When we think of sporting clubs, we all see how they need to remain focused and agile whilst on the pitch, in order to succeed. What we don’t often think about, is how this is also as important off the pitch.

When it comes to our own day-to-day life, we can agree that with busy calendars and ever changing demands, we can sometimes take our eye off the ball and things can slip through the net!

Olympique de Marseille Wins Big by Building Business Resilience

Olympique de Marseille reviewed their performance and decided to search for a solution that would give their financial team the right equipment to build business resilience by allowing real time data, giving the team full control over budgeting and becoming the best in the league.

They substituted other players and implemented Esker’s solution in 2019 across all seven of their business branches, as Eskers’ solution fully aligned with the needs of the club.

With purchase requests processed in an entirely paper based format and over 300 vendors sending nearly 1,500 invoices per month, making the transition to a digital and streamlined process was a clear necessity. Having visibility over expenses and budgets was also an imperative feature for the club.

So, with this in mind, they decided to up their game and took it to the next level of Procure-to-Pay (P2P) automation. This gave a 360° approach to optimising supplier management, procurement, accounts payable and expense request processes.

Since implementation, notable benefits seen are:

• An agile budget interface that aligns with Olympique de Marseille’s game calendar
• Greater visibility over expenditures and outstanding invoices
• Optimised approval workflows providing enhanced trackability
• Users observed considerable time savings
• Simplified financial close processes due to reporting data that is structured and complete

It’s clear to see how automation has allowed Olympique de Marseille to build business resilience and stay on top of their game.

Marjorie Bouet, AP Manager, said, “The adoption of Esker’s Procure-to-Pay suite has been a real plus for my job and has enabled me to save significant amounts of time on a daily basis. The quick reconciliation with purchase orders makes it much easier to enter invoices.”

Should you wish to see these benefits across your business, please do get in touch. We would love to discuss how the solution can work for you.

Kady Robinson

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

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Plain Sailing – Business Objectives
The objective of any business is to sell its products or services and then get paid for them as quickly as possible. Usually, it goes like this: You make a sale, send an invoice and — hopefully — you get paid!

Rough Seas – The Reality
Sometimes, though, this flow is interrupted by missing information or process gaps that slow down the reception, recording and availability of the payment amounts. To increase the chances of getting paid in full and on time, an effective onboarding process will assess any potential risks, and help teams to define appropriate credit terms as the basis for a much easier path ahead.

Think of it this way… would you lend your lawnmower to the neighbour you know is not going to return it for months? Deciding which customers to extend trade credit to is kind of the same thing: you need to know who you’re dealing with. Esker’s Credit Management solution retrieves data directly from your preferred credit bureau and displays this information on the customer profile or credit application for review by the decision-makers.

Still Waters – Ideal Processes with Automation
Goods and services are delivered to the customer faster when you have the correct contact, billing and shipping information. A digital credit application creates fully customisable credit templates and sends them via email or embedded link (included in sales quotes or communications) to get the most complete and accurate information from the customer ahead of the first order. This speeds up customer creation in the ERP and ensures data accuracy right from the outset.
When coupled with an automated receivables (AR) solution, an AR automation platform offers a 360-degree view of critical customer information, empowering teams with actionable data to make the best credit decisions possible.

Crucially, real-time internal customer account data (such as, open invoices, total outstanding, pending orders, payments, receivables history and aging graphs) can be viewed and assessed as part of the customer credit review process.

With an ever-growing scope of data to keep on top of, teams can be assured that no major credit event will go unnoticed and put revenue at risk, as today’s automation solutions are packaged with fully customisable dashboards, counters, and alerts to keep credit managers fully aware of ongoing credit activity and potential risks including credit alerts, credit reviews and blocked orders.

And managing approvals can be a doddle, as automated workflows are assigned to all necessary stakeholders to review and approve data to which they are responsible for, ensuring a fully traceable and cohesive approval process.
With everything going so smoothly, there will be a lot of new customers to onboard. Letting an automated credit application do the brunt work takes the pressure off of the AR staff.

Smooth Sailing – Building business resilience with positive-sum growth

As current pressures on supply chains, interest rates and inflation show no signs of abating, the future is about building a complete digital infrastructure that can support efficient, customisable digital journeys for onboarding that can gather and maintain information as smoothly as possible. Business resilience is key, and Esker’s Credit Management solution provides your business with the necessary information for reducing risky credit and securing revenue, while treating your customers with integrity and fairness. That’s what we call positive-sum growth – which is just a fancy way of saying that when your company succeeds, it never happens at the expense of any team, individual or enterprise in your business ecosystem — everyone wins!

If you want to know more about Esker’s Credit Management solution, don’t hesitate to get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.

Claire Barker

As Marketing Specialist for Esker UK, Claire is responsible for generating leads for Esker's business process solutions specifically within the area of Accounts Receivable through a variety of marketing channels. She has been part of the Esker family since 2019.

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