E-invoicing is one of the key tools shared services can use to dramatically reduce the cost and improve the quality of invoice processing.
On July 2nd, Henkel will be presenting a webinar about their e-invoicing journey, on how and why they chose their e-invoicing provider and how they onboarded their suppliers.
Building the case for e-invoicing:
Henkel is a global consumer goods organization of 50,000 employees responsible for brands you may household-name brands such as Persil, Schwarzkopf, Right Guard and Loctite.
While Henkel had self-billing in place, yet they still continued to handle 1.25m paper invoices each year.
To tackle the high cost of manual processing, Henkel began looking for a solution that would:
• increase invoicing efficiency and effectiveness
• improve compliance through its purchase to pay process
• increase automation levels
• reduce workloads and drive down costs
The solution they focused on: e-invoicing.
Jens Fischer, Henkel’s Global Process Manager – Purchase to Pay said “We recognized that electronic invoicing could be a complementary way of increasing levels of automation.”
The factors that supported their decision:
Return on investment: Henkel saw e-invoicing as a strategic investment that would pay off, particularly in the longer term as more suppliers join the platform.
Supplier onboarding: A major consideration for choosing an e-invoicing provider is how well your suppliers will onboard to your e-invoicing platform. Different providers have different ways of working with suppliers to onboard them. After looking at several providers, Henkel chose OB10 for their onboarding cababuility. Jens said, “Plus many of our suppliers were already on the OB10 platform, which helped us validate the technical solution.”
VAT Compliance: Jens said VAT compliance and the pricing model were equally influential [as the supplier onboarding capability] in the choice.”
The result:
Within the first 12 months, suppliers that send 72% of Henkel’s in-scope invoices were signed-up with OB10.
The webinar will elaborate more on their project for onboarding suppilers and how they overcame any resistance to e-invoicing. Some of their success factors include:
- Engaging suppliers that may have initial concerns about e-Invoicing.
- Having a single point of contact who gives a consistent and prompt response that explains the advantages and consequences of not moving forward.
- Holding procurement back as second-level escalation.
The benefits:
Henkel has extended the project’s reach and continues to focus on ramping up the transaction volumes and is benefitting from the increased transparency electronic invoicing provides.
In addition, its suppliers have so far saved more than 400 trees by sending invoices through OB10 rather than on paper by post.
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