Customer Story: Cramo
The service level has increased, and employee satisfaction in the accounts payable department has improved. Staff input is being used much more efficiently than before Snowfox.
Emilia Niskanen
Financial Manager, Accounts Payable
Main Branch
Vantaa, Finland
Personnel
Cramo
Cramo Group is a leading provider of rental services in the construction industry in Europe, operating across 17 different countries. Their offerings include services supporting construction, renovation, and maintenance.
Cramo Group is a leading provider of rental services in the construction industry in Europe, operating across 17 different countries. Their offerings include services supporting construction, renovation, and maintenance. Cramo aims to enhance customers’ efficiency and productivity through on-site services and digital solutions. Cramo Finland Oy is part of the Boels-Cramo Group. Boels-Cramo operates in 17 countries and has 750 locations, with 200 in Northern Europe.
Hundreds of thousands of purchase invoices manually processed
Cramo receives several hundred thousand purchase invoices annually. The number of personnel reviewing these invoices is considerable. Invoices are reviewed in many different countries, but they are centrally routed through Finland. Apart from the need for automating the accounting process, Cramo required significant assistance in routing invoices. Additionally, there was a need to improve and automate other aspects of the purchase invoice process.
Before Snowfox, only about 10% of all invoices were processed automatically through purchase orders or payment plans. This meant that 90% of invoices required manual accounting or routing. Although rules were created to improve the level of automation in the system, they proved to be limited.
Routing purchase invoices was a laborious process for Cramo’s accounts payable team. Finding an approver for purchase invoices required a significant amount of time, and it was difficult to route invoices on time. The situation was further exacerbated by the manual accounting of invoices for countries outside the Nordic region. In Nordic countries, invoice accounting is the responsibility of the invoice reviewer in business operations. The amount of manual work created a sense of urgency in the accounts payable team. Additionally, the service level of the accounts payable department needed improvement. In the midst of these challenges, Cramo’s Emilia Niskanen was immediately excited about what Snowfox offered to help the situation.
Why was artificial intelligence decided to be included in the purchase invoice process?
There was a desire to significantly reduce manual work related to the processing of purchase invoices. Both accounting work and routing were to be automated as much as possible. Previously, due to extensive manual work, the turnaround time for invoices was long, and invoices were paid somewhat late. This led to complaints from both Cramo internally and from suppliers.
Automation was also intended to improve the employee experience in the accounts payable department. The goal was to reduce the sense of urgency and make the work more meaningful.
Implementation went smoothly
From Cramo’s perspective, the implementation was fast and agile and included an appropriate number of meetings and discussions. Snowfox was integrated into Cramo’s BaswareP2P purchase invoice system through ready-made interfaces. Cramo’s challenges were carefully considered when training the AI models, and the groundwork had been done well. Overall, the implementation went very well.
“The implementation was customer-oriented overall. Agility is the most appropriate word for the implementation of Snowfox,” says Emilia Niskanen.
The operational model of artificial intelligence required initial learning and trust
The introduction of artificial intelligence was met with some skepticism. Before artificial intelligence, all automation was based on individual rules, and there was no previous experience with artificial intelligence. Employees faced some challenges in trusting the accuracy of artificial intelligence because the conclusions of artificial intelligence cannot practically be controlled. One must simply trust that artificial intelligence utilizes all the information from invoices and makes conclusions based on them. Previously, when each automation rule was created individually, one knew exactly what they were based on. However, automation based solely on rules could only be applied to 10% of invoices, leading to a massive manual workload.
Fortunately, artificial intelligence has demonstrated its capabilities in practice, and it has begun to be trusted due to accurate predictions. This phase has been a crucial learning journey into the world of artificial intelligence for Cramo.
Artificial intelligence has taken purchase invoice automation to a completely new level
Snowfox predicts, through artificial intelligence, the accounting of purchase invoices for Cramo with all its tracking points and approval chains. Previously, almost all invoices were halted in the accounts payable department before being sent to approvers. Now, when Snowfox predicts the accounting and approval chain for invoices, a significant portion of invoices is automatically sent to the approver without initial review by the accounts payable department. Only invoices for which artificial intelligence is not sufficiently confident in accounting or the approver are stopped for review by the accounts payable department.
The level of automation has increased from 10% to over 80%. For Cramo’s volumes, this means hundreds of thousands of automated invoices annually.
The significant increase in automation was achieved rapidly after going into production. From the customer’s perspective, automation is achieved effortlessly. Snowfox handles the training of artificial intelligence and the development of automation, so the customer does not need to spend time preparing or maintaining rules. While in production, Snowfox’s artificial intelligence continuously updates itself, meaning that the system evolves and stays up to date despite changes.
Adding Snowfox to the purchase invoice system has proven to be a very good solution. Snowfox responded to automation needs beyond expectations.
With the implementation of Snowfox, the time spent on routing invoices has been reduced to just 5% of what it was before Snowfox. Especially in countries where a large portion of invoices arrive in PDF format, routing invoices had been extremely challenging.
Emilia Niskanen is delighted with the achieved automation: “Now, invoices are sent to the approver within minutes of arrival, as Snowfox handles the accounting and routing of invoices. The near-elimination of routing invoices by Snowfox has been fantastic.”
Artificial intelligence supports the system's internal rule-based automation
Snowfox handles for Cramo only those purchase invoices for which there is no internal automation in Basware. Thus, artificial intelligence supports the system’s internal automation and helps Cramo achieve the most automated purchase invoice process possible.
Traditional rule-based solutions did not work for PDF invoices, so Snowfox’s impact on this problem was obvious. Artificial intelligence also proved to be particularly adept at predicting approvers for PDF invoices. Without Snowfox, this problem could not have been solved.
“It’s good that we can combine system automation and Snowfox. The purchase invoice system has its limits, but with Snowfox, we can complement it. Additionally, Snowfox makes predictions for those invoices for which the supplier is new.”
A more satisfied accounts payable team
Manual work has been greatly reduced in the accounts payable department overall, and the sense of urgency has decreased. Accounting has shifted more towards quality and accuracy checks. Now, more time can be spent on tasks such as checking tax codes. Freed-up time can also be used for other developments in financial management and customer service.
“I like that my team can increasingly become experts. It shows appreciation for people to add more complexity to their work. The service level has increased, and employee satisfaction in the accounts payable department has improved. Staff input is being used much more efficiently than before Snowfox.”
The accounts payable department has also moved beyond individual invoice clicks to expand tasks. Emilia is very pleased about this: “It feels good to give my subordinates tasks related to analysis and artificial intelligence.”
With the improvement in the process and employee satisfaction, Cramo’s Accounts Payable service level has risen, which has been noticed by various stakeholders. Due to better service, the accounts payable department has received positive feedback. “We received an invoice yesterday, and it was already paid today.”
Continuous service
The continuous service model of Snowfox is appreciated, and Emilia hopes that the agility will remain. Regular meetings are held with Snowfox, and emails are sent as needed. In addition to Snowfox’s analytics and application being very functional, they support the use of the service.
“Snowfox always asks how things are going and listens to us. That’s important.”
Emilia smartly states that the journey into the world of artificial intelligence together has been an important path for Cramo’s staff: “Snowfox has guided Cramo from a rule-based world to the world of artificial intelligence. I feel that with Snowfox, we get to be at the forefront of financial management. I have also learned a lot in this collaboration.”
Achieved benefits: The time spent on routing invoices has been significantly reduced, practically to just five percent (5%) of the time spent before Snowfox. High automation was also achieved for PDF invoices. Large volumes of invoices can be processed with a modest team: Staff input is used more efficiently. The resource requirement for accounts payable has decreased. Invoices start moving independently in an instant when Snowfox defines the approver and accounting, and the system forwards the invoice. Cramo’s service levels have increased, and positive feedback has increased internally from stakeholders after the implementation of Snowfox. The quality of accounting has improved. Errors have decreased with artificial intelligence. Employees are more satisfied, and urgency has decreased.
Emilia recommends Snowfox to everyone
“I can’t see a place where Snowfox’s artificial intelligence service couldn’t be tried. All accounts payable departments worldwide struggle with manual accounting, routing, taxes, and invoice turnaround speed.”
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