Don’t automate a bad process! Learn about the importance of creating a complete and effective process for Accounts Payable BEFORE automation, to achieve AP PERFECTION

I like baking. I’ve been baking cakes for many years, and I know what works well and what doesn’t. For example, I know that if I don’t mix the cake batter correctly, allowing plenty of air to be added, it will result in a flat cake. I know that if I’m not precise with my ingredients, the cake won’t be light and fluffy. And I know that if I don’t take the time to level my cakes before decorating, that they won’t stack evenly. I know that I would need to get my process perfect before writing out a recipe and instructions for someone else to use!

Let’s automate that process and take it from my kitchen to the factory. If the manufacturing process of a cake wasn’t correct, the shop shelves would be full of flat, claggy, wonky cakes. It just wouldn’t be efficient or acceptable. The factory would need to get their recipe and process correct before commencing manufacture to ensure well turned-out, consistent, presentable cakes every time.

Automating Your Accounts Payable Process

It’s the same with automating any process. Let’s take accounts payable (AP). It’s necessary to assess the efficiency of your AP function and create consistent, effective processes before automating to ensure you’re getting the most out of your automation investment.

As organisations across the globe continue to turn to technology to drive greater efficiency and cost savings across accounts payable and other back-office processes, AI-driven automation has proven to be an obvious and powerful tool for achieving exactly that. Automation solutions are being used to combat common AP challenges, such as: long work hours for staff, missed payment deadlines, slow resolution of exceptions, inaccessible information, and frustrated suppliers and stakeholders. However, without properly assessing your current AP practices and process maturity, you could be automating a broken process, which can make things even worse.

It can be a bit like plugging holes – fix one area and then another hole appears. Instead, surely it is better to look at the bigger picture and get the full process right in the first place before applying the icing on the cake; automation?

So, how can you achieve top-performance status in your own AP department? It’s a simple equation:

Evaluating Process Maturity

Process maturity looks at how close a developing process is to being complete and capable of continual improvement. It’s a measure of how well-defined and controlled a company’s processes are. A high level of process maturity shows that a company documents processes well, employees understand and follow procedures, and there is ongoing assessment and improvement. Reaching AP process maturity before automating should be every organisation’s goal to ensure maximum ROI.

What processes have you automated already?
You may have already automated some steps or all steps. To achieve process maturity, you must first work on improving the efficiency of each, ideally through automation.

What is your level of automation?
Next, you must identify your current level of automation and where you can improve.

• Low automation: having automated no more than two steps
• Significant automation: having automated three steps
• End-to-end automation: having automated at least four steps

How consistent is your decision making?
Assessing the consistency in which your business makes decisions is a key piece of evaluating your current AP process maturity. When decisions are made higher up in the organisation in terms of process, consistency and efficiency, it typically leads to much better results at the AP level where the work is actually done.

The importance of process consistency

To become a top-performer, it is essential that AP departments first fix their processes to achieve consistency.

Steps for improving process consistency

1. Get strategic alignment
Define goals, and try to align those goals with those of Finance and Procurement. Consider whether your organisation is investing enough resources to support your well-defined AP goals.

2. Put a governance team in place
Define the capabilities required for an effective process owner, select the best fit for the position and task them with creating, modifying, and enforcing process changes and keeping lines of communication open with frontline staff. Assign people to each step and identify who should be consulted and informed of changes.

3. Visualise your process
Organise your AP processes from beginning to end, starting at the point of purchase and concluding with reconciliation. Give each process a name, sort processes in order, chart the roles involved in each AP step, and detail all the inputs and outputs for each step in the process.

4. Manage change
As you implement the changes, be sure to capture any best practices or lessons learned that emerge and share them with your entire team to celebrate and replicate the good outcomes. Identify training needs for your team to enable them to succeed.

5. Apply what you’ve learned
Top performers are continuously improving their processes. This starts with aligning your process improvement goals with what leadership defines as success. Quantify performance targets, identify and define process measures, then collect data to measure your progress. Finally, compare your results to those of your peers to continuously improve your processes based on the data that you learn.

Don’t automate a bad process! Technology helps, but it can’t fix what’s already broken

Automation can only get you so far. Don’t automate a bad process! A better investment would be to first fix inefficient processes, then determine if your current system is still inadequate. Only then can automation perfection be achieved.

Or perhaps you’ve already achieved top-performance status in your own AP department and are already ready for the benefits that automation can bring?
Watch our AP demo for more information about how Esker’s solution can automate your perfected processes

Or contact us to arrange a one-to-one demo

Amy Rees

As Digital Marketing Administrator at Esker Northern Europe, Amy spends her time working on the website, writing and publishing blogs and social media content, and publishing collateral. She has been part of the Esker family since 2014.

Read more insights from Amy Rees

Earth Day was founded in 1970, and is an annual reminder to shift our focus to protecting the beautiful planet that we call home. It is a day to focus on educating others about environmental issues, to help raise awareness of pollution, renewable energy, and ways that people can take steps to be greener.

Earth Day – Invest in Our Planet: Positive-Sum Growth

This year, the theme of Earth Day is ‘Invest in our Planet’, and at Esker, we believe in doing just that. In fact, our aim is also to enable other organisations to do the same. Our customers, employees and partners share our convictions: a company’s development must have a beneficial impact on its entire ecosystem, society and the environment. That’s what we call positive-sum growth.

We believe that future business growth depends on environmental sustainability. Esker provides organisations with the tools to achieve real environmental results, such as:

• Less paper used in day-to-day activities, helping to save trees and reduce wasteful practices
• Less equipment needed to support manual operations, promoting long-term sustainability
• Less carbon by using cloud computing, which has shown to reduce emissions by up to 93%¹

“Esker builds innovative and responsible solutions that have a positive impact on society and the people within it, and enable our customers to improve their own ESG performance.”

Jean-Michel Bérard, CEO | Esker

Reducing Esker’s Environmental Footprint

Esker is also strongly committed to reducing the environmental footprint our own business activities.
In 2018 in France, where our Lyon Head Office is based, Esker has established processes for determining its carbon emissions, and has since extended these to all of its worldwide subsidiaries.

You can read more about this in our Impact Report

Furthermore, in 2022, Esker was recognised by both EcoVadis and Gaïa Index for its CSR leadership.

Globally, we have many initiatives to reduce our environmental footprint.

• Replanting: a wide variety of tree species is one of the pillars of the strategy to remove carbon emissions from Earth’s atmosphere and protect biodiversity. With Esker’s support, Reforest’Action, a non-profit organisation engaging in a unique approach they call “crowdplanting”, more than 19,250 trees have been planted in India, Haiti and Tanzania since 2019.
• Data Centres & Energy Efficiency: Esker chooses environmentally responsible vendors whenever possible. For example, all new Esker customers are hosted by default on Microsoft Azure, which uses energy from renewable resources for a significant portion of its data centres, and bases its billing model on server resource usage, thereby encouraging moderation.
• Responsible Product Development: Esker ensures that its R&D teams are attentive to the digital footprint of software operations by building optimised services and energy efficiency into its solutions. Esker also conducts regular internal conferences on the challenges of digital sobriety, led by the founder of GreenIT.fr.
• Life Cycle of IT Equipment: Esker strives to extend the lifecycle of company-owned IT equipment and electronic devices as much as possible, through in-house maintenance, vendor support, or employee buy-back programmes in exchange for donations to charities of their choosing.
• Waste Recycling: We have waste recycling at our mail production facilities, and within all subsidiary offices. In addition, 100% of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) in recycled.
• Mobility & Business Travel: To encourage the use of low-carbon modes of transport, Esker offers a variety of incentives: electric car fleets, bike and scooter parking, mileage reimbursement for bicycle use, and public transport compensation.

You can read more about our environmental efforts on our website.

Locally, here in the UK, one of our current focuses is on our Esker goodies. We are trying to source sustainable giveaway items, such as our metal water bottles, recycled cork pens, compostable and all natural ingredient jellybean pouches, recycled paper notebooks and sustainable cotton canvas bags. We also have recycling points around our offices, and electric car charging points on-site.

We can, and must, all play our part to protect our beautiful world. It’s the only one we have. For us, and for future generations.

¹ The carbon benefits of cloud computing: A study on the Microsoft Cloud in partnership with WSP. 2020. Microsoft.

Amy Rees

As Digital Marketing Administrator at Esker Northern Europe, Amy spends her time working on the website, writing and publishing blogs and social media content, and publishing collateral. She has been part of the Esker family since 2014.

Read more insights from Amy Rees

Earth Day was founded in 1970 and is an annual time to shift our focus to protecting our beautiful planet we call home. It is a day to focus on educating others about environmental issues, to help raise awareness of pollution, renewable energy, and ways that people can take steps to be greener.

Esker is always ready to promote Earth Day, because reducing waste and paper use within businesses is something we are passionate about.

While Esker’s solutions are used to drive added value creation within finance and customer service functions, their benefits expand beyond the doors of the company itself — giving new meaning to jobs, improving strategic relationships, and promoting environmental sustainability. We call this positive-sum-growth.

Esker is proud to offer digital solutions that help to improve local and global environmental health by helping to reduce equipment, paper, and ultimately, carbon expelled into the atmosphere. Actively taking steps to look after the planet is crucial, and today is a great time to consider what you can do to help – both in business and on a personal level.

In addition, Esker was recently awarded a platinum medal for ESG performance by Ecovadis due to our own daily commitment to implementing measures and results to better our own ESG impact, including the environment. This is definitely something to celebrate!

EcoVadis evaluates the quality of a company’s ESG performance through its policies, implementation measures and results, on four themes: Environment, Social & Human Rights, Ethics, Responsible Purchasing. With a score of 74/100, Esker is in the top 1% of all companies assessed by Ecovadis.

Within our offices, we are all playing our part in protecting our environment. For example,

Waste Recovery: Esker’s cloud platform has helped businesses around the world to automate nearly 3 billion sheets of paper. We encourage recycling at our office sites such as paper/cardboard, batteries, plastics. We also promote the use of reusables; cups, shipping supplies and printer cartridges.

Promotion of Renewable Energies: 100% of Esker’s new customer environments are hosted in the Microsoft Azure Public Cloud in order to use a minimum of 60% renewable energy in accordance with the objectives announced by Microsoft.

Reduction of CO2 Emissions: To encourage employees to cycle to work we provide bike parks on our premises, as well as offering government bike discount schemes. Our fleet of company vehicles is gradually being replaced by hybrid or electric vehicles with charging points on-site.

To find out more about Esker’s ESG Strategy, visit https://www.esker.co.uk/company/corporate-social-responsibility/

Amy Rees

As Digital Marketing Administrator at Esker Northern Europe, Amy spends her time working on the website, writing and publishing blogs and social media content, and publishing collateral. She has been part of the Esker family since 2014.

Read more insights from Amy Rees

A new year is a natural time to plan ahead, isn’t it? To look back on the past year, but also to think about what could be improved and what could be done differently. On the other hand, it can be a difficult time to be motivated. Those grey skies and cold mornings and the post-Christmas lull certainly don’t help.

But then comes the Spring. Bright sunny mornings, blue, clear skies on the horizon and warmer weather, buds, shoots and green leaves are definitely far more inspiring! Perhaps this too, then, is a great time to take action, to make a change and to work to transform those things which are ripe for improvement.

This time of year certainly inspires me. Since the sun came out and started to warm the ground properly, it didn’t take me long to get outside and start back in the garden, clearing, planting and painting. Transforming the garden from its grey, sad and rather abandoned look that it had developed over the cold winter months, to a richly planted, brightly coloured sanctuary for birds and wildlife once again.

However, this time, I’ve made some improvements. I’ve added in plants more suited to the bees. I’ve added more bird feeding stations (I’ve never seen so many birds in our garden!), I’ve improved the protection for my tiny seeds and bulbs with netting, to stop other animals from destroying them before they have a chance to bloom. We’ve also added in some new garden chairs so that we can actually sit and enjoy it more. Overall, it’s improved, transformed, more functional.

So what about your business? Could it too, like my garden, benefit from a bit of a Spring make-over? Because that’s where Esker can step in, with its expertise and know-how, developed over more than 35 years.

In an increasingly uncertain world, business success is multi-faceted. Beyond cost-cutting, it’s about relationship building and long-term value creation. At the heart of Esker’s global cloud platform are intelligent technologies that enable our customers to achieve their larger business goals.

Esker offers a suite of solutions across both the P2P and O2C spectrums. These aren’t though, just designed to transform a single process, they are designed to transform the wider business and promote positive-sum growth. The benefits speak for themselves:

• Empower staff & departments with a sense of purpose
• Provide customers with the best possible experience
• Treat suppliers fairly & strengthen relationships
• Generate value even in time of extreme crisis
• Increase sales revenue & generate new opportunities
• Contribute to local economic development

If you are inspired to look into business process transformation, don’t hesitate to get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.

Amy Rees

As Digital Marketing Administrator at Esker Northern Europe, Amy spends her time working on the website, writing and publishing blogs and social media content, and publishing collateral. She has been part of the Esker family since 2014.

Read more insights from Amy Rees

• 24/7 SOLUTION AVAILABILITY that’s not location dependent is guaranteed to support all customers, suppliers & partners remotely — all that’s needed is a web browser!
• MOBILE CAPABILITIES enable users to access the solution & continue working at any time — whether doing P2P or O2C activities — even when not at their desks.
• WEB PORTALS allow users to actively engage with customers & suppliers. From acknowledging new orders to dispute resolution to invoice follow-up, collaboration can be achieved via a customisable dashboard.
• PLATFORM SECURITY is ensured through continuous security validations & certifications, including ISO 27001, SOC 1® Type 2 (SSAE 18 & ISAE 3402), HIPAA & HITECH, etc.
• CONTINUOUS UPDATES are made to the solution (e.g., new features & enhancements) with no allocated time or resources required.
• MAIL SERVICES enable users to mail documents directly from the cloud with the touch of a button & 100% compatibility from wherever or whenever they’re working

Worried about remote implementation? Don’t be. Best in class automation solution providers use agile methodologies combined with constant communication to allow remote implementation to be pursued seamlessly from beginning to end.

THE BENEFITS OF AUTOMATION

The advantages of automation are clear:

• IMPROVED EFFICIENCY & COLLABORATION
  Automation breaks down the traditional P2P and O2C silos affecting supply chain efficiency through greater speed, accuracy, and information sharing and collaboration.

• INCREASED WORKING CAPITAL
  The cumulative effect of increased savings, productivity, visibility and collaboration within the supply chain all add up to what matters most — optimised working capital and cash flow.

• STAFF EMPOWERMENT & ACCOUNTABILITY
  Fewer manual tasks means team members have greater autonomy over their daily activities and more time to focus on issues that impact customers, suppliers and the organisation.

• IMPROVED RELATIONSHIPS
  When payments are made quickly, orders are delivered on time and cash collection is painless, the result is improved relationships with your most strategic customers and suppliers.

• “FUTURE-PROOF” GROWTH
  Automation serves as a digital foundation for companies to prosper in any economic environment thanks to end-to-end connectivity, fewer technological restraints, and strengthened global security and compliance.

• GREATER VISIBILITY & OVERSIGHT
  Cash flow can always be top of mind thanks to instant access into any order, invoice, etc., customisable KPIs for P2P and O2C reporting, and a complete audit trail recorded.

• COST SAVINGS
  From “hard” savings on supplies, equipment and processing costs to “soft” savings resulting from increased productivity, higher staff retention and lower customer churn, automation equals significant savings.

• SIMPLIFIED IT ENVIRONMENT
  Thanks to continuous software upgrades and system consolidation, businesses need fewer resources to govern their IT environment.

ESKER CAN HELP

If you’d like to read more, download our eBook today, or visit our website for more information.

Esker can help your organisation to automate end-to-end supply chain processes and optimise cash flow. Transformative advantages to make your organisation stand out from the crowd.

Talk to us today, we’d love to hear from you.

Amy Rees

As Digital Marketing Administrator at Esker Northern Europe, Amy spends her time working on the website, writing and publishing blogs and social media content, and publishing collateral. She has been part of the Esker family since 2014.

Read more insights from Amy Rees

With manual order processing, orders typically arrive in 3 ways:

• Fax, and are then manually entered
• Email, and are then printed and keyed in manually
• EDI, with an array of complex steps that need to be completed before the order is entered into the system

Enter Esker’s automated order management. Here’s how it works:

Becoming a pro in order management in the food and beverage industry is easy, and the benefits are numerous:
– Faster processing speeds, no matter what format the order is received in
– Improved customer experience and satisfaction due to quicker and easier resolution of disputes and enquiries
– Reduced operating costs
– Improved reliability and compliance with service level agreements
– Increased visibility with metrics and KPIs instantly available to review
– Remote order management is easy with mobile functionality
– Increased employee satisfaction

Esker can help your Food and Beverage company to overcome the challenges of manual order processing and reap the benefits like a pro.

You can read more in our eBook:

Or find out more on our website.
Feel free to contact us today, we’d love to chat about your requirements.

Amy Rees

As Digital Marketing Administrator at Esker Northern Europe, Amy spends her time working on the website, writing and publishing blogs and social media content, and publishing collateral. She has been part of the Esker family since 2014.

Read more insights from Amy Rees

Esker recognises that customer experience is key. Ensuring that customers feel Valued, Understood and Engaged is Esker’s promise to our customers, and our Customer Experience Team was established to carry out this very promise.

There is a real connection between customer experience and company success. Likewise, efficient order-to-cash (O2C) processes are also important. As different teams pursue their own goals and self-interests, what’s best for an organisation as a whole is often put on the back-burner. This is exactly why companies need to rethink traditional O2C processes and focus on the strategic end-goal for all – an improved customer experience. It is important that companies look at the O2C process as a whole (rather than each individual area), so that every team can be a champion of the customer experience. This is starts with having an effective base solution in place.

O2C Automation

O2C automation, spanning processes such as order management and accounts receivable, provides users with a single integrated platform to drive added value and efficiency, allowing:

• Reduced operational waste
• Enhanced visibility and accuracy
• Strengthened business relationships
• Improved cash flow

Employees may then focus on customers instead of manual tasks, increase processing speed, have improved job satisfaction and respond quicker to customer issues.

5 Teams That Influence the Customer Experience

Order Management
Accuracy is key – manually keying in data can lead to errors and dissatisfaction. Automation means:

• No more manual data entry
• Issues resolved quickly and easily
• Priority orders can be identified
• Resources can be managed based on metrics
• Costly errors can be avoided

E-Commerce
In order to effectively and successfully conduct business online, manual processes just won’t work. Automation means:

• All order types can be processed
• Customer (& company) effort is minimised
• Efficiency is increased

Logistics and Distribution
Automation is a welcome addition to any supply chain. Automation means:

• Real-time analytics via customisable dashboards
• Operational waste reduced
• Customer SLAs met
• Costly delays are avoided

Accounts Receivable
The billing and collections process has to be right. Automation means:

• Enhanced communication with customers
• Lost invoices prevented
• Priorities managed
• Positive cash flow increased
• Customisable dashboards to keep a view on company money

Sales
Sales teams not only need to sell to customers, they need to connect with them too, but time is of the essence when using manual processes. Automation means:

• More time thanks to instant accessibility
• Fewer calls received due to online portal
• Valuable customer insight gained
• Sales teams can focus on making money

Automation is the key to uniting your organisation and improving the customer experience. Esker are experts in O2C automation. We can help your business to shed the problems that manual processes cause and unite your teams.

To read more, you can download our eBook: Improving The Customer Experience.

Or visit our website for more information about our Order-to-Cash solutions.

Or feel free to contact us; our O2C experts would love to help you to transform your O2C processes.

Amy Rees

As Digital Marketing Administrator at Esker Northern Europe, Amy spends her time working on the website, writing and publishing blogs and social media content, and publishing collateral. She has been part of the Esker family since 2014.

Read more insights from Amy Rees

ENSURING O2C EFFICIENCY REMOTELY
Similarly, O2C leaders have a critical commitment to uphold — the right orders still need to get to the right customer at the right time. Furthermore, cash collection cannot cease simply because operations are now remote. Esker’s O2C solution plays a vital role enabling businesses to continue managing all customer interactions in a single platform. This is achieved through:

CUSTOMER PORTAL
The harsh reality today’s companies face is simple: Satisfy customers’ needs and wants or get passed over for someone else. For this reason, supply chain staff play an important role in driving business success. With a small margin for error, automation is essential to enable fast and accurate delivery of goods while adding value by empowering customers with self-service options. Esker’s self-service customer portal enables customers to place orders, resolve disputes, etc. anytime, anywhere.

ESKER ANYWHERE MOBILE APP
Esker Anywhere supports the sales order process by empowering sales reps and customers with mobile order placing and tracking capabilities for a variety of orders (e.g., replenishment, no-change, standard, etc.).

Here’s how it works:

• Mobile users retrieve items from product catalogue or scan a barcode.
• Product and lot number are automatically populated.
• Subsequent scans of the same barcode increase the quantity of order.
• From there, the order can be completed through the app.

Your O2C business processes don’t stop while you’re away. With Esker Anywhere, business leaders can also access their most important metrics and KPIs all from the palm of their hand. Users always get the same level of information wherever they are.

END-TO-END CONNECTIVITY
Whether it’s providing a 360° view over your customers’ behaviours through customer management or improving global speed and accuracy via AI and RPA technology, Esker’s integrated end-to-end platform is the digital foundation for all your O2C needs.

• CREDIT MANAGEMENT – Send & monitor credit apps while managing customers’ credit risks.
• ORDER MANAGEMENT – Eliminate manual data entry by enabling automated order processing.
• INVOICE DELIVERY – Deliver invoices according to customer preferences with 100% compliance.
• COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT – Reduce DSO with rule-based task lists & CRM-like data centralisation.
• PAYMENT – Allow customers to easily & securely make their payments online.
• CASH ALLOCATION & DEDUCTIONS – Streamline cash allocation & deductions with auto-matching & root-cause analysis.

End-to-end connectivity between all applications, enables collectors, customer service & AR managers to perform critical tasks in real time & without delays.

In every country where Esker is present, we’re equipped with the infrastructure, solutions and support to help our customers and partners effectively manage their unique working requirements and environments.

You can read more on our website https://www.esker.co.uk/mobile-business-empowerment/, or our Order-to-Cash Solution Summary https://info.esker.com/SolutionSummaryO2CAutomation.

Additionally, if you’d like to contact us to discuss your individual requirements, we’d love to hear from you.

Amy Rees

As Digital Marketing Administrator at Esker Northern Europe, Amy spends her time working on the website, writing and publishing blogs and social media content, and publishing collateral. She has been part of the Esker family since 2014.

Read more insights from Amy Rees

You can read more about Esker’s mobile app in our solution summary

Contact Esker today to talk to us about we can help you to manage your supply chain using Esker’s order management solutions and our mobile app.

Working from home, in the office, out and about, Anywhere.

Amy Rees

As Digital Marketing Administrator at Esker Northern Europe, Amy spends her time working on the website, writing and publishing blogs and social media content, and publishing collateral. She has been part of the Esker family since 2014.

Read more insights from Amy Rees