Who are Devro?
Devro is one of the world’s leading suppliers of collagen casings for food, used by customers in the production of a wide variety of sausages and other meat products.
Devro employs over 2,000 people, sells products in over 100 countries, and has manufacturing sites in the USA, the Netherlands, the UK, China, Czech Republic, and Australia.
Working with Embrace Digital, Devro automated its Accounts Payable operations to gain visibility over the process and improve efficiency.
The Challenge.
As a global manufacturer, Devro wanted to gain overall visibility of Accounts Payable operations across its international sites, standardise processes, and increase the quality of management information. The company processes 50,000 invoices each year and the existing process for invoice handling was inefficient and lacked visibility.
Devro recognised a need to change; its existing process for invoice matching and approval was manual and differed across each one of its business entities. It was difficult to track and trace invoice flow within the organisation and the system required a high level of intervention from the Accounts Payable team to resolve queries, sometimes across differing time-zones. Invoice data was manually entered in JD Edwards green screens and the process for invoice approval across the wider business needed improvement. A lack of transparency meant that reporting across the global AP function was difficult, inconsistent, and time-consuming.
Devro took the decision to establish Shared Service Centres (SSC) at its Head Office in Scotland and in its operation in the Czech Republic, incorporating IT, HR, Accounts Payable (AP) and Financial Reporting operations.
Unifying AP activity across the centres provided Devro with the opportunity to automate the AP process. This would improve the efficiency of invoice entry, matching and approval, to reduce costs and improve productivity, whilst providing much-needed visibility and real-time reporting.
Our Approach.
Devro investigated and trialled several potential solutions before selecting a Kofax solution delivered by Embrace Digital. Devro required an automated solution that would scale for use within its SSC environment and would act as a central point of control and reporting for the global business. Automated three-way matching, the capability to handle multiple currencies, languages, and VAT differences, and integrate seamlessly into the existing JD Edwards solution, were essential factors.
Embrace Digital worked alongside Devro to understand the company’s existing processes and to build detailed requirements based on the SSC model. Understanding the requirements and nuances of Devro’s process, Embrace Digital recommended Kofax AP Agility to best meet the requirements.
The Solution.
The first phase of the project saw Devro transfer Accounts Payable operations into their Head Office (Moodiesburn) from their two sites in Scotland, plus Australia and US.
Embrace Digital deployed Kofax AP Agility to provide a compliant, standardised, and efficient process for the AP Shared Service. Devro receives the majority of its 50,000 invoices per annum via PDF with a small proportion still received on paper. The new system digitises these invoices from a variety of formats, accurately extracts business information, and automatically verifies and matchesinvoice data. This has removed the manual burden of data entry and means that invoices can be easily traced from the moment they enter the business. Automated invoice workflows route successfully matched invoices direct to the company’s JD Edwards system, with exceptions entering a pre-agreed and compliant workflow for additional validation and approval.
Non-PO invoices requiring approval are routed direct to approvers within the business, where invoices can be viewed and actioned, speeding up invoice approval times and creating a seamless and fully transparent path.
Detailed reports and dashboards provide immediate access to invoice processing, supplier performance and business spend management, and the ability to track KPIs to continually improve processes and identify bottlenecks.
The company has completed the second phase of the project operationalising AP Agility for the Czech Republic element of its business while fulfilling the requirement to process all AP activity in either of the Shared Service Centres.
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