Two years on from its initial implementation of a ReadSoft AP automation solution, Orica reflects on the impact it has had on company operations.

Orica is a multinational company with regional Accounts Payable departments spread across the globe. The business has installed solutions linked into two global SAP systems based in Australia/NZ, Singapore and North America. Orica is currently  processing 340,000 invoices globally per year with further expansion on the horizon. All invoices that arrive in Australia, Singapore and North America are passed through Readsoft’s software for verification before being transferred into their “invoice control centre” which resides inside  SAP.

From here, further automation by way of invoice and purchase order matching, discrepancy handling, and workflow for approval tasks are deployed, providing total visibility of each stage of the process for stakeholders. In some cases, the process can take as little as eight minutes from arrival to being processed inside SAP if invoices are received as PDFs by email. 

“The system is flexible enough that AP resources can be shared globally if necessary,” said Mara.
“For instance, an invoice that arrives in Canada can be actioned by an AP person in Australia,  or, can be electronically forwarded to any SAP user around the world for authorisation.”

“We now have minimal paper on desks, and mail sorting and document archiving and storage has been heavily reduced.”

The percentage of invoices that arrive electronically versus conventional post differs in different global locations. Over half of the 19,000 invoices that arrive in Australia each month are delivered by email, whereas in Singapore, the percentage is much higher at around 95%.

This divergence reflects the fact that the Singapore operation is a new business for Orica, where email delivery of invoices was driven from the start, whereas the process of transforming the way it interacts with over 22,000 suppliers in Australia is still evolving.

Orica is just now beginning the job of converting those supplying paper invoices in Australia to emailing PDFs, no small task given the thousands of individual suppliers involved and the length of time that Orica has been doing business this way. The company was originally a supplier of explosives to the Victorian goldfields in the 1850s, so it has some history behind it.
However, the take up take up rate for supplying invoices via email has been significant, peaking at 60% in August 2011.

Orica Australia is still conducting around 60% of its business with suppliers via Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) rather than traditional invoicing. The high success rate of capture and delivery via ReadSoft’s solution is compelling and actually convincing some businesses to migrate away from EDI.

This is occurring where data files from external suppliers, carriers, and internal business processes consistently deliver high error rates on upload to SAP.  ReadSoft provides faster input to SAP with clarity of errors on invoices and direct action through the ReadSoft solution by  those responsible for fixing issues, be it cost, delivery number matching, or stock queries.

“The return for Orica has been significant in terms of human resources. Training and change management has always been a concern for companies introducing new technology. To complement the ReadSoft solution, we have included links on all workflow communications providing new, frequent and infrequent users with full screen video training. This ensures fast adaptation by the business and provides 24/7 training at hand for all employees”, added Mara.

“ROI on the ReadSoft Project was met in just 15 months, ahead of our target of 18 months. Two systems (Singapore and North America) followed with installations completed in half the time of Australia.  Some of our biggest suppliers are now writing to us with congratulations on payment times, accuracy and speed of resolution to queries.”

“Invoice data recovery is reduced to seconds with images displayed on screen and audits and investigation times are greatly reduced. Time is money and AP Automation saves people in our business a lot of time.”

Orica is now considering adopting the ReadSoft solution, PROCESS DIRECTOR, to manage other paper-based processes in HR, manufacturing and their corporate library.