Since childhood, the love of reading has endured because of the journey to vivid new worlds through the author and reader pact. There lurked a gremlin though, the usual one – the phobia to change and try new genres, such as legal and crime thrillers. Not anymore though, the footsteps of lawyers and detectives are now compelling.

In the real world, with a 100-year pedigree and growing fast, Helios, the specialist condiment maker of tomato-based products, jams and fruit, noticed their gremlin – current manually intensive practices in accounts payable were holding them back. Invoices were not easy to process, there was little visibility, the multiple and complicated workflows needed untangling and processing independently of their SAP ERP business system. Moreover, approving invoices only from the office were inhibiting to the Helios fast lane.

Once Helios made the decision to change, by automating the Accounts Payable function and freeing itself of current confines, the new horizon quickly yielded its rewards. In a nutshell, Helios got visibility of outstanding supplier and promotional invoices, got better budget control, got swift approvals on the hoof and the team got the ability to work remotely with ease.

The CFO at Helios Group, Mercedes Soto said, “Our finance teams are happier because they are now able to spend more time on higher-value tasks and have greater control over what is happening in real time.”

Fundamentally, pacts or partnership must be symbiotic to endure, as Mercedes Soto’s testimony suggests, “Esker gives us the visibility we need into the supplier and promotional invoices we must account for each day, and this allows us to close accounts faster and provision them correctly and in a timely manner.”

Transformation and change are synonymous to a point, and relative to the one going through the metamorphosis. Usually, transformation implies the major change. However, a small change can transform thinking and habits which can engender further adventure. For organisations this can mean hauling the whole back office of procure to pay and order to cash to complete automation. As for me, it’s time to change genre again and try reading the baffling, complex, confusing but brilliant William Faulkner.

You can read Helios’ customer story here.

Raj Sahota

As Internal Sales Manager at Esker, Raj looks after customers and prospective customers. She has been part of the Esker family since 2011.

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