OCR & invoice scanning - one small step back technologically, one giant leap forward financially

So it’s official - the holy grail of P2P is finally realisable- a true closed loop from requisition to payment managed seamlessly through an automated and paperless process. It’s true - we have customers putting this into practise and making big savings as a result. Whilst there are still challenges, we think that the technology challenge has largely been overcome, judging by the number of transactions we are seeing our customers process.

One area that has captured our attention lately is electronic invoicing and the readiness and capability of suppliers to engage. Several years ago we built a ‘pure’ e-invoicing solution that enables suppliers of all sizes and capabilities to generate and transmit an e- invoice, whether from a PO Flip via our supplier portal or through an automated xml invoice. Once again no technical challenge - the challenge here that has got us thinking is the speed with which our customers can convert their supplier base to one of the ‘pure’ e-invoicing options. The problem here is that the supplier is required to be proactive when it comes to e-invoicing and will need to see a commercial upside if they are to change their processes to create e-invoices. Naturally they are resistant which can slow down uptake and therefore the savings that flow from it.

We went back to the drawing board driven by one thought; our customers, want to get as many invoices into their automated workflow, as quickly as possible. To bridge the gap we have launched an invoice scanning and OCR service. In English, we are turning paper invoices into e-invoices (not into images of invoices – there is a big difference)) which will provide a means of accelerating the volumes of e-invoices captured. Those suppliers who are slow to move to pure e-invoicing can continue to provide paper invoices which we convert to e-invoices meaning suppliers need to do nothing new.

We do not see this as the ultimate solution, but rather, as an interim one. However from the buyers perspective it has the same effect as virtually total e-invoice uptake. Meanwhile the parallel activity of moving suppliers onto ‘pure’ e-invoicing continues. The fact that the EGS OCR solution delivers invoices into a single validation and workflow, along with ‘pure’ e-invoices, provides customers with a means of significantly increasing the ROI. This additional component of the P2P solution will, we believe, bring our customers even closer to the vision of a truly automated and paperless process that unlocks real savings.