Ritchie Brothers

Unifying localized AP processes to achieve visibility and control

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Industry:

Construction, Transport & Logistics

Regions:

Global

Solutions:

AP Automation, E-Invoice Receiving

Ritchie Brothers assists customers in transacting used equipment through auctions and other marketplaces, both digitally and at live sites around the world.

With approximately 60 legal entities and seven global locations, the company needed to consolidate its localized P2P processes while allowing for differences in regulations. Ritchie Brothers facilitates over $6 billion worth of used equipment transactions a year. Since the company was founded over 50 years ago, it has expanded into various regions around the world and has operating units in over 20 countries.

Before implementing Basware, each region had its own unique P2P process in place. The company’s technology landscape was rudimentary: paper invoices and manual processing were the norm.

The company realised it needed a unified way of processing invoices, so began looking for a cloud platform that could support their business on a 24/7 global basis.

We’re experiencing a transformation. Prior to Basware, the AP team managed inputs but not really the outputs – Basware is enabling us to do both.” Oliver Piccard, VP - Global Financial Operations, Ritchie Brothers

Key takeaways

65%

Automatic invoice matching on day 1

100%

Data transparency

100%

Control of the technology

Ritchie Brothers challanges

Ritchie Brothers required a solution that could work seamlessly across borders to standardize invoice processing while adhering to local regulations. The aim was to achieve complete transparency and a single, consistent point of data.

The company needed technology that combined the functionality of the cloud with the high level of availability required for accommodating regulations in different regions.

How Ritchie Brothers achieved 65% automatic invoice matching with Basware

The implementation went smoothly, as did Basware’s integration with Ritchie Brothers’ existing technology. Oliver Piccard, the company’s VP of Global Financial Operations, attended weekly meetings with Basware’s lead implementation team to address the highest priority tasks. P2P professionals within the company leveraged these learnings to develop effective new processes

Implementation was straightforward from a technological perspective and mainly involved mapping out APIs and testing them for responsiveness. Once Basware AP Automation rolled out globally, Piccard reported that regional teams have been able to navigate and utilise the system quickly.

It’s early days but we’ve quickly been able to achieve 65% end to end ‘touchless’ automatic matching in North America. This significantly reduces paper processing and enhances our internal controls over a large portion of our spend.

Oliver Piccard, VP - Global Financial Operations, Ritchie Brothers

Results

Ritchie Brothers achieved 65% automatic matching upon implementation, and Basware’s Reporting tool is providing immediate visibility over vendor spend.

Standardisation across the company has been achieved with minimal business impact. Ritchie Brothers was able to hand over day-to-day responsibilities almost immediately and can provide feedback to local AP teams quickly. This level of responsiveness is already proving invaluable.

For example, when Ritchie Brothers encountered staffing issues in Australia, its North America team was able to provide support remotely. Piccard says he’s been “extremely pleased with Barware’s transparency and honesty” and describes Basware as a “real partner” that ensured “we had the very best product to meet our needs.” By unifying P2P processes through Basware AP Automation, Ritchie Brothers’ employees can now refocus their time on more value-added work.

It’s early days but we’ve quickly been able to achieve 65% end to end ‘touchless’ automatic matching in North America. This significantly reduces paper processing and enhances our internal controls over a large portion of our spend.” Oliver Piccard, VP - Global Financial Operations, Ritchie Brothers

Piccard finishes by saing, ”it’s been a real plug and play service. Once we’d created the APIs we felt like we were in control of our destiny. We haven't had to pass anything back to our tech team and aren't relying on their availability to support changes. Effectively we have 100% control of the technology within our department.”