Since we’d like to continue on this path, we’re spending a good amount of time reflecting on what works and what it is that our customers like about us.

So, here’s what we’ve come up with so far:

1. Vision: We spend a lot of time and effort understanding the market and which functionalities are actually helpful to all stakeholders involved in a transaction. CFOs are interested in improving DSO and overall I2C process efficiency as well as obtaining accurate reporting and analytics. AR teams need a user-friendly solution that helps them to efficiently collect payments from customers. We tailor our solutions to these needs and work on connecting each step of the I2C process to facilitate decision-making and to improve the overall efficiency and visibility, with the ultimate goal of improving both the customer and the employee experience.
2. Ability to execute: We do our utmost to actually deliver on what we promise to do. By developing a comprehensive and scalable I2C solution suite that enables our customers to address the biggest pain points in their processes first, we strive to help them achieve a fast ROI before any additional scale-up projects are tackled. Usually, a scale-up applies to another I2C process or another region. Esker is a global company with at least one local presence on each continent throughout our 15 subsidiaries. This way, we can assist our customers to seamlessly scale no matter where they are in the world. And, since Esker is a pioneer in cloud computing and works with the Agile methodology, we are able to deliver new features and enhancements every two weeks, so our customers benefit from an ongoing product evolution.
3. Customer-orientated: It is posted on the walls of our offices all over the world, and we really mean it when we say #AllActionsTowardSatisfaction. We actively seek feedback from users so that we can continually improve our solutions. Programmes such as the Esker All Access community (which includes a customer hub, worldwide conferences, awards and a newsletter), a wide variety of user groups and dedicated CX teams keep us up to date with what is happening in the I2C world. We keep a committed focus on the user experience to provide a unified interface across all solutions, which ensures quick onboarding and easy utilisation for AR teams. We are ecstatic that this approach seems to be working: View Gartner peer insights.
4. AI-powered solutions: We understand the ambivalence many people feel towards artificial intelligence. Which is why we believe that the best AI is a transparent one: the user should always know exactly where AI is involved in the process. And first and foremost, have the user remain in control, not the other way around. A bot with an exotic name might be cute for a while, but Esker’s solutions leverage AI where it is actually adds value to the user: by providing data extraction functionalities, predictive analytics that assist in making more informed decisions, and recommendations that take the guesswork out of the next action. Esker Synergy AI acts like a digital assistant for the AR team by taking over low value, manual tasks such as routing documents and emails to the right recipient or process, extracting data to easily allocate a payment, or computing internal and external data to make the right credit assessment. It also provides AR leaders with analytics and process insights that help them make better business decisions.
5. We are Esker: The process of choosing an automation solution is not a simple one, nor is it a decision that is made for the short-term. Esker’s long-standing, worldwide experience and financial stability give our customers confidence that we are resilient and that we will be around for many years to come. As a global vendor for both the source-to-pay and order-to-cash cycles, Esker can accompany global organisations in their journey of automating their entire financial cycle.
   And we are by no means resting on our laurels! We are continuing to work on automating more complex processes within the I2C cycle, to provide even more accurate predictions and insights and that keep AR departments connected both internally and externally with the company’s entire ecosystem.

So stay tuned, and contact us to find out more about working with Esker.

Now you’ve read a lot about why we think we’re doing good things. Why don’t you go ahead and read about what Gartner has to say about us. Download the report here.

*According to Gartner, “Leaders demonstrate a market-defining vision of how integrated I2C applications can help CFOs achieve their business objectives of improving cash flow while enabling efficiencies and predictive capabilities within their AR operations. Leaders understand how other vendors’ M&A impacts them and are willing and able to pivot and adapt their strategies. They understand specific customer needs across segments, and their marketing strategies reflect this understanding. They are in the strongest position to influence the market’s growth and direction.

Leaders have the ability to execute their vision through their product strategy and have a higher number of AI use cases deployed throughout their I2C application than non-Leaders. Leaders invest heavily in R&D through hiring, training and development programmes, and their approach to product development is deliberate to be differentiating.

Leaders have demonstrated business results in the form of revenue and high customer growth, from both existing and new customers. They have substantial market presence in geographies beyond their home region, and they serve customers across various organisation sizes and industry verticals. Leaders have demonstrated effective use of their partners, such as systems integrators, banks, BPO providers and ERP vendors within their product development, sales, marketing and implementation efforts.

A Leader may not always be the best choice for every customer. A vendor that is not a Leader can sometimes provide superior support and commitment. Other vendors may provide a specialised capability that is essential for some organisations, such as high portal adoption rates.’’

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Integrated Invoice-to-Cash Applications, by Tamara Shipley, Nisha Bhandare, Valeria Di Maso, May 2, 2023.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, and MAGIC QUADRANT is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organisation and should be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Esker.

Maud Berger

Maud’s career at Esker has been fully dedicated to Accounts Receivable. After nearly 15 years as Sales Administrator and Credit Manager, Maud brought her AR experience to the Product Manager role to oversee the development of Esker’s AR solution suite. She works closely with R&D in Lyon, France, and Madison, as well as sales and marketing teams worldwide to ensure revenue and customer satisfaction.

Read more insights from Maud Berger

At Esker we were really pleased to learn that we met the inclusion criteria for the 2022 Gartner® Magic Quadrant Report for Procure-to-Pay Suites the third year running. Providing companies across the globe with a solution that helps them better manage spending and financials is the reason why we go to work in the morning.
What makes us truly ecstatic, though, is the fact that 97% of our customers reviewing us on Gartner’s Peer Insight platform would recommend Esker. This is huge for us, because this means that actively listening and adapting to our customers’ needs results in their work being easier and more effective.

Why do we do what we do?

As the dust is settling on the COVID-19 pandemic years, it feels like it’s a good time to reflect and think about how we started and why.

A multitude of financial factors, such as economic volatility, supply chain disruptions, and peculiar labour market conditions, are, quite simply, the new reality. This means that CPOs and CFOs are under enormous pressure of managing spend and cashflow, monitor policies, and mitigate supplier risks. These broader responsibilities demand more far-reaching visibility and control, too. Operating in siloes is no longer an option.

This is the reason procure-to-pay suites exist in the first place. By automating every step of the process and providing transparency to the stakeholders along the way, they offer the scalability, agility, and flexibility necessary to get through rough economic conditions.

In the 2022 Gartner® Magic Quadrant Report for Procure-to-Pay Suites, we are listed as a strong niche player. This is not a coincidence. Esker does not aim to be a one-stop shop for every company out there. Instead, our capabilities align best with global companies that are looking for a solution to automate indirect materials procurement and APIA process workflows while simultaneously offering a great user experience.

Helping many medium and large companies from around the world with process automation since 2005, we have also been listening to what their needs and wants are. This has enabled us to successfully transition from accounts payable (AP) invoice automation to procure-to-pay (P2P) automation over the years. We have no intention of changing the way we do this, so that we can continue providing the best possible solutions that fit the user expectations.

Why do customers choose us?

Incorporating customer feedback in our solution development process has resulted in solutions that provide useability and efficiency. Esker’s focus on providing a unified, easy-to-use interface to users across the different processes has been a key factor in making businesses the world over choose our solutions.

Customers often mention the importance of good UI/UX design in their selection process. They appreciate the fact that they can easily modify the UI to match their corporate look and feel, as well as Esker’s intuitive interface that enables the solution to be up and running quickly with very little training. All P2P modules are built on one platform, which provides a unified interface as well as native data sharing across the board.

Esker Synergy AI is the combined force of capabilities such as machine learning, data extraction , and predictive coding that do the heavy lifting by removing repetitive tasks and reducing errors. Smarter data lets you make smarter decisions, thereby nurturing a foundation of lasting growth.

The process of choosing an automation solution is not simple, nor is it made for the short-term. Esker’s long-standing, worldwide experience and financial stability give our customers confidence in Esker’s resilience and that we will be around for many years to come.

How does Esker stay aligned with developing market trends?

Longer-term vision for automation is evolving to source-to-pay
In the report, the analysts highlight that companies are increasingly making investment decisions based on a wider source-to-pay (S2P) vision than solely P2P. Esker is well-positioned to offer such an expanded solution suite thanks to the acquisition of a majority stake in Market Dojo, a U.K.-based e-sourcing software start-up, in early 2022. The integration of Market Dojo into Esker’s solution suite is ongoing and will continue to allow us to offer a unified interface across all solutions to our customers.

Risk and ESG concerns
Managing risk and monitoring ESG performance has been and continues to be one of the main areas of focus on Esker’s roadmap. These topics have become increasingly important for employees as well as for investors. For example, third-party supplier risk indicators embedded in our solutions provide customers with the ability to check vendors before engaging with them. They can also receive alerts when there are any status changes so appropriate actions — such as switching to a more reliable provider — can be taken.

Smarter insights for better decision-making
Companies looking to buy a P2P solution are not only basing their selection on the ability to accelerate processing speed and efficiency. They are also looking for capabilities that leverage data to help them make informed business decisions. Esker Synergy AI is constantly evolving to provide advanced analytics — including benchmarks and predictions — to stay on top of insights about spend patterns and recognising savings opportunities.

AP automation is leading the adoption of P2P solutions
The automation of AP processes continues to be a top influencing factor for companies looking to deploy a P2P solution, since managing cashflow in economic downturns is a matter of survival.

AP invoice automation is where many of Esker’s customers started their digital transformation journey. But this transformation does not have to start with a big bang: starting small and expanding when they are ready is an excellent way to ensure that the solution brings the expected ROI.

And not infrequently do we receive feedback that the AP teams are able to look forward to their workday, rather than facing it with dread about what unpredictable issue they might encounter. One of our customers even told us that they can now get a full night’s sleep at month-end closing because they no longer need to be up by 5 am to get all the processing done.

With Esker, the entire financial cycle can be automated, including accounts receivable and collections. Contact us to find out more about working with Esker to make your business run smoothly and efficiently.

To read more about how Gartner assesses our work, read the full report.
Download here.

Gartner, “Magic Quadrant for Procure-to-Pay Suites”, Micky Keck, Patrick Connaughton, Lynne Phelan, Balaji Abbabatulla, November 28, 2022 .

Gartner and Magic Quadrant are registered trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organisation and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from Esker.

Catherine Dupuy-Holdich

Catherine has been with Esker for 20 years. As Source-to-Pay Product Manager, she is the market and business expert of all things S2P. She is responsible for overseeing the development of Esker’s S2P suite, including product strategy and vision. Catherine works closely with R&D, sales, marketing and support to ensure customer satisfaction.

Read more insights from Catherine Dupuy-Holdich

Do you practice gratefulness? If you think about it, it is easy to find things to be grateful for, no matter how small or insignificant they might seem: lunch with nice colleagues, friends with pools (especially on hot summer weekends), and pets that give you love and comfort.

At Esker, one rather big thing we are grateful for is our customers. Not just because they buy the solutions we work on to make them truly useful, but also because they are so happy to give us constructive feedback.

Value creation goes both ways: we try to build the best possible solutions that span the entire P2P process, equipping users with the speed, strategic tools, and support they need to make effective procurement and supplier decisions that will create positive-sum growth. This means that if our customers succeed, it never happens at the expense of any team, individual, or company in their business ecosystem — everyone wins! Hearing about what end-users like and dislike allows us to learn, adapt and improve our solutions and services. We take every opportunity we can to drive innovation and address the current and future needs of the market.

This is why we are beyond thrilled that Esker was positioned in the Strong Performer quadrant in the March 2022 Gartner® Peer Insights ‘Voice of the Customer’: Procure-to-Pay Suites. And it is our customers that put us there!

“The “Voice of the Customer” is a document that synthesises Gartner Peer Insights’ reviews into insights for IT decision makers. This aggregated peer perspective, along with the individual detailed reviews, is complementary to Gartner expert research and can play a key role in your buying process, as it focuses on direct peer experiences of implementing and operating a solution.”

With 98%, as of June 8, 2022,Esker has obtained the highest percentage of end-users that are willing to recommend our solutions to others.

So, to everyone that submitted reviews: we want to say a big thank you! These reviews shape our solutions and the customer journey, and we look forward to continuing to build on this feedback! If you have an Esker story you’d like to share, go ahead and join the Gartner Peer Insights crowd and weigh in.

If you have not had a chance to read the reviews written about our products by the professionals who use them, please see Esker’s Procure-to-Pay page on Gartner Peer Insights.

Download the 2022 Gartner® Peer Insights ‘Voice of the Customer’: Procure-to-Pay Suites.

Gartner, Gartner Peer Insights‘ Voice of the Customer’: Procure-to-Pay Suites, March 30, 2022, By Gartner Peer Contributors.
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark, and PEER INSIGHTS is a trademark and service mark, of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
Gartner Peer Insights content consists of the opinions of individual end-users based on their own experiences, and should not be construed as statements of fact, nor do they represent the views of Gartner or its affiliates. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in this content nor makes any warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this content, about its accuracy or completeness, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Catherine Dupuy-Holdich

Catherine has been with Esker for 20 years. As Source-to-Pay Product Manager, she is the market and business expert of all things S2P. She is responsible for overseeing the development of Esker’s S2P suite, including product strategy and vision. Catherine works closely with R&D, sales, marketing and support to ensure customer satisfaction.

Read more insights from Catherine Dupuy-Holdich

Esker is thrilled to announce we’ve been named a Challenger in the 2022 Gartner^® Magic Quadrant for Integrated Invoice-to-Cash applications.

The climate of uncertainty of the past couple of years has not only significantly accelerated the digital transformation of financial processes but has also increasingly targeted the demand for optimised invoice-to-cash (I2C) solutions. Previously not as much of a focal point as the procure-to-pay (P2P) cycle, businesses have understood the importance of streamlining their cash collection process and securing their sales revenue.

Esker is committed to continuously developing our comprehensive solution suite that leverages AI capabilities to improve the entire cash collection cycle and revenue recognition while ensuring compliance with e-invoicing regulations. We will continue to provide finance teams with the most up-to-date technology that builds good business relationships with both customers and suppliers and maintains a content workforce to ensure long-term business growth.

To find out more, download your complimentary copy of the report here

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Integrated Invoice-to-Cash Applications, by Nisha Bhandare, Mark McDonald, Tamara Shipley, published April 7, 2022.

Gartner and Magic Quadrant are registered trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Maud Berger

Maud’s career at Esker has been fully dedicated to Accounts Receivable. After nearly 15 years as Sales Administrator and Credit Manager, Maud brought her AR experience to the Product Manager role to oversee the development of Esker’s AR solution suite. She works closely with R&D in Lyon, France, and Madison, as well as sales and marketing teams worldwide to ensure revenue and customer satisfaction.

Read more insights from Maud Berger

Optimising accounts payable (AP) operations or even unlocking additional revenue is an ever-present objective for finance leaders. Technology helping companies digitise the AP process has been around for quite a while, yet, as one of our prospects once said: “everyone has pretty dashboards.” So how do you pick the solution that best reinforces and supplements the existing technology, operations and processes in your company?

The 2021 Gartner® Market Guide for Accounts Payable Invoice Automation Solutions features the various benefits of implementing AP solutions: “AP invoice automation is something that all organisations can benefit from and, in many countries, government regulations make this process easier than ever. Invoice automation allows organisations more flexibility with their cash, reduces late payments, improves supplier relationships, and reduces the cost to process an invoice. A reduction in supplier invoice status enquiries is an additional benefit, which reduces not only AP workloads but also the workload on people raising POs.”

Gartner report provides finance & IT leaders with market trends as well as key solutions highlights, helping them understand how their requirements impact the supplier selection.

In that vein, we are thrilled to be named among the market players in the Accounts Payable Invoice Automation Solutions (APIA) space. We (at Esker) believe that this validates our development and innovation strategy to drive efficiency in our customer’s AP processes and build strong supplier relationships that support future growth.

Esker’s APIA solution uses the power of artificial intelligence and data analysis to do the heavy lifting for jobs such as routing, coding and verifying invoices, or detecting anomalies so that a larger number of invoices can be processed faster and with more accuracy. This, in turn, ultimately helps finance teams to better manage cash.

Gartner, “Market Guide for Accounts Payable Invoice Automation Solutions,” Micky Keck, Balaji Abbabatulla, July 19, 2021.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organisation and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Catherine Dupuy-Holdich

Catherine has been with Esker for 20 years. As Source-to-Pay Product Manager, she is the market and business expert of all things S2P. She is responsible for overseeing the development of Esker’s S2P suite, including product strategy and vision. Catherine works closely with R&D, sales, marketing and support to ensure customer satisfaction.

Read more insights from Catherine Dupuy-Holdich

The recently published Gartner Market Guide for Integrated Invoice-to-Cash Applications acknowledges that “the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the demand for integrated invoice to cash (I2C) applications” [that] “enable organisations to improve their collections processes, drive cash flow and enhance the customer experience.”

We believe that the Gartner report provides finance leaders with market trends and evaluates the key solutions and digital capabilities for optimising I2C processes.

For a second time in less than a year, Esker’s Accounts Receivable suite is recognised among the leading solutions on the I2C market.

We are honoured to be named among the market players in this space, which validates our efforts to continually develop and innovate to advance our customers’ endeavours to drive efficiency in their cash collections processes, enhance customer relationships and keep their employees feeling valued and motivated.

Maud Berger

Maud’s career at Esker has been fully dedicated to Accounts Receivable. After nearly 15 years as Sales Administrator and Credit Manager, Maud brought her AR experience to the Product Manager role to oversee the development of Esker’s AR solution suite. She works closely with R&D in Lyon, France, and Madison, as well as sales and marketing teams worldwide to ensure revenue and customer satisfaction.

Read more insights from Maud Berger

As has been the case regarding management of the pandemic in general, intra-company procedures and responsibilities will shift as businesses everywhere face pressures from the economic fallout. In order to address potential revenue losses and degeneration of supplier/customer relationships, companies should not shy away from making investments in technology that will help them increase the visibility of both customer and supplier processes.

Companies like Potter Electric Signal, a home security products manufacturer, have realised that by taking a holistic view of their accounting procedures, multiple issues in the company’s finance department could be addressed. “Our company is in a rapid period of growth and we didn’t want to pigeonhole ourselves with a solution that could only do one thing,” says Elizabeth Cassady, VP at Potter Electric Signal. “We ultimately chose Esker over the other solutions we were considering because Esker has a full suite of capabilities that we felt could expand and grow with us.”

Ensuring the company’s cash flow as well as having a complete overview of what is going on underlies every Finance Manager’s job, but today’s highly uncertain environment has added the crucial task of accurately predicting and quickly reacting to changing circumstances.

Read Gartner’s new report “CIO Strategies to Improve Cash Flow in a Downturn”for insights on strategies to support financial decision-makers and help with boosting present and future cash flow.

Esker’s Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable solutions help businesses automate their entire accounting processes, providing visibility to financial decision-makers on cash inflows and outflows as well as enabling teams to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances.

Visit our website for more information.

Catherine Dupuy-Holdich

Catherine has been with Esker for 20 years. As Source-to-Pay Product Manager, she is the market and business expert of all things S2P. She is responsible for overseeing the development of Esker’s S2P suite, including product strategy and vision. Catherine works closely with R&D, sales, marketing and support to ensure customer satisfaction.

Read more insights from Catherine Dupuy-Holdich