Programme management key to e-invoicing success at HP

Posted by: Sandra on: April 7, 2011

In: Accounts Payable | e-Invoicing | Electronic invoicing | P2P | Payment on time | Procurement | Purchase-to-Pay | Shared Services
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Hewlett Packard is the world’s largest technology company. Not only does it sell IT hardware and related services, but it also lives and breathes the benefits. And its finance function is no exception.

Through its hugely successful e-invoicing programme, it has converted 1.8m of its invoices to electronic. Speaking on our latest sharedserviceslink.com webinar, Peter Downie, Global Invoice Automation Lead at HP, revealed how the company has managed to deliver such impressive results.

A shared-services pioneer, HP first embraced centralisation in 1990. Since then it has stormed ahead in its adoption and implementation of automation technologies. By 2000, the company already received 30% of its invoices via EDI and knew that e-invoicing would help bring more of its suppliers on board.

HP’s drivers were process efficiency, standardisation and cost savings, but it also pursued more intangible benefits, such as greater auditability, business intelligence and improved cash management.

Partnering with e-invoicing network, OB10, HP’s goal was to convert 80% of its entire manual invoice population to electronic through a fully tax compliant, global solution that was viable for all its suppliers.

With these objectives pretty much ticked off, Peter is focusing his attention on the resisting one hundreds (the suppliers who won’t convert), developing a portal that offers self-help tools, and embracing the benefits of dynamic discounting.

When asked to share his top-three strategies for success, he highlighted:

Understand your stakeholder framework; finance and procurement must work together hand in hand
Focus on economies of scale
Maintain ongoing programme management to support supplier enrolment, manage service providers and stakeholders, and process improvement.

Watch a recording of the webinar on the sharedserviceslink.com website.

Peter Downie is also speaking at e-Invoicing Europe 2011 in London in July.