VOITH SWITCHES TO FOXIT PDF EDITOR PRO FOR PDF EDITING
From the huge range of digital solutions how can you find the application that optimally fits your company’s needs and thus offers real added value in your daily work? Imke Horn and Christian Heyder, system engineers at Voith, were also dealing with this question. They work in the IT & Office Applications team at Voith and provide employees with the right IT and office applications. On the one hand, they and their team colleagues are responsible for the smooth operation of the software
solutions in use; on the other hand, they are constantly on the lookout for new or optimized solutions that better fit the needs of the end users, offer more functionalities, and – if possible – are also more cost-efficient. When their current contract with a PDF software vendor was up for renewal they were wondering if there wasn’t a cheaper yet powerful PDF editing alternative for manipulating PDF documents.
PDF documents play a role in virtually every department at Voith and are used in almost all areas. Be it in sales, engineering, customs clearance or patents. For example, forms are created, scanned graphics and texts are edited afterwards, or the PDF Editor is used to OCR drawings so that the original file does not have to be laboriously edited. Every department at Voith has their own requirements and use cases.
In November 2019, the two application specialists started researching PDF vendors on the internet. They quickly found what they were looking for and chose two products for closer analysis, including Foxit PDF Editor Pro. In their selection, the application specialists put special emphasis on the PDF editor’s support for multiple languages, because as a globally active company, multilingualism was a basic requirement for Voith.
Founded in 1867, the technology company Voith Group employs more than 20,000 people at locations in more than 60 countries worldwide. With its broad portfolio of systems, products, services and digital applications, Voith sets standards in the markets of energy, oil & gas, paper, raw materials and transport
& automotive.
PDF documents play a role in virtually every department at Voith and are used in almost all areas. Be it in sales, engineering, customs clearance or patents. For example, forms are created, or scanned graphics, texts and drawings are subsequently OCRed and processed.
Due to an upcoming contract renewal of their existing software Voith started looking for a more cost-effective and yet powerful PDF editing alternative.
The choice was made for Foxit PDF Editor Pro.
PDF SOFTWARE ON TRIAL
Based on some older support tickets and known use cases, the following criteria were established against which the programs were tested:
- 3D viewing,
- Portfolios
- Digital signatures
- Conversion from PDF to MS Office Word and PowerPoint Support
- Software distribution via SCCM
- Works on Citrix
“We set up a matrix with the criteria and used some test files to evaluate the scenarios with the existing software as well as with the two alternatives. We then compared the different results with each other,” said Imke Horn. “In the process, one alternative software couldn’t make the grade as the results were not convincing when converting PDF to MS Word or PowerPoint. Foxit PDF Editor performed distinctively better in this respect.”
EXCELLENT SUPPORT FROM THE VERY BEGINNING
To take a closer look at Foxit PDF Editor Pro, the application specialists requested test licenses from Foxit. “It was important to us that the software could be distributed via SCCM. Also, the installation had to be customizable. For example, it was important to us that the online functionality could be turned off. We needed the ability to disable automatic updates, because we don’t want different versions in the company. It is very important to us that we can determine when which version is distributed to the computers,” explained Christian Heyder. It was also important for Voith that the PDF software runs under Citrix and on terminal servers so that it can be offered to every end user. Foxit’s Enterprise Support Engineer team provided support right from the beginning, offering advice and assistance, and showing the application specialists how to implement all points.
LESS EFFORT FOR IT, MORE FEATURES FOR ALL USERS
It was quickly decided that Voith users should uniformly receive the more feature-rich Foxit PDF Editor Pro edition. One reason for this was that Foxit PDF Editor Pro includes the Action Wizard. Another decisive reason was cost: thanks to Foxit’s attractive pricing, Voith was able to switch uniformly to one version, eliminating the high expense of managing and servicing different licenses within the company. “All users can now take advantage of the extended features of Foxit PDF Editor Pro,” said Imke Horn.
THREE-STAGE TEST PHASE
Since the IT does not always know the various requirements and use cases of the different user groups in detail, the test phase was divided into three phases with different user groups. This was to ensure that the broadest possible spectrum of requirements was covered.
Phase 1: Internal IT Testing
The test phase began with an internal IT testing. Volunteers from across the IT department were able to sign up via a project in Sharepoint. This lasted about five weeks.
Phase 2: Germany-Wide Test in Various Corporate Divisions
In the second stage, users from various corporate divisions throughout Germany were asked to test Foxit PDF Editor Pro. The50 test licenses were distributed speci¬cally to Pro users of the previous PDF software, as these are the power users who use certain features that are not included in the standard version.
Phase 3: Global Test Phase
Foxit provided an additional 250 trial licenses. The test phase was now extended to all locations and Foxit PDF Editor Pro had been tested for four to six weeks in different languages.
“We completed the final testing phase in September 2020. Overall, the feedback was positive and there was a maximum of ten questions regarding the handling,” said Imke Horn. “We concluded the contract with Foxit and now the rollout could begin.”
SUCCESSFUL ROLLOUT WITH DEDICATED SUPPORT
After finishing the test phase successfully, Voith decided on a gradual rollout per group division. “We were unclear how many queries would come in. In order not to overburden first-level support, we therefore decided to switch over one of the Group Divisions every week. That was about 1,000 users per week. That worked out well, and since October 30, 2020, we’re done,” said Imke Horn. “Since we are not always aware of all user requirements and use cases, and some departments use quite specific features, a few messages keep reaching us. Fortunately, Foxit’s Customer Success and Support team was and is always available for us and helps us with any kind of questions. It’s good to know that Foxit is responsive to our requests and handles them in a timely and straightforward manner.”
Foxit PDF Editor Pro has now been in production since the end of October 2020 and is used by around 3,900 users worldwide. Since the contract with the previous provider wasn’t up until the end of November, Foxit offered free use of the Foxit PDF Editor Pro licenses until the end of the contract term.
“The support from Foxit was and is very good and we are absolutely satisfied. Switching from our previous provider to Foxit was the right decision because our goal has been met: We can offer the same powerful features to all our users, while saving costs and reducing our administrative work. In addition, Foxit responds optimally to our needs and wishes in a way that hardly any other software provider does.”
With the release of version 11, for example, Foxit realized Voith’s wish for a single sign-on for using the integration between Foxit PDF Editor Pro and DocuSign. Further joint projects are in progress.