Customer Story

INCREASING EFFICIENCY & EMPLOYEE & SUPPLIER SATISFACTION WITH P2P AUTOMATION

Industry
Retail/Wholesale
Solution
Accounts Payable
  • 50%
    Faster in invoice processing time
  • Productivity
    Improved employee productivity
  • Streamlined
    approval processes thanks to Esker’s mobile app

The Luxasia Group is a luxury specialist in retail and distribution with headquarters in Singapore and 15 locations across Asia. Luxasia is focused on bringing the best global luxury brands to Asia. Its portfolio, which consists of brands such as Burberry, Bvlgari, Dior, Diptyque, Ferragamo, Hermes, La Prairie and Prada, is curated from over 30 years of experience in the luxury beauty industry.

We have been able to standardise our payment cycles accross eight countries & with none of the backlogs we encountered prior to using Esker.
Zulaifah Abdul Ghani | Country Finance leads, Malaysia & Indonesia 

As a rapidly growing company in the luxury beauty industry, Luxasia was looking to set up a Shared Services Centre (SSC) in Malaysia to centralise its accounting department and automate the processing of supplier invoices — initially for its headquarters in Singapore and then, in a second phase, for its subsidiaries across Asia. At the same time, Luxasia also began to rethink internal operations and move to automate additional processes, including purchase requisitions and expense claims. Luxasia selected Esker’s Procure-to-Pay automation solution and has significantly improved its overall accounting process, streamlined workflows, eliminated all paper documents, and increased employee and supplier satisfaction.

 

Enhanced visibility & faster approval workflow

Employees seeking invoice approvals had previously created purchase requisitions by hand and printed them out. Purchase orders (POs) were then manually created in the company’s SAP® system, making it difficult to coordinate and retrieve information and documents. In addition to operational costs and workload escalating, the overall invoicing process was progressively slower, resulting in increased dissatisfaction among employees and suppliers.

With full process visibility, we are confident that all documents make their way through the system & know that we will be prompted if an issue requires immediate action.
Account Executive

Simplified process & enhanced communication

Luxasia was also processing its internal expense claims by hand. Employees would use Excel spreadsheets, scan paper receipts, then print and pass them on to an accounts payable (AP) specialist to process. The AP specialist would then have to manually enter the information into SAP. The expense claim automation functionality has helped Luxasia reduce 80% of paper use, as users no longer need to print hard copy receipts. Employees can now track their claims and easily communicate with the AP team using the comments section in the solution interface. 

Increased employee productivity & streamlined processes

With manual data entry eliminated, processing rates have more than doubled and processing capacity has increased by 2.5 times. In the same amount of time it took to process 400 invoices, AP specialists now process over 1,000 invoices. Luxasia now automates its 36,000 annual supplier invoices at its recently created SSC. Esker’s multi-language capabilities, template-free technology and external-ERP workflow eliminate the headache of processing diverse invoice formats and languages from multiple offices. Esker has delivered new levels of efficiency to Luxasia’s SSC.

Thanks to Esker, Luxasia can now raise a purchase requisition and trigger a workflow for approval of non-inventory items. As a result, workflow approval time is four times faster as Esker provides notifications to approvers. Once the purchase requisition is approved, Esker creates the corresponding PO and automatically sends a copy to the supplier. The receiver creates the goods receipt by entering the quantity received and the information is pushed to SAP.  

Beyond the increase in productivity and process visibility, we have been able to streamline and standardise our processes, as well as align accounting entries which were not consistent regionally.
Zulaifah Abdul Ghani | Country Finance leads, Malaysia & Indonesia 

By automating its purchasing process, Luxasia has been able to eliminate paper approvals and gain visibility over the entire process, particularly for those outside of the purchase requisition process. Esker’s mobile application, Esker Anywhere™ , has also increased P2P efficiency thanks to fewer slowdowns and faster approvals.  

Agile methodology & reduced operational cost 

Esker’s solution was implemented quickly thanks to Esker’s use of the Agile Methodology and is seamlessly integrated with Luxasia’s SAP system. Esker’s portal has helped Luxasia achieve costs savings as more vendors are using the supplier portal, resulting in increased early payment discounts. Additionally, with invoices submitted via the portal, physical archiving costs are down. Esker's P2P solution has enabled us to easily operate remotely with no interruptions to work, as we are familiar with the platform. We are pleased that Esker is supporting us in our long term vision of further increasing productivity and reducing cost.

Business continuity 

Esker’s comprehensive solution allows Luxasia’s P2P operations to continue running smoothly and uninterrupted, from any location. 

Esker's P2P solution has enabled us to easily operate remotely with no interruptions to work, as we are familiar with the platform. We are pleased that Esker is supporting us in our long term vision of further increasing productivity and reducing cost.
Zulaifah Abdul Ghani | Country Finance leads, Malaysia & Indonesia 

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