structure around its expanding document volumes — across logistics, finance, purchasing, and other corporate functions.

25,000 just-in-time deliveries. Not one piece of paper

Handling 25,000 just-in-time deliveries each year requires instant access to data and documents. From 2018, delivery notes, delivery lists, and delivery reports went fully digital as part of a wider optimisation of CRH Denmark’s logistics and transport processes. No more manual printing, no more manual signatures, no more scanning — and zero paper waste.

Next Enterprise Archive makes it extremely easy for our staff to locate, download, and sign delivery documents – from anywhere and anytime.
— Jannie Schriver, Procurement and Logistics Director, CRH Denmark A/S

Every supplier invoice — captured, matched, and approved automatically

At CRH Denmark, Next Invoices handles the full supplier invoice cycle: capturing, archiving, matching, booking, and routing to accounts payable for final approval.

Next automatically performs a 3-way match between the invoice, the purchase order, and the delivery note. If the match succeeds, the invoice is approved — untouched by humans. If it fails, for example due to a missing delivery note in the ERP system, accounts payable is notified immediately.

With Next Invoices, everything is logged to details. It’s very easy to find out where a supplier invoice is on the automation flow.
— Henning Mikkelsen, ERP Manager, CRH Denmark A/S

Beyond invoice processing, Next also serves as a digital archive for supporting financial documents such as bank receipts and CRH Denmark’s own outgoing invoices.

Training certificates located in seconds

No one wants to spend time searching for documents — especially when a work accident requires an immediate response. At CRH Denmark, education and training certificates are centralised in Next. Staff competences can be verified towards the authorities in seconds.

A platform built to grow with the organisation

CRH Denmark’s IT landscape continues to evolve — with potential for higher efficiency, scalability, and more unified processes across business systems and functions. A key path forward is expanding the use of Next Digital Workplace.

With new features coming monthly, Next Digital Workplace has a lot to offer for our changing organization. A stable foundation for the future - no matter how we further build our IT landscape. — Henning Mikkelsen, ERP Manager, CRH Denmark A/S