Increasing uncertainty in the global economy has led to increased pressure on the procurement function to lower costs and maximise efficiencies. At the same time, finance teams are also under pressure to maximise the bottom line whilst providing visibility and accountability at any given point.

Finance and procurement are undoubtedly two essential functions within any organisation. While they may individually have different goals and responsibilities, when they work together effectively, they can create a dream team to drive Source-to-Pay (S2P) excellence. Just like a football dream team, finance and procurement can complement each other’s strengths and work towards a common goal of achieving cost savings, improving efficiency, and mitigating risks.

One of the key areas where finance and procurement can collaborate is in strategic sourcing. Procurement teams are responsible for identifying and selecting suppliers, negotiating contracts, and managing relationships. However, finance teams can provide valuable insights into the financial health and stability of potential suppliers. By working together, they can ensure that suppliers not only offer competitive pricing but also have the financial capability to meet the organisation’s needs in the long term.

Another area where finance and procurement can make great wins together is in spend analysis. Finance teams have access to financial data and can provide insights into spending patterns, budget allocations, and cost-saving opportunities. Procurement teams can leverage this information to identify areas of potential savings, negotiate better contracts, and optimise the overall procurement process. By combining their expertise, finance and procurement can drive cost reductions and improve the organisation’s bottom line.

Risk management is another critical area where finance and procurement can work together effectively. Procurement teams are responsible for assessing supplier risks, ensuring compliance with regulations, and managing supplier relationships. Finance teams, on the other hand, can provide insights into financial risks, such as creditworthiness, liquidity, and solvency of suppliers. By collaborating, finance and procurement can identify and mitigate potential risks, ensuring the organisation’s supply chain remains robust and resilient.

Technology plays a crucial role in achieving source-to-pay excellence, and finance and procurement work well as a team in this area as well. Finance teams often have expertise in financial systems and technology, while procurement teams are well-versed in procurement software and tools. By working together, they can select and implement integrated source-to-pay solutions that streamline processes, improve data accuracy, and enhance visibility across the organisation. This collaboration can lead to increased efficiency and visibility, reduced manual work, and improved decision-making.

Communication and collaboration are the keys to success for finance and procurement teams. Regular meetings, joint planning sessions, and shared goals can foster a strong partnership between the two functions. By aligning their objectives and working towards a common vision, finance and procurement can create a synergy that drives an efficient and effective end-to-end source-to-pay process.

In conclusion, finance and procurement can work together like a football dream team to achieve source-to-pay excellence. By leveraging each other’s strengths, collaborating on strategic sourcing, spend analysis, risk management, and technology implementation, they can drive cost savings, improve efficiency, and mitigate risks. Just like a successful football team, finance and procurement can achieve remarkable results when they work together towards a common goal.

Esker’s AI-driven Source-to-Pay suite equips companies with the technology and tools for finance and procurement teams to collaborate to meet shared goals and streamline the end-to-end S2P process.

Jennifer Ball

As Marketing Co-ordinator for Esker UK, Jennifer manages Esker UK's marketing campaigns and events for S2P solutions. She has been part of the Esker family since 2019.

Read more insights from Jennifer Ball

As we continue in turbulent economic times, happy and engaged employees are more important than ever to their businesses, making those essential productivity gains that can give the edge over the competition.

Whilst pay-packets and employee benefits are near the top of most job wish-lists, rising costs and high inflation have caused some organisations to place increasing focus on another high priority: job satisfaction.

At Esker we take pride in our process automation solutions benefitting not only the top line of the company, but just as importantly the working environment of those teams involved in Source-to-Pay and Order-to-Cash. We believe it’s vital for organisations to understand that automation isn’t about reducing headcount, it’s about making those employees count, and here’s how:

Eliminating manual, mundane tasks
One of the main employee-focused advantages of automation is the elimination of menial, tedious and time-consuming tasks that can take so much of some team members’ days. These are things like data entry, manually keying invoices, searching for paper documents, and so on. Automating these essential but high-time-cost tasks gives way to a huge window of opportunity for better use of time for these staff.

Focus on value-adding activities
With all those hours freed-up from removing tedious tasks, employees find themselves with significantly more productive time, that they can now use to focus on high-value activities, personal development and creative solutions to problems. By giving them more time to be creative, automation can ultimately lead to more innovation.
Not only that, but automation also allows more time for inter-departmental and supplier relationships: instead of a rushed phone call to answer a question, employees can take the time to discuss properly and develop better working relationships with other teams and suppliers.

Taking pride in their work
The millennial workforce of today demands more than ‘just a job’ – they love to show off what they’re doing (hello, social media!) and have higher expectations for the work that they do. By making way for more meaningful work, increased flexibility, job mobility, and fewer obstacles to getting things done, employees value their responsibilities and take pride in the more purposeful activities that they’re undertaking.

A more productive, engaged and efficient workforce
Automated and controlled workflows in the S2P process make staff life easier. Intelligent and customisable dashboards mean that important information such as POs, invoices, supplier information and even KPIs are available at the touch of a button. Armed with accurate and automated information, human error is reduced, processes become more seamless, and employees are more efficient and engaged.

Esker’s Source-to-Pay suite is designed to help with all of the above: removing departmental siloes, streamlining procurement processes, improving enforcement of policy compliance, and enhancing supplier management with better visibility over the entire buying process.

As the world of technology continues to evolve, an ever-increasing proportion of the workforce are used to having technology play an essential and transformational role in their lives. It naturally follows that embracing this same mindset in the workplace will motivate and create a working environment that gives them the opportunity to meet their full potential.
Using tools such as AI-driven automation, businesses need to invest in digital transformation to get the best of both worlds: a technological foundation that helps attract and retain skilled workers while delivering real, perceptible business advantages.

Jennifer Ball

As Marketing Co-ordinator for Esker UK, Jennifer manages Esker UK's marketing campaigns and events for S2P solutions. She has been part of the Esker family since 2019.

Read more insights from Jennifer Ball

Automating supplier interactions is a win-win for buyers and suppliers. Read this blog to discover why supporting your suppliers via automation through the complex, multi-faceted process of supplier management is a great move.

Having weathered the supply-chain storm of the pandemic, many organisations have harked back to business-as-usual methods of managing their suppliers: manual, lengthy, paper-based processes that cause inefficiencies, delays and errors, putting at risk the continued supply of valuable components and services.

As volatility continues in the global economy, it’s more important than ever to incorporate business resilience and continuity into every department, and procurement – particularly supplier management – is no exception.

Despite its importance, supplier management is all too often an inefficient and manual process, causing delays and increasing costs across the Procure-to-Pay (P2P) cycle. Automating supplier interactions is a win-win for buyers and suppliers – read on to discover why.

What is Supplier Management?

Supplier management is a complex, multi-faceted process that needs carefully piecing together to create a mutually-beneficial relationship based on trust and accountability. This includes consideration of components such as:

• Supplier Information Management (SIM) – capturing, storing and analysing suppliers’ data
• Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) – evaluating each supplier’s goods & services and their contribution to the business
• Supplier Risk Management – identifying, assessing and mitigating threats by vetting and monitoring suppliers
• Supplier Quality Management – monitoring and managing suppliers’ abilities to fulfil needs on time and at quality

Getting all these processes working correctly and efficiently takes time and effort, but the benefits can be seen both in the P2P cycle and to the wider business. From cost savings and quality control, to improved supply chain transparency, increased compliance and mitigated risks, supplier management is truly embedded in the heart of a business.

The value of supplier relationships

Relationships built with suppliers can benefit businesses in more ways than one. Collaborating with suppliers and involving them in the supplier management process helps build longer-lasting, trust-based relationships that can be leveraged in the future.

Making processes easier from the supplier’s side makes your organisation easier to do business with, nurturing a valued relationship that both businesses will want to be a continued part of.

Here’s where automation comes into its own, simplifying processes and making significant decreases in both time spent and processing errors. This includes areas such as:

• Self-service onboarding and registration forms
• Automated reminders and communications
• Automatic verification of supplier details and IBAN
• Supplier portals to check and submit information
• Supplier enquiry management
• Contract management
• Secure and compliant archiving

Internal Business Value

It’s not just the buyer/supplier relationship that benefits from P2P automation; Esker’s customisable solutions mean that stakeholders across the business can benefit from supplier management automation technology.

From AP specialists and Buyers right up to the CFO, an efficient process reduces time and costs for all concerned, and increases visibility right across the process. Customer dashboards allow each stakeholder to set their own KPIs to track what matters most to their department.

Positive Sum Growth

As economic uncertainty and supply chain issues continue (and for who knows how long), modernising supplier management processes should be nearing top of the priority list to ensure business continuity and minimise risk.

By providing suppliers with an easy-to-complete onboarding process, self-service portals, automated communications and expedited enquiry management through automation, their staff will also benefit from time savings and increased efficiency.

Our Customers Support their Suppliers

Automating supplier management and other P2P processes are often driven by internal needs and goals – but Esker customers are proud to bring efficiency gains to their suppliers too.

Hillarys implemented Esker’s Accounts Payable (AP) solution to assist in processing 50,000 invoices a year. Suppliers were key in their requirements list – with a want to automate the processing of both PO and non-PO invoices, and to overhaul a time-consuming and manual supplier enquiries process.
Read the Hillarys Customer Success Story in full here.

Spanish group Domingo Alonso have been an Esker customer since 2018, when they undertook an automation project to reduce process complexity and automate manual tasks.

Supplier management was again at the core of their objectives; amongst other internal business needs they wanted to improve supplier relationships with accurate on-time payments, timely dispute resolution and direct communication via a supplier portal.

The resulting automation solution streamlines the entire AP workflow, from invoice reception to payment. With easy access to invoice status and payment information via the customised portal, suppliers also benefit from the solution.

Read more on Domingo Alonso’s end-to-end AP solution by clicking here.

Jennifer Ball

As Marketing Co-ordinator for Esker UK, Jennifer manages Esker UK's marketing campaigns and events for S2P solutions. She has been part of the Esker family since 2019.

Read more insights from Jennifer Ball

I’m a big believer in numbers; there’s no doubt that they get us a long way in life. I’m lucky to have a good head for them; two of my family members studied Maths at Cambridge and I opted for Economics at Sheffield.

With my 4-year old, perhaps numbers can perhaps be over used – do I really know how many windows are on his friend’s house that we walk past on the way to school EVERY day? In some areas, however, they’re very much underutilised, and in the current economic climate we need to keep count of the things that matter.

Today, I’m looking at this from the perspective of the Accounts Payable (AP) department. If you don’t measure it, you can’t track it, and you certainly can’t improve on it. Businesses are impacted as much as households by tumultuous economic times, and it really is true that every penny counts.

From a business perspective, what we’re really talking about here is KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). These precious numbers denote how well (or badly) departments are performing, drive decisions and optimise efficiency, benefiting that all-important bottom line.

However, tracking KPIs often seems easier said than done. If business leaders and decision makers don’t know what they need to track, or how to track performance with the right tools, they’ll certainly struggle to make the right choices to transform their Accounts Payable department.

The first issue comes in where to start. There are an infinite number of KPIs and metrics available to an AP department, and certainly not all of them matter! With that in mind, here are Esker’s thoughts on the 10 metrics that really matter to Accounts Payable teams, why they count, and how automation can help steer the numbers in the right direction. Figures throughout are quoted from Ardent Partners epayables business research and Esker’s own automation results.

1) Cost to process a single invoice
Incorporating staffing, IT, processing and routing costs, ultimately the backbone of the AP department is processing invoices. With non-automated costs averaging £10.95, a mature level of automation can bring this down by over 75%, to an average of £2.25. For businesses processing thousands of invoices a year, there’s no questioning the sum total savings this can bring to the bottom line.

2) Time to process a single invoice
Time is most definitely money in business, and these are two numbers that quickly add up. There are early payment discounts to be had for best-in-class AP departments, and conversely, late fees for those falling behind par. A co-ordinated end-to-end automation solution can eliminate manual, time-consuming tasks associated with invoice processing, reducing average processing time from 11.9 days on average to 3.3 days on average.

3) Invoices processed per day per FTE (full time equivalent)
Staff productivity is a metric used across many business departments, and in AP it certainly shows its worth. Calculating the average daily output of an AP staff member can identify bottlenecks and pinpoint inefficiencies in invoice processing. Here, automation can boost the numbers by 50% or more – Parts Town saw their invoices per day per user jump from 57 to 92 by implementing the right technology.

4) Invoices linked to a PO
Here it’s matching the numbers that matters. Invoices linked to a correct purchase order number (PO) can be processed more quickly and efficiently. The market average for matched invoices runs around 44%, however ‘best-in-class’ automated businesses see this average over 80%.

5) Invoice exception rate
Exceptions can really take up time in invoice processing. Which, if you remember back to #2, directly impacts business costs by causing the delays. Most common exceptions are caused by missing or incorrect PO numbers and data and approval bottlenecks. With an automation employing 3-way matching technology, issues are handled quickly and effectively and can reduce exception rates by over 60%.

6) Touchless invoice processing
‘Straight-through’ or touchless invoice processing can literally count the clicks an AP specialist needs to make: zero. In the case of Feu Vert, AP automation allows processing of a staggering 9 out of 10 invoices without human intervention. Just imagine what you could with that time saving!

7) Volume of electronic supplier invoices
The Covid-19 pandemic had few lasting positive impacts on the world. However, a marked shift to home-working and in turn e-invoicing can be counted among them. Businesses can not only make themselves more receptive to electronic invoices, by providing the right technology, but can also encourage and onboard suppliers to really boost this metric. Sunway are a shining example of how well this can work – with a dedicated supplier portal they now receive 50% of invoices electronically.

8) Early payment discounts captured
As alluded to in #2, early payment discounts can make crucial savings much-needed for businesses. A streamlined AP process is vital for this; not only speeding up invoice approvals and payments, but also logging, tracking and flagging those critical payment due dates.

9) On time payments
The business world has always been a tough landscape, but with strained supply chains in many industries, now more than ever vendors rely on on-time and accurate payments. With real-time visibility, AP automation facilitates the possibility of 100% of payments made on time. Supported supplier relationships, a healthy cash flow and faster cycle times can help to bring about positive sum growth for all in the supply chain.

10) Days payable outstanding (DPO)
Anyone who’s been near a finance department is no stranger to DPO, essentially an efficiency measure on how quickly suppliers are paid given their payment terms. It goes without saying that suppliers want this figure to be as low as possible, but from an AP perspective having a consistent DPO benefits overall business cashflow and can demonstrate the overall strategic value of an AP department.

The sum of all these metrics? Automating AP processes can have a massive impact on the KPIs that matter. An efficient, unified approach brings invoices directly into a cloud-based solution, automatically.
A cloud-based solution such as Esker manages and analyses invoice data, automatically queuing received requisitions and tracking the important details mentioned above – PO numbers, due dates, early payment discounts, and so on.

And still – the best is yet to come. Customisable dashboards display live analytics and can track any KPI you can imagine – no calculator needed! Take a look at how Routeco optimised their AP process, automating 100% of invoice processing and re-routing 50% of AP staff time to higher tasks.

Want to learn more about how Esker can help you add up to AP success? Find out more about our AP automation solutions or contact us for more information.

Jennifer Ball

As Marketing Co-ordinator for Esker UK, Jennifer manages Esker UK's marketing campaigns and events for S2P solutions. She has been part of the Esker family since 2019.

Read more insights from Jennifer Ball

Inboxes: sometimes it seems like your entire day is spent just trying to get to the bottom. And even if you do make it, sure enough, like groundhog day, it starts all over again almost immediately.

And that’s just your personal inbox. Now consider the black hole that is a shared customer service inbox. Companies the world over rely on them to handle everything from invoices to orders, remittance to claims, and everything in between. As well as being a time-consuming manual process to manage, shared inboxes present no end of pitfalls, including:

• Lack of context. Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) spend countless time searching for background information and prior interactions on the issue
• Team member overlap. With multiple people responding from the same email account, duplication or missing an email is both common and confusing for all parties.
• Inefficiency. No insight into what has already been responded to is a further drain on the department’s time.
• Lack of transparency. With only a short subject line to go on, customer service staff can’t quickly identify which emails are urgent, meaning they’re often overlooked.

Many companies have at least one CSR dedicated to their central inbox. A job that’s manual, ineffective, and unmotivating. Whilst some have email processes in place in attempts to curb these problems, they’re not a reliable fix and can ultimately end in creating more complexity than they solve.

Using AI to sort out shared inboxes

There is a solution to this email chaos – and no, it isn’t the ‘delete’ key!

Using the latest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, Esker’s Customer Enquiries solution was built specifically to categorise emails and documents such as orders, invoices, RFQs and queries. By scanning the email’s subject line and body, the solution automatically sorts requests into different queues for efficient handling, and providing key information at a glance.

With all this information easily accessible from a customisable, user-friendly dashboard, CSRs can prioritise those urgent requests, and see in real-time whether an email has already been validated or actioned by a colleague.
Templated responses can assist with a quick response to the simplest queries, such as pricing requests, whereas internal conversations can tag in a colleague where further clarity is required. All interactions are recorded directly in the system, so any follow-on queries can easily be put into context.

Having these processes in place no doubt leads to faster customer service response times, increased customer satisfaction, and ultimately better employee morale and an improved company reputation too.

Want to learn more about how the visibility and efficiency of an AI-driven email triage solution could benefit your company and your customers? Contact us to find out!

Jennifer Ball

As Marketing Co-ordinator for Esker UK, Jennifer manages Esker UK's marketing campaigns and events for S2P solutions. She has been part of the Esker family since 2019.

Read more insights from Jennifer Ball

• Reduced workforce productivity or even plant shut-downs
• Supply chain disruptions
• Reduction in downstream industries such as automotive and construction
• Increase in customer demand and awareness of sustainable production

Q: With limited control over these external factors, what can organisations in the chemical industry do to try to maintain business continuity through the uncertain times still to come?

A: Start with the back office processes.

An organisation built on an unstable foundation isn’t setting itself up for success. By ensuring that the core business cycles run efficiently, businesses can improve their competitiveness, decrease costs, and accelerate processing across the Procure-to-Pay and Order-to-Cash cycles.

Let’s start with one of the key back office functions – the finance department. In many chemical companies however, these processes are often fragmented, slow and prone to issues. Whether it’s money coming in to Accounts Receivable (AR), or going out via Accounts Payable (AP); transparency, visibility and simplicity are key.
An automation solution can help to achieve these goals across either or both accounts functions, by eliminating manual tasks such as printing and scanning, reducing errors and exception handling, and simplifying archiving and storage.

From an AR perspective, making the move to e-invoicing helps organisations to get that cash in the bank more quickly, reducing DSO and improving the customer experience. By managing credit applications, payments, cash allocation and collections electronically, automation streamlines the O2C process to make life easier for both internal stakeholders and external customers.

On the flipside, AP automation can consolidate processes across disparate ERP systems increasing staff productivity and reducing workflow discontinuity. A digital approval process allows invoices to progress without getting stuck in bottlenecks such as internal mail. Paying suppliers on time helps strengthen those vital business relationships for whatever the future may bring.

As the global economy continues to twist and turn, being easy to do business with is a big competitive differentiator, especially in the chemical industry. By taking simple steps to simplify finance processes for suppliers and customers, organisations can get the right mix of their processes for the volatile times.

Jennifer Ball

As Marketing Co-ordinator for Esker UK, Jennifer manages Esker UK's marketing campaigns and events for S2P solutions. She has been part of the Esker family since 2019.

Read more insights from Jennifer Ball

1) Even if you’re not changing, your competition is
2) You could be saving large amounts of time and money
3) Your customers and suppliers are demanding it
4) Your employees are demanding change too
5) Your business’s future depends on it

This is where automation comes in. It’s one of those great buzzwords but what does it actually mean?
Process automation is the reduction or elimination of time-consuming, manual activities, which gives back valuable time for staff to work on more strategic tasks.

These manual processes occur throughout the P2P and O2C cycles – e.g. PO creation and tracking, invoice approvals, order processing, remittance, cash collection… the list goes on. And what’s more, the processes within these cycles are inextricably intertwined — a problem in one area creates a chain reaction that ultimately affects other core processes leading to high costs, long processing times, and a lack of efficiency across the business.

Automation put simply: that paperwork pile on your desk? Gone. Disjointed systems with no visibility? Not any more. Bottlenecks and delays? A thing of the past.

So your business is ready to start digital transformation, but where do you begin?
What should you look for in a process automation system?

Flexible, cloud-based automation solutions are proving to be the most effective way to achieve P2P and O2C efficiency, saving organisations significant time, money and resources, and setting them up for success should disruptions in business occur.

And here’s where Esker comes in. But don’t just take our word for it. Take a look at our customer success stories for automation examples from across the O2C and P2P cycles.

Esker’s single digital platform allows you to transform your entire enterprise from end to end, working alongside and integrating with your existing systems and ERPs, and uniting your business with customers and suppliers like never before.

Ready to take your business’s digital transformation into 2021?
Contact us for a free demo of our cloud-based automation solutions, or download our latest white paper for further reading: Digital Transformation of Core Business Cycles: How to create a highly efficient enterprise with AI-driven automation.

Jennifer Ball

As Marketing Co-ordinator for Esker UK, Jennifer manages Esker UK's marketing campaigns and events for S2P solutions. She has been part of the Esker family since 2019.

Read more insights from Jennifer Ball

But don’t just take our word for it – the results from our customers speak for themselves:

• 90% of invoices processed in one click, without any human intervention
• Centralised accounting at Culligan’s shared service centre given more autonomy

• Reduced processing costs by 70%
• Reduced approval times by 50% with digital workflows
• Business continuity during the pandemic thanks to Esker’s cloud-based solution 24/7 online access

• Automated supplier invoicing system fully integrated with SAP
• 2 hours saved by AP team daily
• Eliminated postal mail exchanges

• One platform for documents, communication and approval across the P2P cycle
• 70% faster invoice processing

• Standardised payment cycles across 8 countries
• Operations to run smoothly and uninterrupted, from any location
• Invoice processing capacity increased by 2.5x

For companies that have already digitally transformed their P2P operations, manual inefficiencies are now a thing of the past.
Ready to learn more about how automation can help your organisations bottom line?
Our accompanying eBook, Is Procure-to-Pay Automation worth the hype? is a great place to start!

Jennifer Ball

As Marketing Co-ordinator for Esker UK, Jennifer manages Esker UK's marketing campaigns and events for S2P solutions. She has been part of the Esker family since 2019.

Read more insights from Jennifer Ball

• Eliminating manual tasks such as invoice handling, PO matching, order consolidation
• Enhancing visibility and analytics with real-time, customisable dashboards to monitor KPIs such as order processing time, DSO, early payment discounts
• Improving the experience for customers and supplies with accelerated cycle times
• Boosting staff productivity by freeing up resource to focus on tasks that can really contribute to the bottom line

Alongside RPA, Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions observe inputs and learn what works and what doesn’t, to mimic human intelligence in repeated tasks so that the desired outcome is always achieved. Sounds complicated, but the end result is pretty simple: AI makes your job easier and your company easier to do business with.

Complex IT Landscapes

Construction companies often run on disparate, legacy systems that have been accumulated over time and through mergers and acquisitions. These come with added costs and complexities, and can be a spanner in the works when it comes to collaboration across departments, business agility, and ultimately, profits.
The thought of adding another technology to an already complicated infrastructure may seem counter-intuitive. However, automation via a Software as a Service (SaaS) model allows workflow outside ERP systems with no additional software, hardware or maintenance associated with the implementation. A great solution complements whatever infrastructure is currently in place — minus upfront costs, downtime and interference with existing systems.

How Automation Works

Procure-to-Pay

• Purchase orders created in a few clicks and verified against invoices with 3-way matching
• AP invoice data automatically extracted and, if necessary, routed for approval
• On-the-go approval with Esker Anywhere, reducing delays and bottlenecks
• Improved collaboration and shortened payment cycles with key suppliers
• Greater visibility over indirect and indirect spend

Order-to-Cash

• Automatic extraction of incoming order data with machine learning
• Orders logged in the ERP system with a copy archived for full audit trail
• Custom dashboards to monitor metrics, and customer portals to track order status
• Automatic extraction of invoice data and delivery to the customer based on their preferences
• Cash allocation matches incoming payments to outstanding invoices
• Collections management go beyond DSO to optimise and accelerate your cash collection process

Ready to go digital?

Designed to help business leaders and their teams achieve their goals, process automation makes your job easier. Work smarter, not harder.
Esker’s solutions can help across P2P and O2C cycles in the construction industry. Or – take one step at a time.
Take a look at our latest resources to find out more:-

• How the Construction Industry can Digitally Transform its Business Operations
• People, Process & Technology – Customer Service Excellence in the Construction Industry
• How The Construction Industry Can Harness Accounts Payable Automation

Jennifer Ball

As Marketing Co-ordinator for Esker UK, Jennifer manages Esker UK's marketing campaigns and events for S2P solutions. She has been part of the Esker family since 2019.

Read more insights from Jennifer Ball

• Retrieving invoices or documents from customer or supplier portals
• Processing transactions
• Passing documents to other systems, e.g. sending invoices for approval or logging them in an ERP system

Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI is the theory and development of computer systems to perform or enhance tasks normally requiring human intelligence. AI improves speed and accuracy within document processing by completing tasks such as:

• Perceiving and interpreting documents
• Matching PO invoices with corresponding PO lines and goods receipts
• Identifying anomalies and predicting outcomes

Machine Learning
Based on input from users, a solution such as Esker’s learns how to process new document formats and expand its knowledge base. The more it learns, the more the recognition rate increases and the system can process documents of the same format without any input from users (touchless processing).

Deep Learning
Taking machine learning one step further, deep learning is a neural network using algorithmic software to train itself to perform tasks based on a large set of data. Put simply, the software analyses data to find patterns in the data so it knows what to expect and what to do with a new document when it comes in. Esker’s own deep learning technology, Synergy, has been trained by the millions of documents processed by its solutions over more than a decade, allowing businesses to benefit from high recognition rates from day one.

The Benefits
A digital solution such as Esker uses a combination of these technologies to automate manual inefficiencies and low-value tasks in the P2P and O2C cycles. This frees up teams to focus on more value-adding tasks, increases efficiency and reduces cycle times, benefiting not only your business, but your customer and suppliers too. Businesses set their own pace, choosing to automate one process at a time (Procurement, Accounts Payable, Order Management or Accounts Receivable), or automating entire cycles to unite their operations across a single, integrated platform.

Find out more
If all this technology talk has you buzzing to update your systems, take a look at the following resources for a more in-depth look into the benefits of process automation for the procure-to-pay and order-to-cash cycles:

AI & RPA: The Technology Powering P2P Digital Transformation

New Technologies for Order Management – Increase Your Competitiveness

Jennifer Ball

As Marketing Co-ordinator for Esker UK, Jennifer manages Esker UK's marketing campaigns and events for S2P solutions. She has been part of the Esker family since 2019.

Read more insights from Jennifer Ball