Day One - Conference Day One - Wednesday 9th December 2009
08.15 Registration and Morning Coffee
08.45 What Top Performing Accounts Payable Operations Are Doing Which Makes Them Touchless – Benchmark Your AP KPIs Against The Best and Average
Who are the heroes of AP – and what steps did they take to become world class? Which solutions are really delivering results? For those looking to raise their AP operation to be as good as, or better than, world class, this session provides the perfect introduction looking at what top performing AP KPIs are, who’s attaining them and through what means.
Susie West, Conference Chair and CEO
SHAREDSERVICESLINK.COM
09.45 1 Million Invoices, 11 Countries and the 7 Steps Taken to Win the AP Harmonisation and Standardisation Battle
Sure, we have all centralised AP, and chances are we have done the ‘right thing’ and consolidated our scores of systems down to a handful. But what comes next? Do you standardise and harmonise your process through user-compliancy efforts, so your Straight Through Process rate is the world class 94%? OR do you implement automation technology to drive continuous improvement? In this excellent session, Attilla Karman will be examining the 7 steps they took to harmonise and standardise a massive AP operation spanning 11 countries, and what position of strength this has put them in for serious AP automation.
Attilla Karman, Process Controller
AVIS
10.30 Morning Coffee Break
11.00 How to Attain Straight Through Processing in a Complex AP Environment and on a Tight Budget
After postponing the implementation of an ERP in 2008, BA created its shared services centre in May 2009. Now stable, Elaine Mozdzynski and the team have to deliver significant savings, within the confines of their existing system set up of multiple legacy systems, through massive process standardisation and automation. If you don’t have the privilege of operating off one system, and somehow have to deliver ambitious savings, on a tight budget within a multisystem environment, you will attain real value from this session.
Elaine Mozdzynski, Payment and Services Manager
BRITISH AIRWAYS
AUTOMATED AND ELECTRONIC RECEIPT FOR NON PO INVOICES
11.45 How to Manage Non PO Spend Using Automation Software In an Outsourced Environment
Non PO transactions can be the thorn in any AP operation’s side. They can be the transactions which forever remain costly to process and covered in finger prints from the endless hands touching the transaction. This is why we have kicked off this part of the conference with looking at non PO transactions. AXA has a huge Accounts Payable function, and because of the nature of AXA’s business, non PO invoices are prevalent. For a shared services operation intent on making savings in a high volume non PO environment, you have to get creative about what technologies to deploy, and how, in order to drive out touchpoints. So what did they do? This excellent presentation will examine how Tracy Giordano and the team worked with IT to develop its inhouse API system which plugs neatly into ARIBA. Tracy will look at the path taken to hit some very impressive KPIs on cost per transaction and productivity, how they communicated the change and trained the users effectively, and how they ensured their technology model could be elegantly transferred to, and incorporated by, their BPO in India.
Tracy Giordano, Accounts Payable Manager
AXA
12.30 Speaker Clinic
13.00 Networking Lunch
14.00 The 5 Silver Bullets You Must Take to Ensure Your OCR Solution Drives Up Non PO Invoice Productivity
OCR technology and Data Capture Software is developing by the day. And we are all becoming much more aware of its capabilities and limitations. Knowing what success could look like, having evaluated the market thoroughly and benchmarked with success-cases, and anticipating the challenges is something this organisation mastered preimplementation. The solution was meticulously planned and thought through to anticipate the challenges. The result is a significantly smaller AP team with a solution that ensures that non PO invoices are received and approved quickly and accurately. This session will look at the 5 Silver Bullets which helped to pin success on this OCR project.
Kevin Ingham, Head of AP
ATKINS
AUTOMATED AND ELECTRONIC RECEIPT FOR
PO INVOICES
14.45 How to Attain 93% Electronic Invoicing Across Europe
Perhaps one of the most difficult challenges when automating AP comes when you are faced withheterogenous legacy systems. Add to that the complications of a business spread across numerous countries. This was exactly the situation for Bob McCartney and his team at EADS, which processes more than 3 million invoices per year across its core businesses of Airbus, Eurocopter, Astrium and Defence. EADS set out to roll out EDI/EDI+OCR in order to reduce manually booked invoices from 28% to just 7%. Hear how Bob and his team set out to harmonise basic tools and processes, with a particular focus on process controls and efficient query handling. In the drive to focus on adding value and supporting the business as best it could, EADS is targeting a reduction of 30% in process cost, whilst preserving a high level of quality control over the transactions. This excellent session will be examining where is airbus is on this path, what problems were countered to attain success, how they secured understanding and commitmen from Procurement, and what the critical success factors were.
Bob McCartney, Head of Transactional Operations
AIRBUS
15.30 Coffee
16.00 The 5 Lessons Learned Every E-Invoicing Project Lead MUST Know About
This leading global pharmaceutical is keen to make e-invoicing a success. In 2003 they signed up to a service provider but failed to hit the targets it had set itself. As a result in 2008 they switched to OB10 and are now seeing traction in their conversion. This did however mean that suppliers connected to one network had to be ‘unplugged’ and connected to another. In this fascinating presentation Frank Ludwig will be talking about how this switch came about, how the suppliers were handled, how they have deployed a PO Flip solution to ensure a high first time match rate and how their costs are dropping week by week.
Frank Ludwig, European Project & Release Manager
A LEADING GLOBAL PHARMACEUTICAL
16.45 How to Elegantly Onboard Suppliers to PURE e-Invoicing and Secure 50% Conversion
Knowing how many of your suppliers will go electronic is crucial to deciding how cost effective an e invoicing solution will be, what your ROI will look like, and whether it really is a priority. British Energy (now a part of EDF Energy) processes around 80,000 invoices per annum from 2000 suppliers. BE is now moving from 100% paper invoices to a 50% pure electronic. The other 50% will be scanned and keyed by a 3rd party, and then received by BE in the same method as their pure e invoices. After a review of high volume suppliers and selection of suitable candidates, 80% of the targeted suppliers (representing 50%+ of the annual invoice volume) have welcomed the move to electronic. Robert Gihooly will examine the events that made all this possible.
Robert Gilhooly, Head of Financial and Purchasing Services
EDF ENERGY
17.30 Speaker Clinic
18.00 Conference Close
Day Two - Conference Day Two - Thursday 10th December
08.15 Morning Coffee
08.45 The Morning After the Day Before – 10 Key Take Aways from Day One
This opening session will be looking at the key learnings that rang through from day one that are absolutely worthy of further attention and comment.
Susie West Conference Chair and CEO
SHAREDSERVICESLINK.COM
AUTOMATCHING AT LINE LEVEL
09.15 The Secrets Behind Lean Processing – How to Secure Capture Rates of 90% and Line Level Automatching Rates of 70%
Auto matching technology is still a relative unknown. It is however, a significant tool which, when used, separates the touchless transactions from the ‘electronic but touched’ transactions. This session will be looking at how the automatching module was set up to match complex invoices at line level, plus how the company is increasing PO rates from 60 to 80%. If your invoices are electronic, auto matching means attaining touchless is completely realistic. JohnsonDiversey is making the switch to electronic working with procurement to migrate suppliers using lean techniques, nearing its goal of touchless invoicing. This session gives you an insight into its success, plus a glimpse of the company’s vision of AP going forward.
Edle Bentsen Shared Services Director
JOHNSONDIVERSEY
10.00 Finding the Solutions That Work for Your Business Model – Why E-Invoicing Didn’t Work for Us and How OCR Is Perfect For Right Now
There’s no ‘one size fits all’ solution when it comes to AP Automation – as Reader’s Digest has learned. The e-invoicing solution they signed up to in 2004 is now being replaced by an OCR and Data Capture solution which is strangely delivering more attractive cost savings than the e-invoicing solution. Now the team is harmonising shared services on a global basis with one SSC in Amsterdam, processing over 300,000 invoices for Europe and the Americas. Etta Ng will look at the fascinating journey that has brought them to rolling out OCR POST e-invoicing, and what their advice is for Accounts Payable Heads looking to tackle the invoicing problem.
Etta Ng Head of Accounts Payable
READER’S DIGEST
10.45 Morning Coffee
11.15 How to Ensure Over 90% of Your Electronic Invoices are Touchless and Your OCR Capture Rates Hit 85%
When you make the move to electronic your main intent is to have a pure, touchless processing. Pentland Brands own some of the strongest brands in fashion including Speedos and Kickers. From their shared services centre in the UK they have introduced technologies over the past two years which have taken their productivity per FTE from 12,000 invoices pa to 25,000 invoices pa. The 2 main reasons for this are: over 90% of their electronic invoices which are received electronically drop into an invoice cockpit, auto match at line level and post, untouched into SAP. In addition to this Pentland mop up the other 60% of paper invoices with their OCR solution, attaining very impressive capture rates of 85% (reading at line level as well as header). As a result their cost per invoice has reduced, invoices are now paid on time, and transactions are trackable. In this excellent session Brett Rutland will be talking about how they achieved such impressive figures, what the lessons learned are, and where this SSO is going next.
Brett Rutland Group Payables Credit and Collections Manager
PENTLAND BRANDS
WORKFLOW
13.45 The 7 Critical Success Factors For Excellent Workflow Implementation to Process 6.5 Million Invoices
There are a plethora of workflow solutions available in this slightly over crowded market. So how do you look for the one that suits your real business and process needs? What do you get in return for committing to a €50,000 solution or a €250,000 solution? In this excellent session Bruno Lockhart will be looking at what level of functional sophistication is required in order to suit AP’s needs, which bells and whistles will actually inflate your return, what rules and controls you can set up in a fairly basic workflow, and what 7 aspects you need to seriously consider when selecting and rolling out your workflow solution.
Bruno Lockhart, P2P Project Director
SUEZ
14.30 Workflow for SAP Users – What’s The
Optimum Workflow Engine if Your Run Off SAP?
Workflow is ESSENTIAL if you want to move to touchless AP. But as an SAP user which workflow vendors should be on your shortlist? And how functionally excellent is the SAP workflow? Interestingly, not all SAP users have utilised the SAP module within their ERP suite. For companies investing €10s of millions into SAP, this may seem a little odd. This session looks at how the company has set up workflow in their organisation so it perfectly supports their process, business and functional requirements. They were keen not to ‘over egg’ the process with a dense rule library, and have configured the solution to offer the right mix of reports, alerts and escalations.
15.15 Coffee
POSTING, PAYMENT AND KPI, MI & BI
REPORTING
15.30 How To Successfully Automate KPI, BI and MI Reporting and Significantly Improve Control and Cashflow Management
Solutions like dashboards and workbenches can provide you with the much needed visibility to help you know: the state of your invoice process flow; who is responsible for the blockages; how much the blockages are costing you; and what your commitment and cash position is and will be over the coming months. It will tell you what your DSO and DPO are and how much spend is on and off contract. In short, tools like this can tell you powerful information in a timely manner. Join us for this session as we see a snapshot of how this company implemented the dashboard solution, what the company has learned about its AP function, where subsequent improvements have been made as a result, and how the MI reporting has provided real business intelligence to the rest of the business and heightened the value of the finance function.
Armindo Araújo, P2P Project Leader
PORTUGAL TELECOM
16.15 World Class AP Operations in 2009 and Where they are Going Next
So where next in AP automation? This excellent session closing out this summit is looking at current statistics and projected trends of world class organisations. What world class shared services are doing now and really importantly where are they looking to go next in order to meet continuous improvement targets? In particular Mélani Flores will be looking at the optimisation of supplier portals, supplier connectivity and onboarding approaches, and the role of technology in achieving world class performance.
Mélani Flores, Director European Procurement & P2P Advisory Leader
THE HACKETT GROUP
17.00 Speaker Clinic
17.30 Conference Close
Day Three - Learning Lab Day – Friday 11th December
LEARNING LAB A
08.15 – 11.15 - E-INVOICING
Invoice Receipt – Your Ten Step Plan to PURE E-Invoicing Success
E-invoicing is on everyone’s agenda for a very good reason: most shared services organisations have clocked, at some level, that to continuously improve their P2P process, they will have to switch to electronic processing. Without PURE electronic invoicing, touchless processing will remain an unattainable dream, and you will ALWAYS need people to participate in your invoice process. This Lab is designed to give you your Ten Step Plan to Successful E-Invoicing. By the end of this 3 hour session you will have in your possession the critical knowledge which will put you on track for:
- Fully understanding your readiness for e-invoicing, and therefore your scope
- Securing the buy-in from Procurement so no aspect of your e-invoicing project is undermined
- Business case realisation
- The critical success factors to setting up automatching technology so the intelligence within the tool can match on multiple data points and offer excellent control
- Speedy implementation across your key countries
- Elegant, effective and professional conversion of high volume and low volume suppliers
- Legal treatment of VAT invoices with regards to transmission and archiving
- Significantly increasing your number of invoices processed per annum per FTE so world class stats of 35,000 are achievable
E-invoicing is an enabler. It is the path that, when followed, will enable your finance shared services to become a valuable weapon in the company’s armoury. Instead of processing DATA, Finance becomes the owner of very powerful INFORMATION regarding cashflow, liabilities, spend patterns and payment patterns. Attend this Lab to find out what the Ten Steps are and how they should be applied in your organisation.
Learning Lab Facilitator:
Ruud van Hilten
OB10
LEARNING LAB B
11.15 – 14.15 AUTOMATCHING AT LINE LEVEL AND WORKFLOW
Automatching - P2P’s Best Kept Secret. How to Implement OCR, Auto Matching and Workflow to Serve Your ROI Goals
Automatching technology is purchase to pay’s best kept secret. Ironically large multi-nationals processing 100,000 – 10 million invoices per annum and running off a SAP or Oracle still don’t know that there is technology on the market which can automatically match your PO data and invoice data AT LINE LEVEL. This means that Accounts Payable has technology in place to support TOUCHLESS PROCESSING whilst bridging the gap for procurement compliance. In this very practical Lab you will find out:
- The critical success factors to setting up automatching technology so the intelligence within the tool can match on multiple data points and offer excellent control
- How to use auto-matching technology to check tax rates and educate it on what VAT rates apply to which suppliers, products, countries and place of shipment
- How to automatically ‘code and complete’
- What your vendor master data needs to look like to ensure your OCR line level capture rates are over 75%
- What features to include in your functional requirements when selecting an invoice automation solution
- What reporting features to look for so you know exactly what’s happening at any point in the process
If you are rolling out, or optimising your OCR, automatching or workflow solutions over the next 12 months, make sure you attend this excellent Lab (places are limited so do book early).
Learning Lab Facilitator:
Steve Britton
BRAINWARE
LEARNING LAB C
14.30 – 17.30 AUDIT AND RECOVERY
The Twelve Step Guide to Accounts Payable Audit - What You Need to Know to Recover 0.2% - 1% of Revenue
Even today we see endless accounts payable operations which are time poor and stretched, and simply trying to process the paper. When shared services organisations running off SAP or Oracle stabilise their process and then look to focus on continuous improvement, they are very quick to realise that one of the fruits of process improvement is the ability to audit accounts payable and recover huge sums. Once a process is clean, AP can look above the parapet and assess where invoices have been double paid, or over paid, where invoices have been paid net 10 instead of the contractual net 60, where discounts have been missed, VAT incorrectly paid, and credit notes not issued. The
result of all this equates to 0.2% - 1% of a company’s revenue. If you are willing to find a way to realise some of that cash then you must attend this excellent lab. It will equip you to find out how to:
- Successfully engage the key stakeholders in the business and set up the most effective project where Procurement and Finance align to assess
- Where payment discounts are being missed
- Where payment terms carefully negotiated by Procurement are being ignored
- Really understand payment terms across all countries and identify where terms are unnecessarily short – what’s the fast way of doing this?
- Scrutinise in a painless fashion payments, invoices, tax calculations and credit note requests
The impact of an exercise like this is a sizeable claw-back of funds, an injection in your working capital and a boost in interest (contribution of
€ millions to the bottomline), and the possibility to create a fund which
can be used for your continuous improvement projects.
Learning Lab Facilitator:
Wouter van Thor
TRANSPARENT
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