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Real-time tracking
Clear visibility into invoices and spending gives teams complete oversight and eliminates unexpected “bill shock”.
$500,000/year estimated cost savings
Smarter purchasing and better supplier management deliver substantial annual savings.
Solution
Esker
Industry
Not-for-profit / social services
Background
Care for older people, social services for families and people in need, food banks, op shops, mental health care – Presbyterian Support Otago (PSO) does a lot of good for people in the Otago region. The not-for-profit has been operating in various forms since 1906, when it opened a care home for children.
Today, PSO manages multiple properties and community programmes, with hundreds of employees and volunteers, but messy and disconnected internal systems were holding things back. There were lots to do, but for PSO IT manager Nic Mair, updating the invoice and procurement processes was the best first step.
“When we looked at what was going to give us the best bang for buck, it was like a no-brainer,” he explains. “I knew that’s where we had to go first.”
Enter: Fujifilm Process Automation.
A paper-heavy legacy
Before 2022, PSO relied on manual, paper-based processes for much of its work, including invoice management and procurement. While inexpensive on the surface, what Nic describes as an “incredibly manual and time consuming” process was costing the organisation money that could be better spent elsewhere.
“Paper invoices could arrive anywhere in the organisation and then disappear into a black hole,” says Nic. “If one went missing, we had to go back to the supplier and ask them to resend it.”
Invoices were physically printed and mailed for approval, then mailed back to head office to be entered into the system. This slow, drawn-out workflow inevitably led staff to find faster alternatives, often ordering what they needed directly from their preferred suppliers.
“We were getting weekly bill shock because we had no idea what they were ordering. We were flying blind.”
The supplier list grew to include thousands of rarely used vendors, and PSO had no practical way to enforce preferred supplier agreements.
“We were ordering 16 different types of beans. We asked why there was so much variety, and kitchen staff said, ‘Because we could.’”
That’s what it’s all about, at the end of the day. Every dollar we save, and every process we improve, means we can deliver more support to the people and communities we serve.
Nic Mair | IT Manager
Presbyterian Support Otago
Esker and Fujifilm Process Automation transform PSO
The Fujifilm Process Automation team had worked with similarly complex not for profit organisations before, and as experts in Esker, which was PSO’s chosen software, they were the ideal partner for the transformation.
Nic says the organisation valued the team’s advice on best practice workflows for the system.
“Their value wasn’t just in implementation. We were perfectly happy modifying our business processes to support a modern way of doing things. They helped us understand what good looked like.”
Shifting to a new way of working also meant bringing internal stakeholders along for the journey, including everyone from the head accountant and process owners through to staff in each kitchen.
FUJIFILM Process Automation supported the team throughout the implementation by updating software, refining processes and creating custom catalogues for procurement.
Staff, many of whom had very limited computer experience, completed general IT training alongside specific Esker training before the system went live. This meant they were ready to start immediately and genuinely excited for the change.
“We changed the maturity of the organisation literally overnight, because our people saw the value of a systems approach,” says Nic.
The new platform has transformed the way PSO works. With new internal catalogues and ‘punch-out’ integrations with suppliers’ online stores, staff can check stock levels in real time. Crucially, it also minimises ‘rogue spending’. Esker makes it easy for staff to stick to preferred suppliers and make the best use of negotiated bulk rates.
“When you order 100 kilos a week of one thing, you can say, ‘Give us a good deal,’ and bang, overnight, done.”
While increased food prices chewed up much of the projected savings, the project has still delivered huge value.
“We realistically expected to save about half a million dollars a year in food costs, and we were thinking very conservatively.”
With tighter controls over suppliers and purchasing, alongside improved invoice management, the finance team now has real time visibility of organisational spend.
All invoices are redirected to a single digital inbox, removing the need for paper invoices and physical mail to move between sites. Automation allows invoices to be generated and sent in seconds, significantly reducing manual effort.
As a result, month end processing time has been cut by more than half. The team now processes around 2,500 invoices each month, enabling them to manage a higher workload without increasing head count.
By replacing fragmented, paper-based processes with Esker’s modern, integrated system, PSO has transformed how it manages spending, suppliers and finance operations.
The organisation’s spending is more disciplined and visible, helping staff make better, faster decisions. Invoice processing automation has unlocked massive efficiency and speed.
It’s an investment that supports PSO’s operational efficiency to do more for more of the community.
Why FUJIFILM & Esker?
- Reduce operational cost
- Increase productivity
- Local implementation & support
- AI-powered Processing
- Multiple ERP integration
- Eliminate errors & non-compliance
- eInvoicing & PEPPOL compliant
- Improve supplier relationships
FUJIFILM Process Automation are your local, New Zealand based experts ready to help you on your Esker journey. In fact, we’ve been implementing Esker solutions for Kiwi’s for over a decade now.
AI-Powered processing speeds everything up and it’s smart OCR recognition can even detect and convert handwriting. Fraud protection? Yep, Esker can even detect an invoice with a differing bank account your ERP is expecting, then give your team an alert before it goes any further. That’s just a few reasons why we love Esker, get in touch to hear many more.