Panasonic Energy Europe

Saving time with Basware’s e-invoicing solution

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Industry:

Energy & Utilities

Regions:

Europe

Solutions:

E-Invoice Sending

Introduction

Panasonic Energy has local sales organizations in about 10 countries. These Direct Sales Offices (DSOs) consist of a team of sales people and Sales Administrators. The DSOs take orders via telephone, fax or electronically and input them into SAP. Once an order is confirmed, an invoice is issued, printed and mailed to the customer. DSOs are also responsible for marketing, contract management and following up on outstanding customer balances.

Key Takeways

1.5

hours saved per day

30k

invoices per year

Phased roll out

Panasonic's Challenge

Panasonic Energy has different types of customers: ranging from regular wholesale distributors to mass merchandisers. Financial Director, Kurt De Smet, states “Of course, it is much cheaper for us if the customer receives their invoices through Basware (signed PDFs). EDI requires a separate set-up, which is expensive and can easily take two days to implement. With Basware e-Invoicing, the customer can immediately start working".

Solution

When they began the project, they set up a pilot project in Belgium. Koen Vandecasteele explains: “This ran smoothly, allowing us to start in Denmark and Sweden in June that year. Afterwards, France, UK, Germany and Austria were added. Finally, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary followed.”

“We chose Basware e-invoicing to automate the flow of outgoing invoices. This allowed us to reduce the operational workload on our Sales Administrators- so they could spend more time on strategic tasks,” explains Koen Vandecasteele, Credit Control Specialist at Panasonic Energy. “Analysis shows that some employees can save up to one and a half hours per day with this solution.”

According to their profile and number of documents, customers can choose between our own EDI system and Basware e-Invoicing.

Kurt De Smet, Group Manager Finance, Panasonic Energy

Results

Panasonic Energy currently sends 28% of its invoices via Basware. “This may not seem like much, but it is the average number for all the countries we work in. The percentages are much higher in some countries compared to others,” explains Kurt De Smet.

“In Belgium, France, Denmark and Sweden the average is up to 66%. On the other hand, in countries like Germany, the majority of the invoices are exchanged through EDI. There is still a great deal of growth potential in the SMB market.” Panasonic Energy will be putting in an extra effort to get more of their customers enthusiastic about electronic invoicing. De Smet, explains

“We want to apply Basware e-Invoicing as widely as possible in order to work efficiently and use less paper.”

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