SUCCESS STORYIFCO SYSTEMS
Industry• Consumer products

Solution• OpenText™ Vendor Invoice Management(VIM) for SAP Solutions®

Results
Accelerated validation for freightand non-freight invoices
Ensured consistency andaccessibility across dozens
of countries
Enhanced business growth
and resilience in shifting
market demands

IFCO accelerates invoice validation
for fresh food supply chain
World’s largest supplier of reusable plastic containers boosts
productivity to meet growing demand with OpenText™ Vendor Invoice®
Management (VIM) for SAP Solutions
VIM enabled IFCO todramatically acceleratethe approval andvalidation process.

IFCO accelerates invoice validation for fresh food supply chain

1.7 billion: it’s the number of food shipments moved from suppliers
to grocery retailers in IFCO SYSTEMS reusable plastic containers(RPCs) every year.
Close to three decades ago, IFCO was the first company to develop
an outsourced pooling system of RPCs for fresh fruits and vegetables.
The global provider headquartered in Germany now offers more than
70 models of RPCs, ranging from green display-ready cases for freshproduce to yellow stackable totes for meat. All are constructed ofdurable food-safe plastic and designed to ensure temperature control
to maintain product freshness. Compared to single-use packaging,
RPCs reduce damage and food waste while their reuse reduces
energy and material waste.
Serving customers in more than 50 countries with 314 million RPCs,
IFCO has more units in circulation worldwide than any other supplier.
As such, efficient logistics to ensure RPCs land when and where they
are needed are core to the operator’s business model. Containers
must be delivered clean and ready to use; then collected, sanitized
and redistributed to thousands of growers, producers and retailers
based on seasonal need, according to Florian Bickert, director ofcorporate applications & processes for IFCO.
Not surprisingly, close to 80 percent of invoices submitted to IFCO
are freight invoices from carriers, dropping additional tasks on theIFCO finance team, noted Bickert. Freight invoices must be validated
against internal documents, such as delivery records and sales orders
within IFCO’s SAP® system; however, the previous technology IFCO
used for validation was an external tool, based outside of its ERPsolution. The RPC supplier maintained a separate system to validate
the vast majority of incoming invoices, adding complexity and manualsteps that slowed processing.

IFCO chose OpenText™ Vendor Invoice Management (VIM) for SAP®
Solutions to augment and leverage its SAP environment for all
invoices. VIM includes pre-configured rules, roles and actions toautomate invoice receipt and posting. It enables IFCO to validate all
invoices against enterprise records within SAP, taking advantage ofsecurity standards, data privacy and end-to-end workflows.
Midway through implementation of VIM, the COVID-19 pandemic
altered IFCO’s planned course of action with a shifting workforce
and dramatic volatility in demand across the globe. Back-officeefforts moved into dozens of home offices. Still, the supplier moved
forward with assurance, completing preparation to move the whole
company to VIM within four weeks. In total, IFCO rolled out VIM to 25
countries within 18 months.
IFCO accounts payable professionals access invoices and related
documentation via VIM regardless of their location. Most invoices areprocessed automatically and approved for payment through deep
integration between the invoice management tool and SAP. OpenText
optical character recognition, archival and processing via a mobile
application added integrated solutions beyond invoice validation.
Migration to OpenText also encouraged a standardized electronic
format for invoice submissions, as the team used the project toharmonize communication with its vendors.
Using VIM along with integrated capabilities, IFCO can now handle all
invoices with tools and processes across the enterprise that propel
productivity and support business resilience and growth. Currently,
close to 500 personnel use VIM to validate invoices, with 100 acting
as approvers.

Even during the pandemic,
IFCO scaled AP operations
to support increased
business with growers,
warehouse operatorsand retailers.

IFCO accelerates invoice validation for fresh food supply chain

Consistency across borders

Resilience across external forces

Though requirements vary by country, IFCO meets all regulations
through VIM, enabling reliable and consistent invoice management
regardless of the location. Many legal aspects were recognizedright out of the box, others were accommodated as needed throughdesign and workflow. While implementing one template globally,
the team added different legal requirements and cultural aspects inthe approval process for each country—a customization received
positively by IFCO personnel.

VIM supports stability in an industry affected by natural disasters
and market fluctuations, according to Bickert. In response to theCOVID-19 pandemic, IFCO relied on VIM to maintain constantconnections with its vendors for ongoing service to customers
experiencing disruption. The invoice management solution eased
the shift from back-office work to home office work, ensuring
IFCO limited interference on daily business to serve all thevalidation processes.

Furthermore, compared to limited languages available in the previous
invoice management solution, VIM supports modern adaptability forthe multinational organization. IFCO now offers several options in
native languages for numerous countries, boosting the acceptance
rate among requestors and approvers.

In fact, VIM supports IFCO in its growth-focused effort to conduct
more business with the same headcount: Even as it experienced
new conditions related to the pandemic, IFCO scaled AP operations
to support increased business with growers, warehouse operatorsand retailers.

Productivity across workplaces

In the future, IFCO plans to extend automation capabilities for freight
invoices as well as reduce its high rate of non-PO invoices to further
enhance validation and approval processes.

Through OCR technology, incoming invoices are automaticallyrecognized and routed for approval. SAP integration leverages
workflow efficiency. Altogether, VIM enabled IFCO to dramaticallyaccelerate the approval and validation process by reducing themanual steps required to validate freight invoices. The expedited
process gained enthusiasm from AP professionals who can access
VAT (value-added tax) codes immediately and act quickly on changes.
Along with time-savings, use of VIM also eliminated occasional
double payments more common with the manual system.

About OpenText
OpenText, The Information Company,
enables organizations to gain insight
through market leading information
management solutions, on-premises orin the cloud. For more information about
OpenText (NASDAQ: OTEX, TSX: OTEX)
visit opentext.com.
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