From complex templates to automated output: Auto Nagel transforms document processes with Interform
By introducing rule-based document automation, the automotive group simplified output management across 18 locations and reduced errors while making it easier to bring new locations online.
Customer Overview
Auto Nagel is a multi-brand automotive retail group operating across Germany with around 700 employees and 18 locations. Its portfolio includes leading brands such as Land Rover, Volvo, Kia, Mercedes-Benz and Lamborghini.
Auto Nagel manages many of its shared business functions through Nagel Services, a central organisation that supports all locations across the group. This includes areas such as finance, payroll, marketing, sales support and controlling. By managing these functions centrally, Auto Nagel ensures consistent processes and systems across its network of dealerships.
Technology decisions that affect business processes across the organisation are also managed centrally. For Jens Nöring, Managing Director of Nagel Services, this means ensuring that the systems supporting the business are scalable, reliable and ready to support the company’s continued growth.
The Challenge
Before introducing Interform, Auto Nagel managed document output through a combination of legacy tools and internally developed software.
Documents generated in the dealer management system were combined with background PDFs and manually designed layouts. Over time, this approach created a complex structure. Each brand, location and scenario often required its own template, and special cases – such as export invoices, leasing companies or customer-specific requirements – regularly resulted in additional forms.
As the organisation expanded across multiple locations and brands, the number of templates continued to grow. Even small changes, such as regulatory updates or layout adjustments, could require modifications across many different documents.
The system also depended on manual steps. Employees sometimes had to select specific templates or add information to ensure documents contained the correct legal or tax details. This made processes harder to maintain and increased the risk of inconsistencies.
With multiple brands, locations and evolving regulatory requirements, Auto Nagel needed a more scalable and reliable approach to document management.
The Solution
Auto Nagel implemented Interform as its central output management platform, replacing the template-heavy setup with a rule-based document system.
Instead of maintaining separate templates for every scenario, the company introduced standardised document layouts across the entire group. Variations such as brand identity, legal information and location details are now controlled through parameters and business rules.
This allows a single template to automatically adapt to the correct brand, site and document type.
Interform also enabled Auto Nagel to embed business logic directly into documents. For example, export invoices can automatically include the correct legal text and calculate required tax deposits based on customer and transaction data. Tasks that previously relied on manual calculations can now be handled automatically within the document process.
The implementation was carried out in close collaboration with Interform consultants using a workshop-based approach. From the start of the project to full deployment, the implementation took approximately nine months, with initial go-live taking place alongside the opening of new locations.
The Results
Interform transformed document management at Auto Nagel from a maintenance-heavy task into an automated process layer that supports the entire organisation.
As a result, document management became significantly easier to maintain and scale. A single set of group-wide templates now adapts automatically to different brands, locations and scenarios, creating a far more robust system while dramatically reducing the administrative effort previously required to manage and update documents.
This has delivered several key benefits:
- Faster rollout of new locations – new sites can become operational within a single day, compared with around a week previously
- A more robust and reliable document process, with business rules automatically ensuring the correct legal and tax information is included
- Significantly reduced administrative effort, as template maintenance is now managed centrally rather than across dozens of forms
- Lower printing costs, with some operations reducing the number of printers by around 50%
- More digital customer communication, with invoices and documents increasingly delivered electronically
- Introduction of digital signing across multiple document types, including automatic archiving, reducing the need for printing while streamlining approval workflows and improving compliance
Interform has also enabled Auto Nagel to introduce electronic invoicing (ZUGFeRD and XRechnung) across all locations, ensuring compliance with evolving regulatory requirements while maintaining consistent document processes.
Looking Ahead
Auto Nagel continues to expand its use of Interform as part of its broader digitalisation strategy.
Future plans include integrating additional manufacturer systems so that documents created in external platforms can also pass through Interform for consistent processing and archiving. The company is also exploring further automation, including digital contract processes and deeper workflow integration.
For Auto Nagel, the goal is clear: reduce administrative work and allow employees to focus more on supporting customers rather than managing paperwork.
Quotes: Jens Nöring, Managing Director, Nagel Services
“For us, Interform is a platform for automating document processes across the entire organisation.”
“The biggest benefit is that our document processes now run automatically instead of relying on manual steps.”
“With Interform we created a far more robust system that scales across brands, locations and systems.”
“It allows us to manage complex requirements while significantly reducing the administrative effort behind our documents.”