BMW Langenhan: Digital transformation with bezahl.de

Tradition meets innovation: Langenhan's transformation with bezahl.de

Managing Director Marco Preuß looks back on a long company history: While the family-owned company worked more location-based until 2016, management finally decided to restructure operations in order to be able to respond to current technological developments. This resulted in the centralization of many processes, including scheduling, accounting, and receivables management. Today, these are managed centrally, which has the advantage, among other things, that employees can also be deployed flexibly and across locations. The Langenhan Group currently sells around 1100 vehicles a year — and the trend is rising. Since April 2023, the new car rental office at the mini location in Gotha has completed the long-established company's offering and in August 2023, another BMW and MINI company was taken over at the Jena location.

Since April 2021, FinTech bezahl.de has been supporting the traditional company with its digital payment management platform in all matters relating to the topics Centralization, efficiency improvement and digitization. This means that both the existing location-based analog workflows have been translated into uniform, fully digital processes and that the company's future plans (such as the new digital car rental platform) are being technologically supported on their journey. The bezahl.de process is now live at three locations, with more to follow.

Paperless work: From manual reconciliation to digital independence

Before the implementation of the smart payment.de process, this was The main problem of payment management, especially when it comes to the internal transfer of information between departments, explains Preuß. Sales staff were often unable to find out for themselves whether and when a vehicle was paid for. In addition, it was necessary to manually reconcile open items to avoid cars being released when purchased despite outstanding remaining amounts. Since the accounting department is usually staffed until 18:00 at the latest on weekdays, reliable information from sales staff could not be satisfactorily guaranteed, especially in the evenings and on weekends. Especially on Saturdays, on the main delivery day, this led to delays and frustrations on all sides.

Since the introduction of bezahl.de, sales staff have enjoyed maximum independence and flexibility: With just a few clicks on the portal, all transactions, delivery charges, registration costs and incoming payments can be viewed at a glance. Any open items can be paid directly on site or via the digital payment invitation, which is automatically sent to the customer's personal device.

The decisive point for the modernization was the observations that Preuß made during the time when he himself was in the company's accounting department: The number of calls from sales staff regarding open items and incoming payments is considerable; at least one worker is engaged in this all day. bezahl.de However, it also brought other benefits — in particular with regard to document management and the issue of “resource-saving work.”

“Before bezahl.de, we bought paper in pallets. Printer and toner costs were added. When you see what you can save there, that's huge potential. ” — Marco Preuß, managing director

However, it is not only material resources that are saved: Workers who were previously employed several times a day with telephone consultations are now free for other tasks, resulting in a general increase in efficiency lead. Preuß also highlights the omnipresent developments in digitalization and dares to look into the future: The industry and even its own company will no longer be able to avoid electronic payment methods in the future. bezahl.de Make the transition easier for both retailers and customers, who can slowly get used to the new processes.

Strong together: bezahl.de as a partner for digitization

The bezahl.de team supports the Thuringian company on its way to becoming a holistic change management process. Currently, the intelligent payment management software effectively saves time, particularly in the otherwise very time-consuming delivery process and in accounting. Against the backdrop of constantly advancing technological progress, Cologne-based FinTech presents itself as a reliable partner for all issues relating to “digitization.”