Sydney, Australia — October 9, 2017 — Esker, a worldwide leader in document process automation solutions, and pioneer in cloud computing, today announced it is working with PepsiCo in the UK, the British subsidiary of the world leading food and beverage company, to automate its order processing. 
PepsiCo has a portfolio that includes 22 brands that each generate more than $1 billion in estimated annual retail sales. PepsiCo maintains its world-leading status by being at the forefront of innovative practices and adopting the latest ways to continually improve its business. With this in mind, a project was devised to improve the way certain customer orders were being processed to eliminate any non-value added tasks and reduce the risk of manual keying errors.
The challenge that was identified showed that smaller independent traders who placed frequent orders, could not be set up with EDI, due to the complexity, time and resources required. Therefore, a much simpler but just as efficient process was required. PepsiCo selected Esker to achieve this with Esker’s order processing automation solution.
Simplify the process and free up customer services
The first plan of action was to assess the current order process and simplify how orders were being received, how the information was being captured and finally, how orders were then approved. PepsiCo wanted to offer its customers the simplest way to place their orders whilst considering some of the bespoke customer requirements of their own individual choosing.
Secondly, PepsiCo wished to free up its customer services representatives (CSR) from non-value added tasks such as the data entry from orders, so that they would devote more time to serving the needs of their customers.
Fully automated order processing
PepsiCo uses Esker’s on demand solution to first receive the customer orders in any file format (e.g. fax, email, EDI) which are then automatically routed to the correct CSR Team based on product categories contained within the order.
Next the relevant data is extracted automatically through an intelligent recognition tool to create the corresponding sales order in their ERP system without the need for any manual input. This means that the CSRs can simply verify that the data has been correctly extracted or adjust any missing elements.
If any exceptions occur or approvals are required then the order is automatically placed into a workflow to be actioned. Once approved the order is electronically archived with easy access made available to any authorised user.
“Currently PepsiCo manages approximately 4,000 orders per month (outside those received through EDI) and over 90% of these can now be processed without any human intervention at all,” commented Tom Durance, Customer Order and Strategy Manager, PepsiCo.
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“The benefits we have already gained have been; increased data accuracy rates, faster order processing speeds and improved customer service productivity leading to better customer satisfaction rates. Also this would allow us to obtain 100% visibility of order/issue management via a full audit trail and KPI dashboards for monitoring and reporting,” added Durance.
Esker UK’s Managing Director, Alistair Nicholas said, “We are delighted to be working with PepsiCo and have been very pleased that the project has been a success so far both in terms of the benefits achieved and the timescales that were requested. We look forward to continuing this success to other PepsiCo subsidiaries in the future”.
Future outlook
Looking forward towards future projects, the solution now in place could be rolled out easily to other PepsiCo subsidiaries around the world using the same automated process. Also using Esker’s agile development methodology allowed a quick project delivery in less than 3 months.
About PepsiCo
PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated more than $63 billion in net revenue in 2015, driven by a complementary food and beverage portfolio that includes Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Quaker and Tropicana. PepsiCo’s product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including 22 brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.
At the heart of PepsiCo is Performance with Purpose – their goal to deliver top-tier financial performance while creating sustainable growth and shareholder value. In practice, Performance with Purpose means providing a wide range of foods and beverages from treats to healthy eats; finding innovative ways to minimise their impact on the environment and reduce their operating costs; providing a safe and inclusive workplace for their employees globally; and respecting, supporting and investing in the local communities where they operate. For more information, visit www.pepsico.com
