The Challenge
In 2012, The Guardian’s Accounts Receivable team dedicated a number of staff and several hours per day to manually send invoices by post. This process required time to print invoices and address labels, check details, and then stuff and frank thousands of envelopes.
Beyond the labor required to do this, purchasing materials as well as the hire and maintenance of a franking machine made for a costly process.
Moreover, the team involved with the manual process of sending invoices by post were unable to focus on driving financial efficiency through ensuring balances were being collected in an accurate and timely manner.
Beyond the immediate inefficiencies of paper based invoicing, customer demand for e-billing was growing. The need for an EDI (Electronic Document Interchange) invoicing solution was apparent, and so the search for an e-invoicing provider began.
The Solutions
The Guardian needed a solution that would help them streamline their invoicing process, reducing the cost whilst improving both accuracy and the timeliness of credit control.
Corcentric was the obvious choice for The Guardian, already trusted by news and media brands such News UK and ITV for their market leading electronic invoicing solution. Corcentric is intimately aware of the nuances to invoicing in the news and media industry, and deployed a team to swiftly integrate and tailor the solution to exactly meet The Guardian’s invoicing needs.
One of the driving forces behind the project was the increasing volume of invoices required to support two of The Guardian’s largest circulation clients – Menzies and WHSmiths. The EDI invoicing solution from Corcentric enabled a quicker, more accurate and cost-efficient management of these invoices.
Many of The Guardian’s other contracts were, and still are, dependent on EDI to connect with solutions from the likes of Tradacom and Media Ocean. Corcentric is pivotal in maintaining these relationships through seamless and secure EDI.
The Results
The Guardian has been a Corcentric client for 3 years now, seeing not only a streamlined credit control process but substantial costs savings and a dramatic reduction of DSO.
Corcentric has enabled The Guardian to realize the strategic advantage of electronic billing. The extent of the efficiency improvements runs to between 3 and 5 days per month, allowing the accounts receivable team to focus on more productive tasks in this time.
“With a team of developers on hand with extensive technical expertise, one-to-one contact with our own account manager that I can speak with on a regular basis, making us aware of future trends that could affect us, Corcentric has enabled us to gain not just an operational upgrade but a strategic advantage.”
“Through improved invoicing efficiency, accuracy, and visibility, Corcentric saves us hours every day.”
– Mark Eyers, Head of Accounts Receivable, The Guardian
Corcentric also supports and automates legacy billing requirements such as print and post and even fax where required, helping transition customers to more efficient electronic invoicing over time. Sometimes the process required PDF by email before later moving to full-blow EDI invoicing, but either option is swift to implement, working at the right pace for each customer.
“Corcentric has helped drive e-invoicing migration with 60-70% of our suppliers now receiving electronic documents. A few times a year, we provide Corcentric with a list of our customers who could potentially be moved to e-invoicing. Through a dedicated campaign Corcentric helps us to transition these customers over. In the long run this helps us drive down our costs considerably, eliminating print and postage costs, etc.”
Implementing Corcentric has preserved customer relationships, improved cash flow through billing efficiency, and resulted in strategic advantage for The Guardian.
Spotlight
Customer
About the company
As a leading news organization, The Guardian News & Media delivers news across a range of different platforms. As part of their digital-first strategy, they deploy a distinctive, open approach to publishing on the web, reaching a global audience in the tens of millions.
Solutions Deployed
- e-Invoicing
- Print Automation
- EDI Integration
Results
Greater
efficiency & agility
3+
days saved each month
70%
adopting e-invoices
Reduced
post & printing costs