Baker Ing, renowned for its expertise in receivables management for high-value and sensitive accounts, provides bespoke international debt collection, from ad hoc support to acting as an integrated service partner. Credit managers run searches on debtors and create a log of any possible reluctance for timely payment. Esker AI-driven Collections Management fits in perfectly with systems Baker Ing already have in place to enhance the offering to its customers.

The team will be referring Esker’s suite of Order-to-Cash solutions to include Collections Management, Cash Application, Credit Management, Invoice Delivery, Claims and Deductions, and E-payment solutions.   

To help businesses adapt swiftly, Baker Ing and Esker are launching a package designed to offer immediate countermeasures to inflationary pressures. This is the opportunity for companies to fortify their financial operations, ensuring they stay competitive in an inflation-ridden market.

Read full press release here.

Esker UK

Unlocking Positive-Sum Growth with AI-Driven Business Solutions for P2P & O2C Cycles

Read more insights from Esker UK

Proservartner creates cost efficiencies, standardises and optimises processes and enables agile back-office functions to give clients the competitive advantage they need. The company has a long heritage in setting up shared service centres, and its experienced team will take companies through every step of its automation journey. Proservartner will be both a reseller and implement Esker Accounts Payable and Order-to-Cash solutions.

The team is receiving training on Esker’s solutions and will be fully up to speed to execute the automation journey of its customers soon.

Read full press release here.

Esker UK

Unlocking Positive-Sum Growth with AI-Driven Business Solutions for P2P & O2C Cycles

Read more insights from Esker UK

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

There is a lot to be understood and navigated by businesses about the soon-to-be enforced mandatory transition to e-invoicing in France. In addition to “7 Things You Should Know about France’s E-invoicing Mandate”, here are a few more in-depth questions and answers to help you round out your e-invoicing knowledge before the big shift on July 1, 2024.

What other mandates has France put in place previously?

In France, e-invoicing has been implemented for companies doing business with public administration institutions as part of the EU Directive 2014/55/EU. A French governmental order dated 26 June 2014 requires all suppliers doing business with the public sector to exclusively transmit invoices electronically via the Chorus Pro platform. This measure was progressively enacted between 2017 and 2020, depending on company size.

The Chorus Pro platform was originally designed for B2G, and now the French Government wants to extend its use to the B2B world. In reality, this should be an extension of Chorus Pro, not a whole new system. You may hear the system be called the ‘PPF’ also.

How is this mandate similar/different from e-invoicing mandates in other countries?

French e-invoicing mandate has the same codes than other e-invoicing mandates in other countries (requiring the use of the national e-invoicing platform, using mandatory formats; but each country has its own platform and formats).

It’s not that different from other countries that introduced a “clearance model”. France studied the systems already in place in Italy and Mexico before choosing a model. They ultimately chose to follow the Mexican model, as France liked that invoices can be delivered directly using both government system and authorised third-party registered platforms.

How has this mandate affected Esker itself?

Esker will become a registered private operator and help existing customers and new customers to become fully compliant. We are building a dedicated solution to meet all the requirements to become a registered third party (PDP), ensuring that the high security requirements set by the French government are met. Esker is participating in the public consultations led by the French Tax Administration to help companies digitise their transactions as of July 1, 2024. Esker will be able to be an official candidate by May 2023 and will be registered two months after the government’s validation. Esker will be also candidate for the pilot phase starting from January 1, 2024 to June 30, 2024, before the official deadline of the mandate in July 1, 2024.

What other implications do you see stemming from this new mandate?

For international corporations, this mandate should not be seen as just another mandate to comply with. The increasing number of rules, formats, platforms and certificates bring a lot of complexity and nuance to compliance.

Companies that rely on multiple local services providers to ensure e-invoice compliance in different countries find it difficult to uphold rigid local specifications and manage numerous providers. Working with one provider and one solution is the preferred way to go as it increases visibility on global invoices, helps you anticipate new mandates in other countries, improves and streamlines your internal processes, and enhances overall user experience.

(Originally published on the Esker Inc. blog)

Esker UK

Unlocking Positive-Sum Growth with AI-Driven Business Solutions for P2P & O2C Cycles

Read more insights from Esker UK

In the past few years, France has been leading the charge in digital transformation efforts around the globe, with a focus on e-invoicing. The forced widespread adoption of e-invoicing is leaving companies with counterparts in France scrambling. Next year, the e-invoicing mandate will go into effect, requiring electronic invoicing for B2B transactions. In this blog post, we’ll explore the most asked questions regarding the mandate, including what it means for organisations and the benefits e-invoicing can have.

1. What does France’s 2023 e-invoicing mandate entail? How did it come about?

The mandate requires businesses to submit all domestic B2B invoices to the French Tax authority electronically via Chorus Pro or use a privately registered third party like Esker (called Partner Dematerialisation Platform or PDP).

This mandate is not solely about delivering invoices electronically, it is also a requirement to provide payment data and e-reporting data (international B2B and B2C transactions) to the government. In plain English, it is a condensed file with invoice header data/certain fields that the tax authority requires. 

This applies to companies that have a registered business in France. If you don’t have a subsidiary in France, you will not be impacted by this requirement at this time. If the French entity is sending or receiving invoices from other countries that must be reported.

The mandate will be phased in gradually. Businesses will be required to issue e-invoices according to the following schedule: 

• July 1, 2024: large companies
• January 1, 2025: mid-sized companies
• January 1, 2026: smaller companies

All business entities will be required to accept electronic invoices starting July 1, 2024, regardless of their size. The French government introduced this mandate to fight VAT fraud, strengthen competitiveness, improve company efficiency and facilitate VAT tax returns.

2. What new standards are being put in place that were not specified before now?

Today, invoicing in France is 80% done via paper mail, but that standard is going to change from a paper-based economy to an electronic one. Companies will need to use a format meeting the European standard (EN16931) to submit an invoice. Three formats have been selected by the tax authority: Factur-X (PDF with XML embedded in the PDF), UBL, UNCEFACT CII — think of the last two as similar to EDI schemas where there is no image just raw text data. Paper invoices or simple PDF invoices will no longer be accepted.

3. How will this mandate affect organisations in France? How will it affect organisations outside of France hoping to do business in the country?

For French-registered companies, the mandate will require changes to their invoicing and reporting processes. Here are some examples of impacts on organisations:

• Shift towards real-time or near-real-time invoicing and reporting, which may require changes to their internal processes and systems
• Choose between the Chorus Pro platform or a registered third-party provider (connected to Chorus Pro)
• New costs for companies, as they may need to invest in new software, or personnel to comply with the mandate. However, the shift towards electronic invoicing may result in long-term cost savings for these organisations
• Impacts on ERP system change (e.g., support of mandatory fields, connected to their private registered third party)
• Training for users on these new tools and processes
• Collection of all mandatory information for e-invoicing and e-reporting that will be required by the tax authority.

Organisations outside of France are not impacted by the mandate if they have no VAT-registered company in France.

4. What do you see being the biggest challenge for organisations striving to achieve compliance? How can organisations address that challenge?

In France, or other countries following suit, moving to e-invoicing is no longer an option for businesses, it’s now an obligation. The growing number of governments and corporations adopting e-invoicing means that companies need to send e-invoices if they want to do business and get paid. However, the increasing number of rules, formats, platforms and certifications brings a lot of complexity to compliance. While it might be tempting to sit back and wait for deadlines to draw near, businesses must embrace the shift to e-invoicing or risk being left behind.

How to address this challenge?

Organisations should start by analysing their existing systems and processes to identify invoice flows that need to be updated or changed. They should also consider working with software editors providing global e-invoicing and e-reporting solutions to comply with e-invoicing mandates worldwide, like Esker. Companies that rely on multiple local service providers to ensure e-invoice compliance in different countries find it difficult to uphold rigid local specifications and manage numerous providers. Working with one provider and one solution is the preferred way to go as it increased visibility on your global invoices, helps you anticipate new mandates in other countries, improves and streamlines your internal processes, and enhances user experience.

5. Based on conversations with Esker’s customers, how has this mandate affected them?

The French e-invoicing mandate is quite complex, and customers are struggling to know how to meet these requirements. They need to choose their platform (between Chorus Pro or a private registered third party) to submit their invoices to the tax authority. They also need to make sure that their ERP systems (and all of their information system) are prepared for this change (e.g. support of mandatory fields, connected to their private registered third party). In addition, once they implemented this new platform in their information system, users will need to be well-trained on new processes and new tools. One of the first steps for companies is to know how to collect all mandatory information from their customers that will be required by the tax authority in an invoice. Customers are facing a lot of change as they need to learn the new system and understand how they are going to invoice and report going forward.

6. How is Esker supporting organisations looking to achieve compliance?

Esker helps drive companies’ transition from paper to electronic invoicing by automating the processing of 100% of your invoices via any media (paper, e-invoice, EDI, etc.) to ensure your needs of today and tomorrow.

Esker delivers and receives compliant customer and supplier e-invoices on a global scale, and is capable of processing different invoice formats, as well as communicating with different public administration platforms to send and receive e-invoices and provide visibility on invoice status.

Through its partnership with SOVOS TrustWeaver, a leading e-invoicing compliance expert, Esker helps businesses achieve global e-invoicing compliance in over 60 countries, as well as provides e-invoice archiving.

In France, more specifically, Esker will provide a global and compliant solution with e-invoicing and e-reporting regulations. Esker aims at becoming a registered e-invoicing and e-reporting partner of the French tax authorities, as a Partner Dematerialisation Platform (PDP). Esker is participating in the public consultations led by the French Tax Administration to help companies digitise their transactions as of July 1, 2024.

7. Do you see France’s mandate and related mandates in other countries as part of a larger, global shift to digitisation? How will this trend affect regions that have not begun to prioritise digitisation?

Yes, France’s e-invoicing and e-reporting mandate, as well as related mandates in other countries, are part of a larger global shift towards digitisation.

Latin America was the first to enforce the use of e-invoicing in the late 2000s.
French B2G e-invoicing mandate was part of a European Directive on e-invoicing and public procurement [2014/55/EU] transposed by all EU member states. Many governments introduced legislation requiring vendors to send e-invoices to all public administrations.

Italy has gone even further to become the first European member state to mandate B2B and B2C e-invoicing for Italian businesses. Others seem willing to follow this lead: France, Spain, Belgium and Poland already announced a mandate for 2024. To harmonise invoicing and VAT reporting in the EU, the European Commission recently published a draft of measures to modernise the EU’s Value-Added Tax (VAT) system and promote digitalisation.

However, the increasing regulations bring a lot of complexity to compliance. Efforts have been made to standardise public procurement and simplify document exchanges between companies and public entities, notably with PEPPOL.

France’s e-invoicing mandate represents a significant shift towards a more digital and efficient way of conducting business. This adoption is expected to bring substantial benefits to both businesses and the environment, as it streamlines the invoicing process. While the mandate may come with some challenges, it also presents opportunities to improve business processes.

As we approach July 1, 2024, it’s important that companies start preparing to ensure a smooth transition for compliance with France’s e-invoicing mandate. If you’re not sure where to start, reach out to us! By taking action now you can ensure compliance with the mandate and position your business for success and achieve true positive-sum growth.

(Originally published on the Esker Inc. blog)

Esker UK

Unlocking Positive-Sum Growth with AI-Driven Business Solutions for P2P & O2C Cycles

Read more insights from Esker UK

The team at AB Sciex first learnt about Esker’s solutions at an Order Management led webinar run by Esker. AB Sciex had approximately 10,000 consumable orders per year all processed manually and all invoices were processed manually too. The team saw real benefit in automating both processes using a single platform.

Following a competitive pitch process, the project team implemented Esker for both the accounts payable and customer service teams as a joint initiative with key stakeholders. This allowed for streamlining of the processes in the European customer service and AP centres, allowing employees to be released from tedious manual jobs to concentrate on higher level customer service and AP tasks.

The accounts payable team has a shared service centre in India and the ability for the Esker solution to handle multiple company codes across different global sites within Sciex was key in it winning the business.

AB Sciex liked Esker’s flexible approach and the ability to expand the services within the AP solution. The team are also looking at taking on the Esker Supplier Management solution which will manage supplier information and automate processes across the supply chain. This allows suppliers to directly update their information at any time, giving the AP team visibility and real-time analytics, as well as ensuring that all collected data is synchronised with ERP vendor master data so duplicate supplier records aren’t created.  

The Customer Service teams are also looking at touchless processing, with 60% of orders already going through as touchless after 8 months.

This all-encompassing suite of solutions means that Esker will help transform the visibility and control of AB Sciex’s accounts and orders. Esker’s solutions will remove all manual touch points and reduce maverick spend, meaning staff can concentrate on more value-added tasks, such as enhancing customer relationships.

Read full press release here.

Esker UK

Unlocking Positive-Sum Growth with AI-Driven Business Solutions for P2P & O2C Cycles

Read more insights from Esker UK

As the global economic turmoil continues to challenge even the most positive of people within the Accounts Payable (AP) department, the ever-increasing difficulties of feeling totally overworked has already seen many people ‘burnout’.

As the work pressures continue to build within AP (increased workload under the same working conditions and practices) there now seems to be a new concern with those working on monotonous, repetitive and labour intensive AP tasks which have to be completed over and over again throughout the day. Those working on these types of boring manual processes are now known to be suffering from work ‘boreout’.

So what does this mean for those workers suffering from ‘boreout’ and what are the effects upon the AP department and the company as a whole?

Well, according to the Udemy Workplace Boredom Study¹, those bored at work are causing decreased productivity rates for an organisation, leading to higher costs, fewer growth opportunities and having a negative impact on company culture.

How can you spot if your AP Team are bored and stopping your company from being as productive as possible?

There are four key areas:

1. Manual Data entry

The majority of tasks performed by the AP department is repetitive, such as manually entering data and invoice verification. This means more opportunities for mistakes to be made and even greater errors due to peak periods such as month-end closing.

2. Invoice Approvals

When manual AP processes involve the same task to approve invoices then this quite often leads to lost invoices or delays in approvals. This can then lead to disagreements with suppliers which can further induce yet more stress to an already overworked department.

3. Matching Process

Incoming invoices need to be matched with the corresponding POs and goods receipts. However, this process quite often involves multiple different departments taking a long time to complete. Should the sales increase, then the volume of work will too. This leads to possible new team members having to be taken on and trained by existing members, who are already exhausted by trying to manage their own monotonous workloads.

4. Performance Indicators

The number of invoices that contain PO references, reception methods, or other KPIs like Days Payable Outstanding (DPO) remain obscured when undertaken by tedious manual, paper-based processes. The repercussions of this means depriving staff from understanding their own performance, and thus not being able to identify in what ways they can improve their personal development, in achieving a better performance. Also not knowing the performance of the business as a whole, can cause problematic repercussions.

So what can be done?

Well, quite simply, these boring, repetitive and manually intensive paper-based processes can be automated.

Automating the many AP processes within an organisation can bring the real focus back to what leads to the success of the business – its employees!

Automation shouldn’t be seen as a way to replace workers completing monotonous tasks, but rather a way to enable them to spend more time on helping those that are most important to the business surviving and thriving – its customers!

So how can automation help?

1. Eliminates the boring AP tasks

AP automation speeds up the AP process and reduces the errors of some of the most common of AP tasks. This leads to AP staff becoming free from the mundane tasks that cause ‘boreout’ and have more opportunities for internal skills to be enhanced and to make advances in their careers.

2. Using analytics to empower your team

With intelligent dashboards, real-time KPIs can allow AP teams to produce their own metrics with customisable reports. This can enable a more strategic view of tasks and actions required to further empower them in their daily activities.

3. Nurture collaboration

Online supplier portals and mobile apps let AP staff converse more easily internally (with colleagues) and externally (with suppliers), freeing up time for higher value tasks within the AP department.

So, although the AP processes can be fraught with tasks that are tedious and time consuming, leading to boredom and feeling underwhelmed within their roles, automation can be the key to giving them the opportunity to rectify this, quickly and easily.

From eliminating boring tasks, understanding key metrics more clearly and being able to concentrate on more value-added tasks, AP teams can feel a greater sense of achievement, empowerment and satisfaction.

You can read more in our eBook: Beating AP Boreout: How to re-engage your team with automation

¹ 2016 Udemy Workplace Boredom Study, Battling Boredom Blues: How to Engage Today’s Workers. Udemy for Business (2016).

Sam Townsend

Sam is Head of Marketing for Esker Northern Europe and has been part of the Esker family since 2003.

Read more insights from Sam Townsend

Happy Customers and Employees

Companies, now more than ever, must focus on their most valuable assets: their employees. Automation is often thought of as something that “replaces” workers, when in reality, it can be used to:

• Eliminate manual tasks
• Empower your team with analytics
• Nurture collaboration with digital tools

Furthermore, expectations of excellent customer service are now the norm. They can be the make-or-break factor that determines whether a company thrives or dives. Speed, personal connection and digital competency are no longer hoped for when making purchasing decisions, they’re quite simply expected.

Givaudan, a worldwide provider of flavouring, scent, and health and beauty products, looking for ways to apply automation to various manual aspects of business operations while allowing for scalability and utilisation of their valued human resources.

Givaudan realised to scale up their business they needed to implement the following

• Create more strategic, fulfilling work for staff
• Reduce manual scanning & redundant data entry by automating manual tasks
• Eliminate human errors & inefficiencies with automated processing
• Improve customer satisfaction

Marton Nagy, Global Solution Expert Procure-to-Pay at Givaudan said, “Our goal for automation is not to make our people redundant, but to make them more valuable. We need our employees to be creative, to think, to make sure we go further than where we are today. Automating the tedious, repetitive tasks lets them use their time for more valuable purposes.”

The Solution

Just as in their business, specialising in complimentary scents to produce the best fragrances, they needed a complimentary solution to their already installed Esker Order Management solution. They chose Esker’s Accounts Payable (AP) solution to realise their vision.
Esker’s AP solution was implemented to eliminate the manual scanning and digitising of invoices, as well as capturing and recording payments, thereby increasing both speed and accuracy. It was implemented quickly thanks to Esker’s use of Agile methodology, and seamlessly integrated with Givaudan’s single instance global SAP system.

“We selected Esker’s Accounts Payable solution because of the trusted working relationship Esker had with the demand-to-cash team,” said Marton Nagy, Global Solution Expert Procure-to-Pay at Givaudan. “Esker has been delivering on its promise ever since.”

Part of Givaudan’s strategy for automating order entry and AP included making interaction with the solution simple for both customers and vendors. B2B customers place orders and send invoices in a variety of ways. With Esker, Givaudan has a flexible order processing solution that can adapt to the different ways B2B companies communicate without requiring complex integrations to accommodate Givaudan’s internal systems and data formats. Alessandra Mello, Global Head of Customer Care and Demand Planning at Givaudan, said, “We considered using EDI connections, but we found this quite limiting, as few customers are willing to invest the time, money, and resources to implement it,” said Mello. “Esker solutions don’t require our customers to build complex integrations to send us orders or invoices.”

Givaudan can now teach the solution (using Eskers Artificial Intelligence) the invoice formats its vendors use, allowing it to automatically and accurately enter invoices into the system. It also eliminates tedious entry of additional data to meet the invoice processing and tracking requirements in different countries — critical for a global company like Givaudan.
As a result, the AP staff has more time to concentrate on issues that truly require its skill and talent to investigate and resolve.

Vincent Depuis, IT Project Manager at Givaudan, said, “Our Esker journey started with automating sales order entry, and we’re seeing similar efficiency gains with the new AP solution. Our people can now focus their talents on what they do best, instead of tedious manual processes. Givaudan’s 2025 vision will feature even more ways to automate repetitive, manual tasks to add even greater value. Esker solutions will figure prominently in that plan.”

If you would like to learn more about Esker’s Accounts Payable solution, please get in touch, and I’d be happy to provide you with further information or a demo.

Susan Fletcher

Susan is an Internal Sales Consultant for Esker UK. She has been part of the Esker family since 2022.

Read more insights from Susan Fletcher

Esker, a global cloud platform and leader in AI-driven process automation solutions for finance and customer service functions, today announced in partnership with Grant Thornton Italy, that The Space Cinema, a leading cinema operator in Italy, is automating its accounts payable (AP), expense management and accounts receivable (AR) processes with Esker.

The partnership with Grant Thornton, a preeminent audit, tax and advisory firm, has provided pivotal support to the successful rollout of Esker’s solutions for The Space Cinema. The expertise of Grant Thornton’s consulting services played a central role in the development and management of Esker’s solutions. This successful collaboration accompanied The Space Cinema on its digital transformation journey by automating key financial processes.

Together, these three companies have achieved tremendous gains in efficiency, time, and cost. With Esker providing innovative solutions, Grant Thornton enhancing its consulting offer and The Space Cinema committing to digital automation processes, this partnership lays the groundwork for future projects in additional business departments.

“Teamwork is always a winning strategy. The professional relationship we have established and nurtured with The Space Cinema over the years is based on open communication, dialogue and mutual appreciation,” said Giovanni Gavioli, Managing Director at Esker Italy. “We are able to deliver the best solutions to meet our customers’ needs thanks to quality relationships, close collaboration and shared goals.”

The Space Cinema has achieved numerous benefits, including:

•           Improved AP and AR processes with AI-based intelligent data recognition

•           Decreased workload with touchless processing

•           Optimised electronic workflow

•           Seamless multi-ERP integration

•           Enhanced control over business expenses

According to Alessandro Leone, COO at Grant Thornton Digital: “Automating business processes through the adoption of an AI-based engine is a goal for many businesses worldwide. I am proud to say that we have made this a reality and our great results have been achieved through a true partnership between The Space Cinema, Grant Thornton and Esker. Each party brought passion and technical expertise to the project to ensure it was a real success.” 

The Space Cinema’s digital transformation was accomplished in three phases. In 2011, the company implemented Esker’s on-premises Accounts Payable solution to achieve greater visibility of its supplier invoicing process, before moving to a cloud model in 2021. Based on the success of the first project the company introduced Esker’s Accounts Receivable solution in 2018 to automate another substantial part of its accounting processes. And in 2021, The Space Cinema added Esker’s Expense Management solution to efficiently manage its employees’ expenses.

“Our partnership with Esker now spans over a decade, and their expertise in AI technology and touchless processing, enabled us to greatly improve our AP and AR processes which also created more time for our teams to devote to higher value activities,” said Gianpiero Nese, Finance Director at The Space Cinema. “Esker has also enabled us to keep employee expenses under control while simultaneously helping us improve our sustainability, as we no longer need to print and store thousands of expense reports.”

Read full press release here.

Esker UK

Unlocking Positive-Sum Growth with AI-Driven Business Solutions for P2P & O2C Cycles

Read more insights from Esker UK

Esker, a global cloud platform and leader in AI-driven process automation solutions for finance and customer service functions, today announced that Arco, the UK’s leading safety company, has automated its accounts payable and procurement processes with Esker’s full Procure-to-Pay suite.

Arco was originally looking at only an accounts payable solution to gain greater visibility and control over their vendor invoice process. However, the finance, procurement and IT transformation teams also saw the advantages of automating their purchase order process, particularly with the management of their purchase orders for ‘goods not for resale’.

Due to recent growth, Arco had outgrown its current systems and processes. The ability of Esker to allow Arco to control spend and audit trails was a crucial reason for taking on these new solutions, as well as being able to tailor the solutions to its individual needs. 

Esker was approached in the first instance due to its positioning in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant for Procure-to-Pay Suites. Arco liked Esker’s flexible approach as well as its supplier enquiries management option which classifies non-invoices such as statements and supplier queries.

Amanda Henderson, Accounts Payable Manager at Arco, said, “We have already seen some great results since we went live with Esker in the summer. 71 out of the 88 vendors targeted are now automatically processed, with some 14,300 invoices actioned with no intervention whatsoever.”

This all-encompassing suite of solutions means that Esker will help transform Arco’s accounts visibility and control. Esker’s solutions will remove all manual touch points and reduce maverick spend, meaning staff can concentrate on more value-added tasks, such as enhancing customer relationships.

Read full press release.

Esker UK

Unlocking Positive-Sum Growth with AI-Driven Business Solutions for P2P & O2C Cycles

Read more insights from Esker UK