CASE STUDY: Boels Rental

BOELS HEAD OF AP IS EXCITED TO “AUTOMATE, AUTOMATE, AUTOMATE”

THE FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT FOR BOELS RENTAL NOW THAT THEY’RE FULLY EMBRACING INVOICE AUTOMATION WITH BASWARE – SO MUCH SO THAT IT IS HELPING GIVE THEIR HEAD OF AP EUROPE A LOT OF ENTHUSIASM.

“I can’t wait to go to work half years ago, which is when Rob tomorrow to automate, automate, joined their team. CUSTOMER: automate,” says Rob van der

Hagen, Head of Accounts Payable Boels Rental decided to move to (AP) Europe at Boels Rental. Basware’s cloud solution because they knew Basware was the right It wasn’t always this way, but partner for automating incoming INDUSTRY: invoices in a diverse range of now that Boels have started Machinery and equipment to automate their processes formats: XML invoices, machine- readable PDF, or e-invoices. They successfully, they believe they can LOCATION: move from 5% to 20% automation also wanted to be able to use in just a year. In an organisation templates for non-PO invoices and Europe with a highly complex system for payment plans for recurring costs pre-booking invoices, this sort of such as rent, electricity, gas etc. BASWARE SOLUTION: progress impressive. Boels knew that Basware was • Basware e-Invoice sending MOVING FROM already helping them increase and receiving • Basware PDF e-Invoice BASWARE’S ON-PREMISE employee productivity (from 69-81 invoices per day) and receiving SOLUTION TO THEIR wanted to use Basware’s analytics • Basware Scan & Capture CLOUD OFFERING solution to give them a better • Basware AP Automation Boels Rental has been using view of the bottlenecks within • Basware AP Analytics Basware for many years and their organisation, as well as moved away from their on-premise look to outsource their scanning solution towards the cloud-based to Basware’s Scan & Capture SaaS offering nearly three and a services. BOELS NOW HAS A LOT MORE VISIBILITY OF THE BOTTLENECKS WITHIN THEIR AP PROCESSES THANKS TO BASWARE’S BUILT-IN ANALYTICS TOOLS.

nature of Boels’ invoice pre- “and by the end of the year we “WHEN YOU START TO booking system create challenges. hope to get to 20-25%. That gives IMPLEMENT SOMETHING me a lot of energy. I can’t wait to NEW YOU ALWAYS ON REFLECTION: go to work tomorrow to automate, HAVE TO THINK – DO WE CHANGING PROCESSES automate, automate. I’m very enthusiastic about the Basware STILL HAVE TO DO IT When Van der Hagen first joined cloud solution now.” LIKE THIS? MAYBE OUR the company, Boels wanted to have exactly the same functionality as the INTERNAL ORGANISATION Boels now has a lot more visibility old Basware system. Upon reflection, SHOULD CHANGE OR OUR of the bottlenecks within their AP Van der Hagen thinks that changing PROCESSES SHOULD processes thanks to Basware’s and looking at processes first would CHANGE. built-in analytics tools. This has have been the better route to take. enabled them to see that a lot WHEN I LOOK BACK NOW, Van der Hagen says, “When you of their challenges have resulted WE’VE HAD SOME GOOD start to implement something new from issues on-site such as CONSULTANTS FROM you always have to think – do we incorrect creation of purchase BASWARE’S ADVISORY still have to do it like this? Maybe orders missing goods receipt SERVICES TEAM. THEY our internal organisation should bookings. This visibility has allowed CHALLENGED US TO change or our processes should them to work on solutions to LOOK AT OUR PROCESSES change. We didn’t take that into improve these issues. “Basware analytics is a very nice tool,” says AND SEE HOW WE COULD consideration at first but our whole Rob, “We’re using that more and CHANGE THAT.” perspective has changed in the last three years. more at the moment. It can help Rob van der Hagen, Head of AP us see where the problems are Europe, Boels Rental When I look back now, we’ve had within our organisation and where some good consultants from the challenges are with the people Basware’s Advisory Services team who pre-book invoices. We can who have asked us about how Today they are able to do all of easily find this within Basware. We we’ve processed things and asked this and more – but getting there can also improve our own people’s if we could do things differently. wasn’t always smooth sailing. skills and help them learn how to They challenged us to look at our book invoices faster.” “When I first heard about the SaaS processes and see how we could solution I thought there would be change that.” VAT ISSUES many opportunities to automate In addition, Boels has been able to invoices – that was what impressed EXCITEMENT ABOUT THE resolve issues around the different me the most and how we could RESULTS treatments of VAT due to varying do that,” says Van der Hagen “We’ve just started to automate codes and regulations around Unfortunately the highly complex 5% of our processes,” says Rob, Europe thanks to the innovative

02/ www.basware.com use of VAT templates available matched directly to a purchase within Basware’s SaaS solution. BY 2025 THEY MAY HAVE order from amongst their 1 MILLION INVOICES TO suppliers. OTHER CHALLENGES: PROCESS BUT VAN DER EACH AUTOMATED OVERCOME HAGEN SAYS, The use of templates to help INVOICE MAKES THEM them pre-code ledger entries and “I DON’T WANT 50 HAPPY identify cost centres has helped PEOPLE. I CAME HERE “They pay my salary to improve improve automation significantly. TO AUTOMATE. I WANT automation,” says Van der Hagen. Boels have also been able to create TO KEEP 25 PEOPLE AND “The SaaS solution was made payment plans within Basware’s COPE WITH THE GROWTH. to automate invoices. Because it system to automatically process didn’t work initially, I didn’t feel I WANT THE SAME TEAM recurring invoices. like I was earning my own salary SIZE BUT TO AUTOMATE back. Now I have so much energy THE BASWARE 80% OF OUR INVOICE because I can see that it’s 20% SUPPLIER ACTIVATION PROCESSING BY THEN. I automated – that’s four FTEs! I’m PROGRAMME THINK WE CAN GET THERE looking at all our invoices, I can WITH BASWARE’S HELP.” But one of the most useful things, see which suppliers I can automate or can’t. I’m constantly busy and in Rob’s opinion, is the success Rob van der Hagen, Head of AP looking into all our companies and of their supplier activation Europe, Boels Rental programme which enables suppliers and looking to automate suppliers to send machine- readable PDFs directly to the I want the same team size but Basware portal. Potentially to automate 80% of our invoice 25,000 invoices can be sent processing by then. I think we can through the Basware portal and get there with Basware’s help. I’m be pre-booked automatically. very positive about Basware.” “That’s really fantastic!” says Van der Hagen. “We want to have as MATCHING PURCHASE many suppliers sending invoices ORDERS straight into the Basware portal as In addition: 250,000 purchase possible.” orders will have been processed FROM 180,000 TO 1 annually by the end of 2018 – 42% of which have a goods receipt (GR), MILLION INVOICES – 38% of which are regular orders WITH THE SAME NUMBER without a GR, and 20% are depot OF STAFF orders. 75% of the invoices are Rob currently manages a team of 25 people across Europe, and as the business expands he doesn’t want to increase the size of his team. When he joined the company, they were processing 180,000 invoices per year. Boels are expecting around 300,000 this year and by 2025 they may have as many as 1 million invoices to process. Van der Hagen says, “I don’t want 50 people. I came here to automate. I want to keep 25 people and cope with the growth.

03/ www.basware.com this together with my team leader. Each invoice that is automated “I DON’T WANT YOUR ABOUT BOELS RENTAL makes me happy. I get a lot of SOFTWARE – I WANT YOUR Boels Rental is the largest hire energy from it.” EXPERTISE AND I WANT provider of equipment and YOU TO HELP ME GET TO tools in Europe. With more than WHY WOULD THEY THE AUTOMATION LEVEL 2,500 products and 4,000 RECOMMEND BASWARE’S THAT I WANT – AND I employees over 400 stores they service the , SAAS SOLUTION TO WANT TO PAY FOR THAT. OTHERS? , , THE SOFTWARE COMPANY , , , “It’s very user friendly and is SHOULD HELP ME DO MY the , the Czech faster than the old version. When JOB BETTER.” Republic, , , we pre-booked in Basware in the Norway, Denmark, , past it took about 20 seconds – Rob van der Hagen, Head of AP Hungary, and France. now it’s booked straight away. Our Europe, Boels Rental average of booking invoices went up by 80 invoices per person per day because it’s much faster and do things like we do now, but we based solution is about getting more user-friendly. With Basware double in size every 10 years – the right help. “You really need a payment plans, analytics and we have to move on and change good business consultant to make e-invoicing it all helps us do our and look at processes. I think you it perfect, to make it happen,” says jobs better.” should look at your own, internal Van der Hagen. “You can’t do it by organisation. I didn’t do that yourself.” WHAT ARE THEIR when I started working here. Now LESSONS FOR OTHER I’m thinking much more about Rob believes that software is PEOPLE LOOKING TO GO processes – so I’ve moved on, only the starting point. “I don’t TO E-INVOICING ON THE myself, as well.” want your software – I want your expertise and I want you to help CLOUD? FINALLY: MAKE USE OF me get to the automation level Van der Hagen says, “Look at BUSINESS CONSULTING that I want – and I want to pay for your own company first. Make that. The software company should SERVICES a blueprint. Ask yourself: if you help me do my job better.” did it like this at the beginning Van der Hagen’s final word of should you still do it like this advice to anyone looking to move Today, that’s exactly what Basware later? Five years ago we could from an on-premise to a cloud- does for Rob and for Boels Rental.

ABOUT BASWARE Basware is the global leader in providing purchase-to-pay solutions, e-invoicing and innovative financing services. Basware’s commerce and financing network connects businesses around the globe. As the largest open business network in the world, Basware provides scale and reach for organisations of all sizes, enabling them to grow their business and unlock value across their operations by simplifying and streamlining financial processes. Small and large companies around the world achieve significant cost savings, more flexible payment terms, greater efficiencies and closer relationships with their suppliers. ©Basware 2018

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