Masa Group Relys on Softway AG’s Global E-Invoice Cloud

The Masa Group—a medium-sized German company with international operations that specializes in the design and manufacture of plants and machinery for the building materials industry—faced a key challenge: sending e-invoices from SAP in a way that was both legally compliant and simple.

To meet this challenge, the company decided to implement Softway AG’s Global E-Invoice Cloud. The scalable solution was implemented within a short period of time and initially set up for the company’s operations in Germany. Since then, it has been possible to roll out the solution to other countries quickly and easily. E-invoice transmission from SAP complies with specific country requirements and, thanks to the Clean Core principle, is particularly well-suited for complex SAP systems.

Initial situation

As a global company, the Masa Group was faced with increasingly complex regulatory requirements in the area of electronic invoicing. Differing legal requirements across various countries, as well as upcoming obligations—particularly in Germany—made it necessary to take action early on.

“As an internationally active company, we had to address the issue of e-invoicing and the various requirements in different countries. We couldn’t afford to wait until the mandatory implementation deadlines were reached. That’s why our goal was clear: e-invoicing for DE-DE had to be implemented by early 2026 so that we could then go live at other locations. Thanks to the excellent collaboration with Softway AG, we were able to implement our project successfully.”
Christian Miltz, Director of Group IT, Masa GmbH

The goal was to establish a solution that not only meets national requirements but also allows for international scalability.

What challenges arose before and during the implementation?

Before and during the rollout of e-billing, attention focused on several key challenges:

• Different legal requirements and formats by country
• Integration of the solution into an existing on-premises SAP landscape at Masa
• Ensuring a future-proof and scalable architecture
• High technical complexity due to various transmission channels (e.g., PEPPOL, email, APIs)
• The need for an end-to-end process chain, including validation and archiving

At the same time, the solution should run in the background as transparently as possible for users.

What was the approach taken in the project?

During the selection process, the Masa Group first had to address the fundamental question: In-house development within SAP or using a specialized service provider?

The following factors were decisive in the decision to choose Softway AG:

• BTP-based architecture as a future-proof platform
• The potential for international expansion
• Bringing on board a strong partner to meet country-specific requirements
• Positive experiences with Softway in the area of output management (SSP Forms)
• A “seamless solution” that doesn’t create any additional complexity for end users

The technical integration was carried out using established SAP technologies (including IDoc), which made it possible to leverage existing processes.

“Before introducing e-invoicing, we first asked ourselves a fundamental question: Should we develop our own solution or use a specialized service provider? It quickly became clear to us that if we wanted to handle e-invoice distribution internally, our team would face a significant additional workload. The opportunity to bring Softway AG—a partner we already knew—on board, whose solution promises international compatibility, is based on BTP, and—as the saying goes—is “seamless”—convinced us to implement the Global E-Invoice Cloud.”
Christian Miltz, Director of Group IT, Masa GmbH

A particular advantage became apparent right from the onboarding process:

• The basic system integration was completed in about two hours
• SAP and cloud systems were quickly integrated with one another
• The first invoices were able to be transferred early

The subsequent phase of the project focused on:

• Mapping SAP data to country-specific e-Invoice formats
• Mapping complex business processes (e.g., taxes, currencies, down payments)
• Tests and validations for various scenarios

What outcome was achieved? What were the results?

With the Global E-Invoice Cloud, the Masa Group was able to implement a powerful and future-proof solution.

Key findings include:

• Introduction of E-Invoicing in Germany
• Building a scalable platform for further international rollouts
• Seamless integration into existing SAP processes
• Automated processing, validation, and archiving of invoices
• Transparency through comprehensive monitoring and status tracking
• Reducing manual intervention and sources of error

A key benefit is that the solution runs in the background and does not create any additional complexity for users.