Sydney, Australia — October 16, 2016 — Esker, a worldwide leader in document process automation solutions and pioneer in cloud computing, today announced it is working with the CARSO Group, a leading French player in the field of analytical services, to automate it’s accounts payable (AP) process. Implemented in just four months, Esker’s accounts payable automation solution has enabled CARSO to process its supplier invoices 50 percent faster, as well as increase service quality and invoice traceability. Their next goal is achieving 100 percent paperless operations.
With over 30 million tests performed in 2015, CARSO is a leader in France in the field of health, environment and food, and in 2008, the company put in place a shared services center (SSC) to centralise accounting in its 40 subsidiaries. Esker’s solution was chosen to be implemented in 18 of these subsidiaries, which manage 2,000 suppliers and 40,000 invoices per year, as well as hundreds of managers in charge of invoice approvals.
“We selected Esker to automate our supplier invoices in order to increase productivity, improve document tracking and standardize our database,” said Emmanuel Botzung, CFO at CARSO. “It was a unifying and successful project for all stakeholders.”
Over the past 10 years, CARSO’s invoice volume has tripled, making processing and archiving increasingly complex. Thanks to Esker’s Accounts Payable automation solution, invoices received by email or mail are sent directly to Esker for processing. All relevant invoice data is extracted and created in the company’s Sage ERP application. The solution then reconciles invoices with purchase orders and delivery notes and digitally sends them to managers for approval without a single piece of paper being printed. Implemented progressively since 2015, Esker’s solution is now operational in 11 of its 18 subsidiaries in the SSC, accounting for 80 percent of the CARSO’s invoices.
“Previously, we needed 15 days per month to process our supplier invoices. Now, thanks to Esker, everything is done in real time,” said Séverine Vivière, accounts payable Manager at CARSO. “Our accounting team has become increasingly versatile, and its activity is spread out over the year.”
A Simplified & Accelerated Approval Process
With Esker, CARSO has been able to absorb a 20 percent increase in activity at its SSC since 2015 and achieve many benefits for the entire company, including:
- Increased productivity, with invoice processing time cut in half
- Reduced invoice validation time thanks to the supplier portal and Esker’s mobile approval application Esker Anywhere, giving managers on-the-road invoice accessibility
- Improved customer relationships by reducing errors and lost documents
- Better traceability and dispute resolution through accurate process monitoring
- Greater business visibility with customisable dashboards
- Eliminated paper archiving and time spent filing and looking for documents
“Now all we have to do is snap our fingers to find an archived invoice,” said Vivière. “And Esker’s mobile invoice application has made approvals so much easier for our managers. No one at CARSO will ever go back to how it used to be!”
About the CARSO Group
The CARSO Group is a leader in France in analytical services and services in the field of health/environmental, food and DNA – paving the way for a safer environment and better quality of life. With over 2,500 employees working in 40 sites (including 10 abroad), CARSO analyzes over 30 million parameters annually and in 2015 achieved 186 million euros in sales revenue. CARSO was founded in 1992 by Neptune Technologies in conjunction with the CNRS scientific research center for the purpose of analysing dioxins via high resolution mass spectrometry.
