Packaging leader achieves seamless cloud AP automation in S/4HANA
Industry
Packaging
Employees
9000
Headquarters
Switzerland
The challenge – mounting operational and regulatory complexity
The company – already a customer for our SAP-embedded FS² AutoBank solution – acquired a new plant in Mexico with fast-growing invoice volumes. This new acquisition put considerable strain on existing manual AP workflows, which was further exacerbated by the difficulty teams faced uploading documents to the Mexican government’s e-invoice platform.
To overcome this challenge, the company knew it would need an AP automation solution that would both lighten the load associated with invoice processing while guaranteeing security and efficiency across AP and payments. The organization also knew it would need to pick a partner that would help it automate its country-specific e-invoicing requirements, while standardizing processing across global sites.
The transformation approach – full integration with SAP S/4HANA and e-invoice portal
The company’s chosen solution would need to work across on-prem and public cloud environments for 4 separate company codes in the US, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand. It would also need to meet global regulatory requirements to allow for future expansion across other EU countries where e-invoicing mandates are increasingly the norm.
The company chose Serrala Alevate AP as the perfect solution for their complex AP automation needs. The organization began a rapid implementation process, which integrated their solution with their Sovos e-invoicing platform and their chosen ERP systems: SAP ECC and S/4HANA public cloud using pre-built APIs.
The results – fully unified digital AP solution and global compliance
The customer benefited immediately from a single, global AP automation solution that supports everything from invoice capture through processing and visibility into payments across multiple ERP systems and geographies (US, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand). The AP team can quickly and seamlessly handle e-invoice processing in line with Mexican regulatory requirements. And has a single view and workflow of all incoming invoices regardless of format (whether XML, PDF, JPG, or .doc).
Our solution instantly matches invoices to purchase orders to achieve a 3-way or x-way match, auto-posting as many invoices as possible to reduce manual work and automatically routing invoices for approval and exception handed as needed to significantly accelerate workflows. All posted invoices can also be viewed at any time in the company’s ERP platforms.
Payment controls and fraud prevention are embedded in the solution, and every incoming invoice is automatically validated against the company’s master data and accounting controls, and for compliance with e-invoicing mandates.
Business Need
The challenge – mounting operational and regulatory complexity
The company – already a customer for our SAP-embedded FS² AutoBank solution – acquired a new plant in Mexico with fast-growing invoice volumes. This new acquisition put considerable strain on existing manual AP workflows, which was further exacerbated by the difficulty teams faced uploading documents to the Mexican government’s e-invoice platform.
To overcome this challenge, the company knew it would need an AP automation solution that would both lighten the load associated with invoice processing while guaranteeing security and efficiency across AP and payments. The organization also knew it would need to pick a partner that would help it automate its country-specific e-invoicing requirements, while standardizing processing across global sites.
Solution Implemented
The transformation approach – full integration with SAP S/4HANA and e-invoice portal
The company’s chosen solution would need to work across on-prem and public cloud environments for 4 separate company codes in the US, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand. It would also need to meet global regulatory requirements to allow for future expansion across other EU countries where e-invoicing mandates are increasingly the norm.
The company chose Serrala Alevate AP as the perfect solution for their complex AP automation needs. The organization began a rapid implementation process, which integrated their solution with their Sovos e-invoicing platform and their chosen ERP systems: SAP ECC and S/4HANA public cloud using pre-built APIs.
Results Achieved
The results – fully unified digital AP solution and global compliance
The customer benefited immediately from a single, global AP automation solution that supports everything from invoice capture through processing and visibility into payments across multiple ERP systems and geographies (US, Mexico, Australia, and New Zealand). The AP team can quickly and seamlessly handle e-invoice processing in line with Mexican regulatory requirements. And has a single view and workflow of all incoming invoices regardless of format (whether XML, PDF, JPG, or .doc).
Our solution instantly matches invoices to purchase orders to achieve a 3-way or x-way match, auto-posting as many invoices as possible to reduce manual work and automatically routing invoices for approval and exception handed as needed to significantly accelerate workflows. All posted invoices can also be viewed at any time in the company’s ERP platforms.
Payment controls and fraud prevention are embedded in the solution, and every incoming invoice is automatically validated against the company’s master data and accounting controls, and for compliance with e-invoicing mandates.
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