Learn how Stelrad achieved fast and accurate Order Management with Esker’s AI-powered touchless processing. We shone the spotlight on Stelrad and created a video testimonial to celebrate its success.

We couldn’t be happier with the video testimonial that we worked on with the team at Stelrad and media agency, Open House Pictures.

Going back a step, the idea all started following a customer success story that we wrote with Cherie Bradford, Customer Service Manager, and Chris Harvey, Head of Marketing UK & Ireland, at Stelrad, as part of the customer advocacy programme for Esker customers.

The customer success story involved a couple of online interviews to discuss why Stelrad chose Esker in the first place and the challenges the teams were experiencing with the previous manual order management process. We also talked about the team’s objectives for automation.

“We wanted a solution that would make it as easy as possible for our team and our customers, and one that aligned with our strategic values,” said Chris.

We discussed the implementation process of Esker’s Order Mangement solution; how automation has made a difference to the day-to-day lives of the customer service team and what it means for Stelrad’s growth prospects.

Working together with our Customer Experience (CX) Team, we were able to run Power BI reports that clearly showed us the results that Stelrad has achieved since it started its automation process, and particularly since it implemented touchless processing at the start of 2021.
Cherie has worked tirelessly with the Customer Experience Team to ensure more and more orders are placed through touchless processing requiring no human input from order retrieval to processing. This has dramatically reduced errors and customer complaints and given the team some great results to shout about!

You can read Stelrad’s customer story here.

“Esker’s solution functionalities are key to helping Stelrad grow. I have worked closely with Esker’s CX team to reduce and eradicate errors and warnings and to enable the switch to touchless processing. This considerable investment in time has allowed our customer service department to operate more efficiently,” said Cherie.

All the elements of the customer success story were put together to create sound bites for our video testimonial. I worked closely with Sarah Baker, the Communications Manager at Stelrad, to put together a running order of the day’s filming and to ensure all health and safety requirements were planned for. We are very grateful to the whole team at Stelrad who were extremely welcoming and professional.

On the day… excitement and nerves were palpable in the air in the Stelrad showroom. Whilst Dan and Joe from Open House Pictures set up their cameras and lights, I went through the questions and answers with Cherie and Chris. After a few retakes and tips from Joe to look at him and not directly into the camera, to relax and talk naturally, Cherie really got into the spirit and was rattling through the questions like a professional.

We filmed for about 2 hours with plenty of breaks for water and coffee, which was when we got to find out little nuggets about factory life at Stelrad, the newest radiators being made, and also about Cherie’s African Grey Parrot; she’d practised her lines so many times in front of him, he can now say Esker!

Following the interviews, we donned our high-vis gear, protective eyewear and ear plugs and followed the camera team around the Stelrad factory. It was fascinating to see sheet metal being bashed, heated, steamed and painted to end up as a radiator! (Obviously there is a lot more to the process!)
The team also filmed the Customer Service Team using the Esker Order Management solution, and some external shots too.

Then it was over to Open House Pictures to edit the day’s filming into a 2.30 minute piece!

After a few additional edits and full approval from the Stelrad team, we are delighted with the result!

We are so grateful to Cherie and Chris for giving up their time for this incredible testimonial, but also for being fully invested in achieving the best results with us.

Enjoy the Stelrad video testimonial here

If you would like to talk to me about doing a customer success story and/or a video testimonial about your automation journey with Esker, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Sosennah Every

As Advocacy Marketing Specialist for Esker UK, Sosennah is responsible for our customer programme, including the Esker All Access Community Hub, customer testimonials and partner collaborations, and customer webinars and events. She has been part of the Esker family since early 2022.

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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.

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