Ritchie Bros & Basware Digitally Transforming Procure-to-Pay
The leading AP automation and invoice processing company have helped the auctioneers to transform its procure-to-pay processes (P2P). Before Basware, each region had its own unique process in place, and the company’s technology landscape was described as rudimentary: paper invoices and manual processing were the norm.
This was taking valuable time away from the Ritchie Brothers Auctioneers, which assists customers in transacting used equipment through auctions and other marketplaces, both digitally and at live sites around the world.
With approximately 60 legal entities and seven global locations, the company needed to consolidate its localised P2P processes while allowing for differences in regulations.
The company facilitates over $6 billion worth of used equipment transactions a year. Since the company was founded over 50 years ago, it has expanded into various regions around the world and has operating units in over 20 countries.
The company realised it needed a unified way of processing invoices, so began looking for a cloud platform that could support their business on a 24/7 global basis.
Oliver Piekaar, VP, Global Financial Operations at Ritchie Brothers, said: “We’re experiencing a transformation. Prior to Basware, the AP team managed inputs but not really the outputs – Basware is enabling us to do both.”
The challenges facing the Ritchie Brothers
The company needed something which could work seamlessly across the world to standardise its invoice processing, while also adhering to local regulations. It hoped to obtain complete transparency and a single, consistent point of data.
The company needed technology that combined the functionality of the cloud with the high level of availability required for accommodating regulations in different regions.
How Basware transformed Ritchie Brothers' automatic invoice matching
The implementation and Basware’s integration with Ritchie Brothers’ existing technology went smoothly. As the VP attended weekly meetings with Basware’s lead implementation team. This allowed them to address the highest priority tasks. P2P professionals within the company leveraged these learnings to develop effective new processes.
Implementation was straightforward from a technological perspective and mainly involved mapping out Application Programming Interface (APIs) and testing them for responsiveness. Once Basware accounts payable (AP) automation rolled out globally, the regional teams have been able to navigate and utilise the system quickly.
A problem in Australia, solved in North America
Ritchie Brothers achieved 65% automatic matching on day one, and Basware’s Reporting tool is providing immediate visibility over vendor spend.
Standardisation across the company has been achieved with minimal business impact. Ritchie Brothers was able to hand over day-to-day responsibilities almost immediately and can provide feedback to local AP teams quickly.
This level of responsiveness is already proving invaluable, after the Ritchie Brothers encountered staffing issues in Australia, its North America team was able to provide support remotely.
Oliver said he’s been “extremely pleased with Basware’s transparency and honesty” and describes Basware as a “real partner” that ensured “we had the very best product to meet our needs.” By unifying P2P processes through Basware AP Automation, Ritchie Brothers’ employees can now refocus their time on more value-added work.
Oliver added: “It’s been a real plug and play service. Once we’d created the APIs we felt like we were in control of our destiny. We haven't had to pass anything back to our tech team and aren't relying on their availability to support changes. Effectively we have 100% control of the technology within our department.
“It’s early days but we’ve quickly been able to achieve 65% end to end ‘touchless’ automatic matching in North America. This significantly reduces paper processing and enhances our internal controls over a large portion of our spend.”
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