In the intricate tapestry of modern business processes, Procure-to-Pay (P2P) and Source-to-Pay (S2P) stand as pivotal threads, weaving efficiency and transparency into the fabric of procurement strategies. While these terms might sound similar, they denote distinct stages in the procurement lifecycle, each bearing unique characteristics and challenges. In this comprehensive exploration, we delve deep into the realms of Procure-to-Pay and Source-to-Pay, unraveling the intricate differences that set them apart.

As Esker quickly identified the benefit of moving towards a more strategic outlook of procurement, the acquisition plan to bring in Market Dojo’s eSourcing cloud solution was brought in to address the need for structured and digitised processes in procurement. Designed by procurement professionals, Market Dojo’s unique on-demand solution enables users to centralise information, negotiate the best value for goods and services, and select the right suppliers — all without requiring a complex and costly implementation process.

So let’s take a look at what sets both P2P and S2P apart.

Procure-to-Pay (P2P)

Procure-to-Pay encapsulates the entire procurement process, spanning from the initial requisition of goods or services to the final payment. It’s a systematic approach that organisations employ to streamline and automate their procurement activities, ensuring seamless coordination between various departments and stakeholders. The P2P process typically encompasses the following stages:

1. Requisitioning:
The process commences with a requisition, where internal stakeholders identify the need for goods or services. This requisition is then submitted for approval, ensuring alignment with budgetary constraints and organisational policies.

2. Supplier Identification and Evaluation:
Once the requisition is approved, the procurement team identifies potential suppliers. Rigorous evaluation criteria are applied to assess suppliers’ capabilities, quality, pricing, and reliability, ensuring the selection of the most suitable vendor.

3. Purchase Order (PO) Creation:
Upon selecting the vendor, a purchase order is generated. This document outlines the details of the transaction, including quantity, specifications, pricing, and delivery timelines. The PO serves as a legal contract between the buyer and the supplier.

4. Goods Receipt and Inspection:
Upon delivery, the receiving department inspects the received goods or services to ensure they meet the specified requirements. Any discrepancies are documented and addressed with the supplier.

5. Invoice Verification and Payment:
After successful inspection, the received goods or services are matched with the purchase order and invoice. Once validated, the invoice is processed for payment. Timely payment processing is crucial for maintaining healthy supplier relationships.

Source-to-Pay (S2P)

Source-to-Pay, on the other hand, is a broader strategic approach that encompasses not only the procurement process but also strategic sourcing and supplier management. It represents a comprehensive view of procurement, focusing on optimising costs, mitigating risks, and fostering collaboration with suppliers. The S2P process includes:

1. Strategic Sourcing:
Strategic sourcing involves analysing the organisation’s procurement needs, identifying potential suppliers, and negotiating contracts. The goal is to secure the best terms and conditions, ensuring quality and value for money. Strategic sourcing often involves in-depth market analysis and supplier collaboration to drive innovation and competitiveness.

2. Procurement Execution (P2P):
The procurement execution phase in S2P aligns with the traditional Procure-to-Pay process, encompassing requisitioning, supplier identification, purchase order creation, goods receipt, invoice verification, and payment processing.

3. Supplier Performance Management:
S2P places significant emphasis on evaluating and managing supplier performance. Key performance indicators (KPIs) are established to measure suppliers’ quality, delivery timeliness, responsiveness, and adherence to contractual terms. Supplier feedback mechanisms are implemented to foster continuous improvement.

4. Contract Management:
Effective contract management is essential in S2P. Contracts are meticulously drafted, detailing all terms and conditions. Continuous monitoring ensures compliance and facilitates renegotiation or termination if necessary. A well-managed contract landscape enhances transparency and reduces legal and financial risks.

5. Spend Analysis and Optimisation:
S2P incorporates spend analysis tools to scrutinise procurement expenditures. By identifying patterns and opportunities for consolidation, organisations can optimise their spending, negotiate better deals, and enhance overall cost-efficiency.

Key Differences and Significance:

While both Procure-to-Pay and Source-to-Pay involve procurement activities, the primary distinction lies in their scope. P2P focuses on the operational aspects of procurement, emphasising transactional efficiency and accuracy. S2P, on the other hand, adopts a strategic perspective, integrating procurement with sourcing, supplier management, and cost optimisation strategies. S2P provides a holistic view of the procurement lifecycle, enabling organisations to make informed decisions, mitigate risks, and drive long-term value. This is why Esker has made the move to offer a more strategic solution of the procure to pay cycle to organisations looking to increase their strategic outlook which includes sourcing.

In conclusion, understanding the nuances between Procure-to-Pay and Source-to-Pay is crucial for organisations aiming to enhance their procurement processes. By embracing these methodologies in tandem, businesses can achieve a harmonious balance between operational efficiency and strategic foresight, ultimately fostering sustainable growth and competitiveness in the dynamic global market landscape.

Watch the video below for a brief overview of Esker’s Source-to-Pay suite.

Sam Townsend

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

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Automating supplier interactions is a win-win for buyers and suppliers. Read this blog to discover why supporting your suppliers via automation through the complex, multi-faceted process of supplier management is a great move.

Having weathered the supply-chain storm of the pandemic, many organisations have harked back to business-as-usual methods of managing their suppliers: manual, lengthy, paper-based processes that cause inefficiencies, delays and errors, putting at risk the continued supply of valuable components and services.

As volatility continues in the global economy, it’s more important than ever to incorporate business resilience and continuity into every department, and procurement – particularly supplier management – is no exception.

Despite its importance, supplier management is all too often an inefficient and manual process, causing delays and increasing costs across the Procure-to-Pay (P2P) cycle. Automating supplier interactions is a win-win for buyers and suppliers – read on to discover why.

What is Supplier Management?

Supplier management is a complex, multi-faceted process that needs carefully piecing together to create a mutually-beneficial relationship based on trust and accountability. This includes consideration of components such as:

• Supplier Information Management (SIM) – capturing, storing and analysing suppliers’ data
• Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) – evaluating each supplier’s goods & services and their contribution to the business
• Supplier Risk Management – identifying, assessing and mitigating threats by vetting and monitoring suppliers
• Supplier Quality Management – monitoring and managing suppliers’ abilities to fulfil needs on time and at quality

Getting all these processes working correctly and efficiently takes time and effort, but the benefits can be seen both in the P2P cycle and to the wider business. From cost savings and quality control, to improved supply chain transparency, increased compliance and mitigated risks, supplier management is truly embedded in the heart of a business.

The value of supplier relationships

Relationships built with suppliers can benefit businesses in more ways than one. Collaborating with suppliers and involving them in the supplier management process helps build longer-lasting, trust-based relationships that can be leveraged in the future.

Making processes easier from the supplier’s side makes your organisation easier to do business with, nurturing a valued relationship that both businesses will want to be a continued part of.

Here’s where automation comes into its own, simplifying processes and making significant decreases in both time spent and processing errors. This includes areas such as:

• Self-service onboarding and registration forms
• Automated reminders and communications
• Automatic verification of supplier details and IBAN
• Supplier portals to check and submit information
• Supplier enquiry management
• Contract management
• Secure and compliant archiving

Internal Business Value

It’s not just the buyer/supplier relationship that benefits from P2P automation; Esker’s customisable solutions mean that stakeholders across the business can benefit from supplier management automation technology.

From AP specialists and Buyers right up to the CFO, an efficient process reduces time and costs for all concerned, and increases visibility right across the process. Customer dashboards allow each stakeholder to set their own KPIs to track what matters most to their department.

Positive Sum Growth

As economic uncertainty and supply chain issues continue (and for who knows how long), modernising supplier management processes should be nearing top of the priority list to ensure business continuity and minimise risk.

By providing suppliers with an easy-to-complete onboarding process, self-service portals, automated communications and expedited enquiry management through automation, their staff will also benefit from time savings and increased efficiency.

Our Customers Support their Suppliers

Automating supplier management and other P2P processes are often driven by internal needs and goals – but Esker customers are proud to bring efficiency gains to their suppliers too.

Hillarys implemented Esker’s Accounts Payable (AP) solution to assist in processing 50,000 invoices a year. Suppliers were key in their requirements list – with a want to automate the processing of both PO and non-PO invoices, and to overhaul a time-consuming and manual supplier enquiries process.
Read the Hillarys Customer Success Story in full here.

Spanish group Domingo Alonso have been an Esker customer since 2018, when they undertook an automation project to reduce process complexity and automate manual tasks.

Supplier management was again at the core of their objectives; amongst other internal business needs they wanted to improve supplier relationships with accurate on-time payments, timely dispute resolution and direct communication via a supplier portal.

The resulting automation solution streamlines the entire AP workflow, from invoice reception to payment. With easy access to invoice status and payment information via the customised portal, suppliers also benefit from the solution.

Read more on Domingo Alonso’s end-to-end AP solution by clicking here.

Jennifer Ball

As Marketing Co-ordinator for Esker UK, Jennifer manages Esker UK's marketing campaigns and events for S2P solutions. She has been part of the Esker family since 2019.

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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

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

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

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.

Read more insights from Raj Sahota

The role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) in business has never been more important. The sweeping digital transformation in the corporate world has been further accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic and IT security is ever more paramount since the war in Ukraine too.

CIOs are no longer confined to the roles of technical experts and enforcers of IT practices, but they have become craft-persons for the transformation affecting every business unit in a company. Accelerated automation of the Procure-to-Pay (P2P) and Order-to-Cash (O2C) processes are at the heart of these transformative challenges. Paperless automated solutions, providing full visibility whether at home or in the office, have improved overall company performance by reducing processing times, improving cost control and achieving full traceability.
For many companies who had to adapt extremely quickly to teams working remotely, those who had started their digital transformation journey were more resilient and able to adjust their working practices more efficiently. Those visionary CIOs had the necessary equipment to weather the storm.
In addition, there continues to be many other demands placed on CIOs: security, change management and the continuous optimisation of the information system.

Lessons learnt

Beyond the drama caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, an excellent learning experience emerges: 76% of CIOs believe that remote working due to lockdowns boosted the use of collaborative apps, such as company social networks, project and meeting management tools, and team messaging platforms¹.
A CIO is in charge of equipping teams with efficient automation tools and collaborative solutions such as SaaS, AI and RPA technologies. As cybersecurity and data security should take a prime position among the core values of a company, CIOs need to opt for solutions that are reliable, stable and resilient.
This also includes the adoption of automation solutions suitable for effectively managing and optimising customer and supplier invoicing and order management processes. Companies that had already adopted automated solutions for P2P and O2C processes were able to continue business activities and thereby contribute to keeping the economy going, whereas those that hadn’t, had to scramble and admit to themselves that they had squandered a valuable resource and opportunity.

If the CIO does not offer employees the professional tools they need to perform their jobs, they will often adopt workaround solutions that endanger a company’s security strategy. Because cybersecurity and data security should take a prime position among the core values of a company, CIOs need to opt for solutions that are reliable, stable and resilient.

The CIO: a catalyst of transformation

Digitisation is no longer a choice, it’s a strategic necessity that affects every line of business in a company. Going digital means rethinking all internal processes, with an explicit emphasis on management processes. Digital transformation is based on different organisational, human and technical factors. These are subject to constant decision-making processes and adjustments in order to ensure durable performance while simultaneously interrupting day-to-day operations as little as possible.

CIOs and their IT teams are the key strategists and coordinators of an effective, pragmatic and uniform approach to the digital transformation process. Listening skills, critical analysis and the ability to convey relevant instructions and recommendations are all essential qualities when the involvement of corporate Executive Committees (COMEX) comes into play.

The decisions made by the information systems team have very real ramifications throughout all of the business units. This demands a real awareness of the CIO to the needs of all business units as well as the ability to communicate effectively, constituting a multifaceted and fascinating mission for the CIO.

There are three key arguments for adopting automation solutions for P2P and O2C processes:
• Acceleration of document processing times, such as invoices, orders, remittances and delivery notes
• Visibility and traceability that can limit legal disputes and resolve them faster
• Simplified processes so employees can focus on higher-value tasks

A CIO’s experience of working with Esker

Jean-Luc Vielmont, CIO France at Algeco, says,
“The key factors leading to the success of the project were the close collaboration with Esker, effective change management and the ability to measure operational efficiency at every stage:
• Facilitation of interdepartmental cooperation
• Comprehensive change management strategies that involved end users from the onset of the project
• Reporting and dashboards providing clarity on the data flow results”

A CIO can turn challenges into opportunities by speeding up and facilitating digital transformation.
By meeting up with all business units on both a formal and informal basis allows the CIO to take charge of the process by listening to all stakeholders and advocating for the project.

Nicolas Bragard, CIO at Esker says,
“The CIO’s advantage is an ability to detect and measure the return on investment of each action to advance a company’s digital transformation. To meet this challenge, they need to step away from the day-to-day operations. Support ticket fatigue is a real risk. This is why opting for solutions with built-in ergonomics that are reliable, resilient and secure gives the most effective launch pad for a company-wide digital transformation project.”

The future – digital transformation … and then what?

Going faster, being more efficient and responsive. This is the essence of an Esker-designed digital transformation. Automation of P2P and O2C processes continue to accelerate with businesses facing tight deadlines. Regulations regarding mandatory e-invoicing are being enacted worldwide in the next few years, which will push businesses to automate their cash flow processes.
By utilising the experience and expertise of partners like Esker, CIOs will be able to ensure a smooth and stable transition to automation.

Contact us today to discuss your requirements.

¹ JDN survey/Club Décision DSI/IT Research. https://www.journawwldunet.com/solutions/dsi/1495671-lastrategie-it-des-moyennes-et-grandes-entreprises-francaises-face-au-covid

Alistair Nicholas

Alistair is the Managing Director of Esker Northern Europe

Read more insights from Alistair Nicholas

We asked Neil Palmer, Business Development Manager for Esker’s Procure-to-Pay solutions, about his 24 year career at Esker, how the solutions have developed over his time with the business, and what benefits can be realised by organisations that are using Esker’s P2P solutions.

A discussion between Esker’s Head of Marketing, Sam Townsend, and Business Development Manager for P2P, Neil Palmer.

This discussion is also available as a podcast . Listen here.

ST: Hello everyone, and thanks for joining us again for another of our Esker On Air podcasts. I’m Sam Townsend, Head of Marketing at Esker Northern Europe, and I’ll be your host for this session.
Today I’ll be speaking with Neil Palmer, one of Esker’s longest serving employees of almost 24 years’ experience.
So, let’s get started.
Firstly, welcome Neil, and thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to speak with me today.

NP: You are very welcome Sam, thank you, and good morning everybody, or hello everyone, it’s a pleasure to be here.

ST: Well Neil, having almost 24 years’ experience at Esker it’s certainly a great achievement, and definitely deserves some significant recognition. I’m sure that throughout this time you’ve seen a considerable amount of changes within Esker; the external marketplace, and personally, with where you are today as one of Esker’s senior business development managers for our procure-to-pay solutions.
I guess a good place to kick things off would be if you could explain where it all started for you working at Esker, and how this evolved for you over the years to where you are today in your current role.

NP: Yes no problem, well it’s absolutely, well it’s hilarious, actually. Only yesterday I was writing a LinkedIn post, and the first thing that I wrote on there was, “I had hair when I started!”, it’s been quite a journey! But it’s been a great journey. I’ve always considered it, it sounds quite cliché, but I’ve always considered Esker to be a family. It’s a great place to be, lovely people, and I’ve learned a lot over the years, but it has been a journey. I’ve done lots of different things throughout that time, and we’re going all the way back to 1998, so getting on for 24 years ago. I think that maths is right! I was a young lad of 19, and it was my second or third job after a failed attempt at kitchen fitting, and a little dabble with being a junior programmer. I got made redundant, and just speculatively wrote for a job at Esker. The old MD, Bashrat Din, he gave me an interview, I got on board with Wynne and his team in the Technical Department. So I started off back in 1998, my first role was actually answering the ‘phone, dealing with customers, and that’s always where my love has been; helping customers. We used to sell an emulation solution, so back in the day where you had a Windows PC on your desk and also a terminal; the software we sold effectively reduced the need for two machines on your desk, so it was an emulator that sat on Windows to allow you to talk to your mainframe system, that’s what we sold primarily, in fact we still do! There are still people that use that to this day. My position was to answer the ‘phone, when people had bought copies of the TUN Plus software, they got a serial number in the box, and they’d ‘phone me, and I’d give them the details of how to get the licence installed and working, and they could register their details. That gradually transitioned into a support role as well, taking first line support calls, and for the first few years that was pretty much what I did, and it was great. I made some great relationships with customers.

ST: Was that technical support then Neil, that you were doing?

NP: Yes absolutely, so taking any issues with the software, any connectivity problems, I’d just dive in there and try to help the customer to solve those problems, escalate anything to the senior guys if there were any particularly difficult ones, but most of that was interacting with customers, solving problems. I worked along-side Paul Scrivens-Smith who’s now moved on to our US Office, and he’s one of our other long-serving guys. So that happened for a while and I gradually moved towards internal systems, so I was also looking after printers, and installing new PCs. In fact I put in an old Sisco ‘phone system; I’ve tried my hands at a lot of things! This sounds like a job interview! And then also I did a little bit of professional services, so I went out to visit some customer sites, and I did some implementations of our solutions. So it was really nice because it was a very varied and diverse journey through technical solutions and visiting customers, so it’s always been changeable, there have always been lots of things that have kept it very interesting. And finally, back to 2009, 2010, I moved into the world of Sales! At the time I referred to that as the dark side, but it’s actually been a brilliant transition for me, and I think one of the main reasons behind that is that, is actually, as a sales person, to have the technical knowledge and the understanding of the solutions puts you in quite a good position. So it’s been really nice to serve customers and help them with the commercial side of things, but also with the technical; how does it work? So whilst I still need assistance from the pre-sales and technical guys, I’m quite self-sufficient most of the time to go and see customer, just on my own. Often you’ll get to a room of 10 people and they are like, “Who else is coming?” and I’ll say, “It’s just me! Here I am!”.

ST: So I guess where you are now, in your current role, you look after specifically procure-to-pay; solutions for procure-to-pay?

NP: That’s right.

ST: Could you tell us about that?

NP: So we’re split into teams here at Esker, so we have both the order-to-cash side and the procure-to-pay side. So I work on procure-to-pay, handling accounts payable, procurement, and all of the other parts of that solution such as expenses, supplier management, contract management, and it’s a really nice place to be. We’ve got a lot of very well known customers around the world. But it is a mixture of both helping customers to choose and buy their solutions, but also looking after existing customers and making sure things are working well for them. But it was a choice I made to go into P2P and I thought that it was an area that I, well, it just resonated with me, it’s a nice solution, there are a lot of benefits of the solution.

ST: Yes, I was going to come on to that and say, in different organisations, where there’s a focus on order-to-cash and procure-to-pay, and on the procure-to-pay side, what would you say are the main benefits experienced by an organisation?

NP: It’s quite wide-ranging of course, there’s a lot of different components to our solutions, and there’s various benefits that a company will gain. I’d say that if I had to pick a single one as the thing that really stands out I’d say it’s visibility. If you consider, before any automation, you have lots of companies, I mean really, looking at accounts payable as an isolated area for the moment, the amount of times that I’ve spoken to potential customers and they say we have an approval process for our invoices and we put them in a folder and we walk them from one office to the next. I went to visit a potential customer in London, and they had office juniors walking invoices from office to office, so if they ever had a query, an audit, they just didn’t know where the invoices were, they were just on desks waiting for someone to sign them, so there were late payments. So having all of those invoices in one place in a solution, where you can track where they are, you can see which user is approving them, you’ve got dashboards and charts and reports, it’s just revolutionary things. For most people, they don’t understand where a document is in the cycle, so that will probably be the biggest benefit that most people see when they get away from this manual handling of paper, even scanning them in and putting barcodes on them, there’s lots of manual steps required, so to remove the paper and give people control and visibility is just the number one benefit that I’ve seen for most customers.

ST: Thanks Neil, so yes that’s very interesting with visibility being the number one benefit, and I’m sure as you say there are many other benefits that a department can gain, and organisations internally, but what about externally? What sort of benefits are brought? I know these days everyone is talking about relationships outside of the organisation and strengthening those, and they talk about harmonious ecosystems. How does that work in terms of Esker and the benefits that that brings?

NP: Well I think you are right, automating something like accounts payable and the procure-to-pay cycle, you’re going to get benefits right the way across your company, with departments working closer together. I mean AP is quite a strategic part of the business anyway, I don’t think people really give it the full credit that it deserves, but outside of your company, we are trying to encourage a collaborative approach where we have ways of allowing your suppliers and customers to self-serve. We want to be able to have them accessing documents in the Esker portal. I mean Esker really sits as a front end to most processes, whether it’s order management or accounts payable, to get documents in, to have them processed and approved quickly and then flowing into the ERP system. But it’s getting users, suppliers and partners involved in that process, like, we have a conversation tool, for example. If you have any queries you can easily bat those off to the relevant people. In the old days, and before automation, you’d have lots of information in silos almost. Everyone knew what they were doing but there was no real concept of sharing. So a collaborative platform where you can process your documents but pull in all of the relevant approvals and documents, and even have your suppliers updating their information within the supplier management module, and that information can then be vetted and approved before it’s pushed into the ERP, so we can make sure that onboarding is very quick and easy, and that suppliers can really make the most of the communication that we bring, so there’s a lot of benefits both within a company but also out into the wider community as well.

ST: Yes, that’s excellent, and I guess leading on from that, that would have been a benefit during these tough economic climate times that we’re in, and a global pandemic and the like. How has that allowed for stronger business resilience?

NP: Yes the pandemic, well there’s a large topic. It’s changed a lot of things for all of us hasn’t it? From our working patterns to our day-to-day routines, everything has changed. Even in the early days of the pandemic, I have a customer in South Africa that I spoke to, and I did ask them directly, “How have things changed for you?”, and they were really grateful to have the Esker tool because they transitioned to home working really fast. The tools were there, they just need a web browser, and their connection to SAP is directly available to them within the Esker tool, so they could just push their team in a shared service centre out to home. They were working without any problems, without any configuration, it was just ready to go. So that’s really helped them to transition, and of course, we would all like to be back in the office, I am speaking to you from the office right now, so we are starting to see that process, but it feels like the future is the hybrid approach, with working from home and working from the office, so the Esker tools being cloud-based are perfect for that really because it gives you the flexibility, the choice, to work from wherever you need to, and all of the tools that you need to process your documents and handle the day-to-day tasks, they are all available at your fingertips. So it’s a nice way of bridging that gap that the pandemic has caused for us.

ST: Yes, that’s fantastic. And then, I suppose, as we move forward now, and hopefully as we get through this global pandemic, we can start now to think about the future, and understand what are some of the developments that we can really push forwards now. I know we talk about artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Is there anything on that side that you are particularly interested in or excited about for the future?

NP: Yes, well I guess this is where I show myself up as being a bit of techie, because I genuinely think that if I’m out there in the world, I don’t want to use the phrase ‘selling Esker’s solutions’, because actually we’re here to help customers buy, and that is a bit of a cliché, but it’s true. The techie in me; I absolutely love the solution that we’ve got, the way that it reads documents and the way we use artificial intelligence to learn what we’re doing, and to suggest things. I mean, it even , behind the scenes, it uses facial recognition technology to identify anomalous entries, for example, in the world of orders, if we see a quantity that we’re not expecting, it sits outside of the usual face, it flags an alert, and the technology is actually really exciting! It’s a pleasure to be involved in the development. All of Esker’s solutions are developed and rolled out in an agile way, so it’s constantly developing according to what our customers are looking for. We’ve got product management teams who are always driving the development of what the solutions are going to do, but it’s really exciting, with the technology and some of the ways that we’re trying to help automate processes for our customers, it’s really a nice place to be. And every time that we have a product release and we see what’s going to be the latest new features that are coming in, it’s genuinely an exciting time to see what we can take to our customers next, because there’s some great things coming down the pipe, some I probably can’t mention straight away. But one of the big areas of focus also, which ties back in with my history is that we have a Customer Experience (CX) Team as well, and this bridges the gap perfectly because we’ve got the solutions out there, in the world with our customers using them, and what we really don’t want to have is frustrated customers, if anything’s not working as it should do, or if they need extra training, and this is where the CX Team come in, because they sit with the customers and they understand the requirements, and they give training, and it just really helps them to get the most out of the solution and helps to improve their experience. So you know, yes, lots of things to be excited about at the moment. From a product point of view, there’s a couple of things that have come out recently, and I’ve mentioned this already, Supplier Management. That’s a really nice way of helping to onboard suppliers, and ensure that all of the documentation is up-to-date and that their information is correct, and it just helps to keep the data cleansed in the ERP. And also now Expenses. It’s an extra part we’ve added on into the P2P module, and that’s promising to be a really exciting thing that we’re doing. And of course it’s developing all the time, so lots to get our teeth into.

ST: Fantastic, sounds like there’s a lot coming!

NP: Absolutely, yes, there’s never a dull day, and also as a general point, every day is a school day, you know, we’re always learning from our customers, and trying to help them as best we can.

ST: Sure. That’s great! Superb! Thanks Neil. That was really insightful and it’s amazing to understand how far Esker’s developed its business from the early days of terminal emulation, and right up to the present day with it’s global cloud-based automation platform. And as you say, for managing an organisations’ order-to-cash and procure-to-pay cycles, so I really appreciate that.

NP: Yes, no problem, it’s been a pleasure to talk to you. Like I said at the start, it’s been a journey, from the days of doing terminal emulation, Esker have done a lot of things, even into faxing, postal mail delivery, SMS messages, you know, we’ve done a lot over the years. Of course, we’re fully cloud based these days, all of our solutions are available and all you really need is a web browser, we can pretty much talk to any ERP system, so there’s no real restrictions to what we do. I don’t want to keep using the word exciting, but it really is! It’s a great time to be involved in looking at solutions to help your business, so it’s a pleasure to be part of that.

ST: Fantastic, and I guess, fundamentally, although those technologies have changed over the years, the fundamental of the foundation, has always been putting the customer first, and understanding what the customers’ requirements are. I guess that’s sort of a take-away message and listening to the customer and putting into practice, and making sure that we get a good mix of understanding between people, process and the technology.

NP: Absolutely, you know I couldn’t have said it better Sam, I think the customer is always going to be king, and we’ve got to make sure that we are serving them as best we can, and that solutions are helping them in their specific industries. We don’t really target any specific industries, so we’ve got to make sure that we are listening to all the requests that we get, and that we’re heading in the right direction, but both from an account management point of view, support department, professional services team, everyone in the flow, all the way through the business, the customer is king, because without the customer, there’s no real point is there? If we’re not providing the service that we should be. It’s always been based upon helping people to automate various different processes, in their business, and just to provide a better experience for the user, rather than documents coming in and having to be manually keyed in and passed from desk to desk. It’s about helping the user to provide more value in their business really. We’re not trying to replace people, far from it, it’s about helping those people to do their job more effectively. I mean, we’re talking today primarily about procure-to-pay, but just going back for a moment to the order side, if you have typically people keying in orders in a business, and they are called the customer service team, how much customer service are they actually providing when they are keying orders? There’s not really much service going on, so if you take away the manual element of keying those documents in, then you’ve got a team who can then talk to customers and make sure they are happy, potentially upsell to them, if there’s chance to improve what they are buying or give them some ideas of promotion. So it’s just about giving the staff more time to do their job and, it sounds again quite cliché to say value-add, but that’s the point, give the people more time to get their job done effectively, remove or reduce the errors, and make sure that as a business, you’ve got people being assisted by technology, ultimately providing a better service to your customers, avoiding costly disputes and unpaid invoices. From end-to-end, you’re improving your business cycle and helping to improve your reputation, and keeping your customers happy, effectively, and that’s what we’re all trying to do.

ST: Excellent. Thanks again Neil for that, it was very insightful, and thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to join us today. So just to finish up, to listen to more Esker On Air podcasts, please visit https://www.esker.co.uk/esker-air/. Thanks again to everyone, and thanks Neil.

NP: Thanks Sam, thanks everyone, see you soon.

This discussion is also available as a podcast . Listen here.

Episode 1 in this series can be found here.

Esker UK

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

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Food Logistics, the only publication exclusively dedicated to covering the movement of product through the global cold food supply chain, named Esker, a global cloud platform and leader in AI-driven process automation solutions for finance and customer service functions, to its 2021 Top Software & Technology Providers award, which honours software and technology providers that ensure a safe, efficient and reliable global cold food and beverage supply chain.

“Software developments and emerging technologies are what make the world go ‘round. They’re what make supply chains move, even when the world stops. They’re what keeps people, products and plants safe. They provide traceability, visibility, efficiency and credibility. And the winners from this year’s award prove that there are no limitations to what software and technology can do in the supply chain space,” says Marina Mayer, Editor-in-Chief of Food Logistics and Supply & Demand Chain Executive.

From bottlenecks at the ports to suppliers shutting down for COVID protocol, cold food and beverage companies across the supply chain responded with agility and deeper collaboration to overcome numerous challenges in 2021. These trials further show that a company is only as strong as its business ecosystem. Maintaining strong supplier relationships is crucial to customer satisfaction and the company’s bottom line.

“We are delighted to be recognised as a top technology provider for the sixth consecutive year,” said Steve Smith, U.S. Chief Operating Officer at Esker. “Esker strives to strengthen relationships between companies, their suppliers,  customers and employees to enable future growth for all.”

Esker proudly provides document process automation across procure-to-pay (P2P) and invoice-to-cash (I2C) functions to reduce errors and free employees from tedious tasks. Employees then have more time to interact frequently and accurately with suppliers in Esker’s P2P suite thanks to its 360-degree view of supplier information. From the supplier’s perspective, the portal’s simple registration process and self-service features makes it easier to repeatedly conduct business.

Contracts, the cornerstone of any business, are no longer siloed and inefficient with Esker solutions. Its automation allows for contract lifecycle management, tracking of spend and notification of renewal dates in the dashboard analytics. Other benefits of Esker P2P automation include invoice processing efficiency, rapid accessibility to documents, enhanced visibility into key accounts payable (AP) metrics, and more effective management of staff.

A main barrier to supply chain collaboration is ERP misalignment. In Esker’s 2021 State of Finance Report, 96% of respondents say that ERP misalignment is a barrier to their company’s growth, with nearly half (47%) identifying it as a significant barrier. Esker’s solutions are ERP-agnostic and integrate with existing environments. Customers and suppliers can maintain their ERP independence without having to change the way they work.

Recipients of this year’s award will be profiled in Food Logistics’ Nov/Dec 2021 print issue. Go to https://www.foodlogistics.com/ to view the full list of Top Software & Technology Providers. Go to https://www.foodlogistics.com/awards to learn more about other Food Logistics’ awards.

Read full press release here.

Esker UK

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

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Once the need for greater invoice efficiency and management arose, Optic 2000 sought a vendor to digitally transform its current processes to reduce errors and improve supplier relationships.

From 100% paper to 100% digital

Prior to implementing Esker’s solution, Optic 2000 processed its purchase requisitions and supplier invoices manually, resulting in data entry errors and lost documents. Locating physically archived documents was extremely laborious. All this made it difficult to maintain full visibility over approved items and invoices to be paid. This negatively impacted the company’s ability to organise cashflow and protect against late payments. Optic 2000’s six-person accounting team was losing valuable time on tedious tasks such as gathering document signatures and searching and archiving invoices. Today, 24,000 annual invoices go through Esker’s automated solution, which is being used by over 200 employees.

Successful implementation supported by internal advocates

Esker’s Agile methodology for solution implementation, support and training were greatly appreciated by Optic 2000. Through a combination of teamwork and customised training, Esker enabled Optic 2000 to successfully automate its entire P2P process.

“Following user acceptance testing (UAT), Esker accompanied our teams to ensure a smooth transition,” said Nicolas Queneau, Administrative and Financial Director at Optic 2000. “Executive assistants were trained on the solution first and their expertise helped smoothly onboard all relevant stakeholders. This vertical approach worked very well, as evidenced by the high solution adoption rates among the teams.” 

Saving time and enhancing the value of finance professionals

Esker’s intuitive solution interface and seamless ERP integration were greatly appreciated by all involved in the project and helped in facilitating their work. By automating the entire supplier process, the accounting department has been able to save a considerable amount of time, freeing them up to concentrate on higher-value tasks such as account follow-up and analysis. In addition, the financial management process has been improved and accelerated payment processes have enabled the company to optimise its cashflow.

“The choice to automate our P2P processes with Esker has been effective in quickly developing an efficient business continuity plan adapted to today’s challenging climate,” said Queneau. “The teams working remotely are able to easily manage supplier invoices directly from Esker’s mobile application. It would have been much more complicated if they had to be on site every day.”

“The pandemic and remote working have accelerated the adoption of best practices such as e-invoicing, a trend that is expected to grow,” said Jean-Michel Bérard, CEO at Esker. “We’ve developed a sustainable solution for Optic 2000, well-aligned with their present and future ambitions for growth and digitalisation.”

“Our employees, customers and suppliers are satisfied — it’s a win-win collaboration,” concluded Queneau. “We are now able to identify exactly where an invoice is in the process, and we have access to all related documents in real time and from anywhere. This flexibility and time saving are invaluable, helping us to continuously improve the quality of service we deliver, even more so in the current context.”

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