RS Components

RS Components is part of Electrocomponents PLC, London, a global business operating in 32 countries and distributing to 160 countries worldwide. The company represents nearly 500,000 products—a big challenge for the UK-based finance team when invoicing suppliers. The UK team handles 50,000 supplier invoices a month from 4,000 vendors, and in eight currencies.

• An automated invoice entry process to eliminate keying
• Complete centralized control by AP of all supplier invoice processes
• Complete integration with SAP, including workflow
• Electronic archiving of invoice documents for retrieval
• Elimination of filing or retrieval of paper invoices
• Ability to use electronic workflow for subsequent invoice approvals processing
• Rapid invoice verification and query resolution
• Tools for continuous improvement of invoice processes.

The company says two of the biggest benefits of the solution are in auditing and compliance. The solution implemented at RS Components is integrated with its SAP ERP system—a major reason for choosing Kofax technology. Following implementation, RS Components has increased the number of invoices processed per month to 55,000 from 42,000, and reduced the number of full-time AP staff from 20 to 10. The company now has 90% of invoices going through the automated system—only 10% need verification. Overall, employment costs have been reduced by 36% per year.

Expanding the benefits

“Our UK team achieved ‘star awards’ for ongoing process improvements and we want to continue to be seen here a  innovators within our global organization,” Adams says. “The system we have in place from Kofax and Cogent will enable us to achieve that.” With a track record of success, Adams and her team are looking at process improvements that involve suppliers. “So far we have been focused purely on processing paper supplier invoices,” she says. “We are now looking at how email invoices can also be brought into the process. We’re confident that this is the next step.”