Saint-Gobain digitalizes invoices worth over 10 million euro with DocProcess
Bucharest, 10 June 2021 – Saint-Gobain, the global construction materials manufacturer announces the digitalization of its operations in Romania with a customized solution for business process automation developed by DocProcess. Within five weeks from implementation, Saint-Gobain Glass Romania eliminated the manual processing of approximately 30% of its annual invoices, representing a total value of over 10 million euros.
“We have been looking at different digitalization tools since 2018 and the COVID-19 pandemic has made it clear to us that we need to adapt our operations in order to serve our clients faster and with no errors. Each year, our accounting department received over 3,400 invoices, representing nearly 40,000 invoice lines that have always been challenging to process. We therefore decided to begin our digital transformation by automating all the processes related to transport invoices. The impact was almost instantaneous – we lowered the workload of our accounting team by more than 30% within five weeks, and by streamlining these processes we have managed to give our employees more time for more complex, value-added tasks”, stated Ciprian Stoica, CFO at Saint-Gobain Glass, who led the digital transformation process for the Romanian subsidiary.
Saint-Gobain Glass Romania manufactures building glass, which is delivered throughout South-Eastern Europe. Transportation costs represent one of the main categories of expenses for the company, the associated transport invoices amounting to 30% of the total annual invoices. Transportation invoices are also particularly complex: for each invoice line both the price and the conformity of other transport documents must be checked. Before the implementation of the DocProcess solution, Saint-Gobain’s accounting team used to spend over 200 hours per month for manually checking and matching customer orders, transport slips and carrier delivery notes, before validating and paying the invoices.
“Digitalization and automation constitute an investment rather than an expenditure as they can deliver a quick return for large companies such as Saint-Gobain, but also for local SMEs. According to our data, on average, companies manage to recover their investment within the first 12 months from the implementation of a business process automation solution. In addition to reducing operating costs, companies gain real-time visibility into business activities, ensure data accuracy and improve employee satisfaction, as they will be redirected to higher value-added activities,” added Andreea Anton, Sales Director at DocProcess.
The design and implementation process of the customized solution developed by DocProcess took six months, beingtested and launched in November 2020. The platform became fully operational for Saint-Gobain in January 2021, when 15 vendors were enrolled in the company’s digital business ecosystem. Based on the experience ofDocProcess, half of the time spent on digital transformation projects is dedicated to defining the client’s needs and the necessary changes to optimize processes. The solution provided by DocProcess is cloud-based, 100% customizable and fully integrated with the client’s systems, particularly its ERP. Globally, Saint-Gobain aims to further digitalize its production processes. Following the successful implementation of the customized transport invoicing solution developed by DocProcess, the company intends to pursue additional digital transformation projects for its accounting department.
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly accelerated the process of digital transformation across Europe. The demand for DocProcess’s Business Ecosystem Automation services grew by 18% in 2020 as the company noted a 33% increase in the number of documents processed digitally in 2020 compared to the previous year. Moreover, in terms of financial performance, the company saw a 30% increase in its Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) in 2020, driven by the opening of a commercial office in Paris, France. In 2021, with the opening of the US office, DocProcess aims to double its ARR.
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About DocProcess
DocProcess offers Business Ecosystem Automation solutions that help companies streamline and automate processes. DocProcess shapes the future of how companies of all sizes run their business by enabling them to take control of processes through their whole business ecosystem and connecting them digitally with their clients, suppliers, or financial and logistics partners. Thanks to the platform’s flexibility, companies can mix solutions to fit their changing business needs and connect all aspects of their business workflows: Purchase-2-Pay, Order-2-Cash, E-invoicing, Logistics, Contract Management, reconciliation processes and more. All cross-referenced against record management and archiving.
Established in 2005 by Liviu Apolozan, DocProcess has a robust global footprint with offices in France (Paris and Grenoble), Romania (Bucharest and Brasov) and the USA (Austin).