AT A GLANCE

• Isaac Construction

INDUSTRY

• Construction

BUSINESS OBJECTIVE

• Maintain reputation for on-time payment with suppliers
• Ease burden on accounts payable team chasing up paperwork
• Cope with business growth after acquiring another business

SOLUTION

• Esker Accounts Payable Automation delivered by the FUJIFILM Business Innovation Process Automation team

BUSINESS BENEFITS

• AP process now 100% paperless
• Fast and accurate invoice routing
• AI intelligently monitors and alerts errors & changes
• Immediate visibility across the procure-to-pay process

FOR MORE INFORMATION

FUJIFILM Business Innovation
W: FUJIFILM Business Innovation
New Zealand
E: kevin.ptak.pc@fujifilm.com
T: +64 21 275 4321

Christchurch-based Isaac Construction has earned a reputation for excellence by making sure everything it does is at the highest possible level of quality. Employing a team of more than 300 specialists, the company delivers a wide range of services, including construction, surfacing, bitumen products, transport, quarrying and professional contract management services.

Isaac recently acquired Blenheim’s Simcox Construction, adding a further 80 staff members active in civil construction, infrastructure works and earthmoving. Even prior to the acquisition, the accounts payable team were busy, often spending time chasing documents. While understandable and a practical reality in a company handling more than two thousand invoices every month, these situations were at odds with the organisation’s policy of paying its suppliers on time.

With the purchase of Simcox, the limitations of paper-based processes became painfully clear as increased volume exacerbated the situation.

“We’ve always done our best to pay on time. It’s reputational; when you get it right, people like to work for you – but paper has its limitations,” explains Arlee Folkers, Group CFO at Isaac Construction.

Folkers knew that Isaac would need a modern solution to maintain its hard-earned reputation.

After testing the market, Isaac engaged with the FUJIFILM team, who recommended Esker Accounts Payable Automation.

Solution

The implementation process started with several presentations and then a collaborative workshop.

“This proved invaluable, you could tell FUJIFILM had done many of these deployments in the past. They involved everyone who would be touched by accounts payable automation – and they sequenced it very well, so people weren’t in the room unless necessary.”

“Once an invoice is in our system, we can track every single one with absolute ease.”

Attendees included a project manager, a technical specialist and account manager from FUJIFILM, Isaac’s accounts payable employees, the company accountant, a representative from Nimbus (the Enterprise Resource Planning solution used by the business), an IT specialist an external project manager for added oversight.

The additional resourcing was helpful, Folkers adds, because her accounts payable staff members were eager to get the solution in, having been at the coal face dealing with inadequate paper processes.

“They were experiencing frustration and continual problems which had them feeling like they weren’t on top of the job.”

The project went live after just 4 months.

Results

With Esker, the entire electronic system works seamlessly, eliminating paper in the process. Most importantly, Isaac Construction now enjoys complete visibility across the accounts payable workflow. “If someone rings about their invoice, we can answer immediately because we can see it, when and to whom it’s been submitted, as well as where it is in the process. And once an invoice is in our system, we can track every single one with absolute ease.”

As a cloud solution, alongside a mobile app, Esker also allows AP staff to approve on the go.

The system’s built-in AI is also helping with fraud detection, “We’ve also noticed intelligence in the Esker system. For example, a client’s bank account changed but they didn’t notify us. Esker picked it up, though, and sent an alert so we could verify the legitimacy of the change.”

The visibility and workflow delivered by Esker also ensures Isaac Construction has maintained its reputation with suppliers at its Christchurch and Blenheim operations. “We’ve gone from ‘two and a half’ people focused on accounts payable, down to two. And they now have room to breathe,” says Folkers. She describes the entire project as ‘a pleasure’.

“You don’t hear that about many implementations, but FUJIFILM Process Automation has shown that when you get all the right people in at the start, and you have a clear idea of what needs to be done, an enterprise software project doesn’t have to be a headache.”

“The thoroughness of the preparation, including seeing how all the various systems talk to one another, set the scene for what was the best implementation I’ve ever been involved in.”

Source: This article was originally sourced from FUJIFILM Business Innovation

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AT A GLANCE

• Ruralco
  

INDUSTRY

• Farming

BUSINESS OBJECTIVE

• Eliminate the manual work created with the existing AP invoice process
• Develop electronic workflow capabilities
• Reduce the reliance on paper invoices

SOLUTION

• Esker Accounts Payable software

BUSINESS BENEFITS

• Full dashboard overview of all invoices
• Dynamic real-time reporting
• Reduce the number of staff processing invoices

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Esker
W: https://www.esker.com.au
E:  info@esker.com.au
T: +61 2 8596 5100

Ruralco provides farmers with all their farming needs, including general farm supplies, seed, fertiliser, fuel and energy. With its business being hampered by time-consuming manual accounts payable (AP) processes, Canterbury-based national agriculture co-operative Ruralco looked to Fuji Xerox New Zealand for a better solution. With the introduction of Esker’s Accounts Payable automation solution, the company has revolutionised this key process, driving down the costs of invoice processing while achieving complete visibility and improving governance and control.

Upon joining Ruralco, group CFO Oliver O’Neill found a situation which, from an accounting perspective, was tedious and time consuming. “We have 16,000 SKUs. We sell everything from pipe fittings to bulk grain and ship from Canterbury all over New Zealand.” With tens of thousands of invoices processed per month, Ruralco also makes payments every day. Further complicating the company’s AP environment is that it has different terms of freight with various suppliers, and must manage inventory across a multitude of SKUs, with monthly billings of over $20 million.

“Now, we’re not fighting fires the whole time, but doing value-added tasks which benefit the business.”

“We had no overview of the [procure-to-pay] cycle; there were paper invoices all over the place – we received 90 percent of them by email and typed them into our MicrosoftTM Dynamics Great Plains ERP system – there were constant issues with inaccurate POs from outdated price lists. When month-end came, it was a constant struggle to get everything closed, with approvers out of the office, papers stacked here and there; to get an idea, we literally needed a forklift to find invoices if we needed them a year after the fact.”

Ruralco at one point had 25 people employed to handle the vast scope of their administrative and financial processes and decided a whole new approach was needed to cope with their antiquated procedures and associated volume of transactions.

Solution
A commitment to make a change to a situation which was clearly less than optimal came directly from the company’s raison d’etre. “We are a company that thinks differently and leverages technology to lower input costs to increase margins for our members,” noted O’Neill.

Having learned about Esker’s Accounts Payable software from an associate, Ruralco requested a demonstration from Fuji Xerox New Zealand Enterprise Consulting, while also evaluating other systems available on the open market.

Esker’s solution allows businesses to eliminate the manual pains of traditional AP invoice processing with intelligent capture, touchless processing and electronic workflow capabilities.

Benefits
With Esker, Ruralco has a full overview of where invoices are at all times, with a dashboard view of how many invoices are being processed per person per day.

Dynamic real-time reporting shows where invoices are in the process and how long it is taking an approver to action an invoice. Approvers use the mobile app to view their invoice queue and approve invoices, significantly accelerating processing. Additionally, all the invoices are stored in the cloud for seven years, effectively putting the forklift out of work.

Since implementing Esker’s cloud software, O’Neill says there has been zero downtime. “It just works. It has an app, it has delegation of authority, it has complete visibility. I can log-in with my phone and find any invoice, see where it is in the process, and even approve it, in seconds.” He has praise for Fuji Xerox New Zealand, which handled the implementation and support. “It wasn’t like other IT companies where you get a nasty surprise with the pricing; they were clear and upfront. And in terms of support and a customisation to handle drop shipping, it’s been nothing short of excellent.”

From 25 staff members in the finance department, Ruralco is now down to just 6 individuals, ‘two and a half’ of whom are focused on AP. “The system just works. When done manually, we had people drowning in paper. Now, we’re not fighting fires the whole time, but doing value-added tasks which benefit the business, while AP largely handles itself.” All that, O’Neill says, is why the payback period is calculated at around 12 months.

And there’s one final benefit which has flowed from the introduction of intelligent automation to the AP process: fertile ground now exists for the further introduction of smart technology. “It’s the tip of the iceberg and there’s a lot more to come. The success of this project means we’re very open to further technological advancement,” he concludes.

“The invoices are sent by suppliers to a dedicated AP address which automatically sends them into Esker. With approved vendors, there’s straight-through processing and payment happens automatically. And best of all, we literally no longer have a single piece of paper coming through the finance team.”
Oliver O’Neill, Group CFO, Ruralco

Source: This article was originally sourced from Esker

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AT A GLANCE

• Property Brokers

INDUSTRY

• Property – Real Estate

BUSINESS OBJECTIVE

• Better way to manage incoming invoices and expense claims
• Clearer view of running expenses, to eliminate unnecessary overheads

SOLUTION

• Esker Accounts Payable Automation platform

BUSINESS BENEFITS

• Increased productivity and faster and more accurate handling of AP queries
• Ensured continuity and reliability of information through integration with the Accredo accounting system
• Reduced invoice handling costs thanks to automated processing
• On-time invoice approvals with Esker Anywhere mobile application notifications
• Increased visibility with real-time invoice tracking through the workflow approval process

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Esker
W: https://www.esker.com.au
E:  info@esker.com.au
T: +61 2 8596 5100

The NZ real estate agent was manually handling the processing and approvals of its 1,200-1,300 monthly supplier invoices (for the head office and all the North Island regional branches). Unfortunately, the process was very paper heavy, laborious, and not a good use of time or resources.

Each invoice was scanned and emailed to the right branch or department for approval, and depending on the approval hierarchy, would sometimes need to go through as many as five approver’s in the company. Each recipient printed the invoice, checked and authorised it for payment, applied the correct finance code, then signed and emailed back the re-scanned invoice copy. The accounting team at the head office would then print it out again and match it against the original invoice, before entering the data into the company’s Accredo accounting software. After ticking the invoice off on the master list, the invoice was finally filed.

This time-consuming process was both inefficient and error prone. Data entry errors and payment duplications were numerous and the accounting team lacked real-time visibility of where an invoice was in the approval/payment cycle. It also made invoice handling slower and costlier than necessary.

The company knew it had to improve its overall invoice management process through automated capture of invoices and electronic matching and routing for approval, as well as reduce time and costs associated with manual matching, distribution of invoices and keying in of information.

Solution
It was time to modernise. Lee Waller, Property Brokers’ Financial Controller, was keen to find a better way to manage incoming invoices and expense claims handling. “I wanted an automated, simpler, faster and less labor-intensive system,” he said. So, the search was on. Property Brokers drew up a list of requirements and asked four potential partners to submit proposals.

Esker NZ partner, Fuji Xerox New Zealand recommended Esker’s Accounts Payable automation solution as the perfect fit with the business. And, delighted with both the affordability and functionality of the solution, Property Brokers agreed.

The Fuji Xerox implementation team worked closely with Property Brokers’ finance team to configure Esker’s solution to reflect the company’s internal processes. From day one, Property Brokers were impressed with Fuji Xerox’s approach, which involved taking time to understand the business and get things right. The effort paid off and the go-live was a success.

“Our first use of Esker’s solution was very, very good. It was a huge success.″
Quinton Keyser, Financial Administrator

Automating the invoice and expense approval process delivered instant results. The new level of consistent invoice coding provides an accurate picture of what the company is spending and where. Esker also gives branch and department managers a clearer view of their running expenses, which helps them eliminate unnecessary overheads.

Esker captures invoices from emails and uses intelligent data-capture and machine-learning technology to extract data from header and line level detail. It provides users with an intuitive interface for invoice review and coding, a workflow engine to handle multi-level approval, reporting with dashboards, as well as archiving of images with the audit trail for further retrieval.

In addition to supporting Property Brokers’ technology strategy, Esker’s cloud-based solution makes invoice and expense information available to managers across New Zealand. Because invoices are now entered into the approval workflow as soon as they arrive, reviewing them has become a more manageable task for managers.

Thanks to AP automation, invoices are no longer scanned, printed, filed and manually matched. The AP team has been able to focus on more value-added tasks, keeping pace with the growing business without the need to recruit more staff, and monthly invoice close-off date has been reduced.

Property Brokers is enthusiastic about its new, automated AP solution. Even staff members who were initially nervous about such a dramatic change are now delighted to use the system. The company knew the project was a success when it started receiving positive feedback from business users.

Source: This article was originally sourced from Esker

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