The company, which manufacturers a comprehensive range of colour cosmetics, skin care and oral care products, has installed the Captaris Workflow system as a means of optimising the approvals process for its research and marketing materials.
Since the software was installed the company says it has improved its time-to-market for new products by cutting approval time from 40 days to as little as seven days.
In the fast-moving cosmetics world, rushing a new product line to market before a competitor gets there can make all the difference to a products success.
If another product gets onto the market first, its launch can overshadow that of a competitor product launched just a few weeks later.
Equally, the average cosmetic product life span is short-lived these days, as consumers seek out the latest, most innovative, effective and appealing products to try out.
"Using Captaris Workflow we have reduced time-to-market for our brands so we can more quickly inform customers of all the details they need about the product," said Denis Weiser, IT project director for Dr. Scheller Cosmetics.
According to US-based Captaris, which is a leading provider of business information delivery solutions, the approvals process was largely paper-based before Dr. Scheller Cosmetics tried its first workflow product.
The old system meant that employees had gathered files and filled out forms to be hand-delivered or sent via mail. Dr. Scheller had installed a workflow tool to aid document approval; but the software did not include a process overview capability and lacked the ability to integrate with Microsoft SharePoint Portal Services, Dr. Scheller Cosmetics' chosen collaboration platform.
Dr. Scheller is currently undergoing a significant expansion programme, with a core focus on the fast-growing Russian market.
The renewed focus follows its buy-out by Russia-based Kalina in the first quarter of last year - a move that has subsequently helped turn around the once ailing company.
Unable to compete with the competition in the largely saturated western European market, the company will be developing a series of new products for the Russian and East European market, where the skin, hair and oral care sectors are all ripe for further expansion.
Currently the market for cosmetics in Russia is estimated to be valued at $6.2 billion and Euromonitor estimates that the value could grow by 60 per cent in the next 5 years.