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Results after just one month when Compass Group implemented Purchase to Pay with Proceedo

Compass Group has been using Proceedo for several years to coordinate and streamline its purchasing.

Without Proceedo, which brings together all suppliers and centrally agreed prices, everyday life would look very different at Compass Group's 220 restaurants around Sweden.

The purchasing department negotiates prices centrally with suppliers and selects the best suppliers and goods. The selected range is then available in Proceedo for all restaurants to make their purchases from.

This, combined with delivery fees that motivate fewer and larger purchases, means that Compass Group overall has lower purchasing costs and fewer transports - good for both the cash register and the environment.

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Manual handling made unreasonable demands

Jesper van Eijk has been CFO at Compass Group for a couple of years now. A large part of his assignment is streamlining, and the focus early on was on getting a well-functioning purchase to pay process.

Compass Group has an annual turnover of SEK 2.5 billion, but Jesper van Eijk says that the processes in place when he started were adapted for a much smaller company.

- "We didn't have good cost control," he says. Everyone placed their orders in Proceedo, but when the invoice arrived, you still had to manually check all the goods and make sure the invoice was correct. This meant a responsibility on the unit managers that was not realistic to put on them.

It quickly became clear to Jesper van Eijk that the unit managers at the 220 restaurants around Sweden needed better support to make the work of purchasing easier, especially in connection with and after delivery. And Compass Group needed to create a better understanding of costs for both the individual restaurants and the entire company.

- "It was taking a lot of time from our employees to administer invoices instead of being in the kitchen or doing other more value-adding activities," says Jesper van Eijk.

Everything in one reliable and user-friendly system

Compass Group looked at a few different systems for invoice management, but chose to expand their collaboration with Proceedo to a complete purchase to pay solution. Jesper van Eijk emphasizes the value of having everything in the same system, where the entire process from purchase to payment takes place in Proceedo. But it was a combination of the functionality, efficiency and innovation that the system could offer that made the decision.

- "It is very important for us to have a system that is reliable. It has to work without interruptions, and it has to be user-friendly, visually attractive and easy to understand," explains Jesper van Eijk and continues:

- "And we need to have a strategic fit. That is, we need a partner who understands us. We handle large amounts of invoices, 150,000 per year, so we need a large counterpart, that is extremely important. Another aspect is innovative ways of working. We come from a world where everything has traditionally been done on the desktop, but Proceedo has come a long way with mobile functions so that a lot of work can be done from home, for example," explains Jesper van Eijk.

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After one month, 15% of invoices are handled touchlessly, where the matching is done without human intervention. 15% is a lot after just one month.

Jesper van Eijk

Chief Financial Officer, Compass Group

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Promising results from day one

In the spring of 2024, the complete purchase to pay solution was implemented in Proceedo, where as much as possible of the invoices are handled without manual intervention. 30 percent is the goal, and already from the start, the figures show very promising results.

- We've been live for a month now, and I'm very happy with the first results. Already now, 15 percent of the invoices are handled touchless, where the matching takes place without human intervention. 15 percent is a lot already after one month, especially considering the teething problems that always come with a large project like this, says Jesper van Eijk.

Because Compass Group handles such a large volume of invoices, every little time saving has a big positive impact. An average invoice currently takes about ten minutes to process. When we reach our goal of processing at least 40,000 invoices per year without any manual intervention, this means a total time saving of 6,000-7,000 hours.

- Another aspect is that when we tested this, we found deviations where we were overcharged by half a percent. It may not sound like much, but if we can avoid that when we are buying for almost a billion, it is a saving of five million SEK per year.

Good cooperation and quick results

For a large project like this to go according to plan, good cooperation is needed between all those involved. Jesper van Eijk highlights several important reasons for the success of the project.

- "We received a very professional approach and there was a lot of flexibility from Proceedo - for example, what we can do to keep costs down when plans change. The scalability, the ability to scale up and the flexibility of the system are values that Jesper van Eijk wants to highlight as important components of the successful collaboration between Proceedo and Compass Group. Based on the results after one month of purchase to pay, he is hopeful, and is already planning for future expansion and improvement.

- "This has been effective from day one, and until September 2024 we will ensure that it is implemented and tuned in. Then we will see. Among other things, we have talked about taking a closer look at the budget module so that you can see more clearly when the budget is spent.

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Compass Group

Why Compass Group chose to go full purchase to pay with Proceedo

  • 15% touchless invoices already after the first month
  • Everything gathered in the same system
  • Large and stable partner = great understanding
  • Broad functionality provides good opportunities to build on the system
  • Good flexibility and service from Proceedo