Kofax Solution Enables One of World’s Largest Office and Computer Products and Services Companies to Process a Million-Plus Invoices Annually

Situation

Corporate Express US Inc. is one of the world’s largest business-to-business suppliers of office and computer products and services with annual sales of more than $4.9 billion in North America. Headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, Corporate Express offers office and computer supplies, office furniture, facility supplies, document and print management, promotional items, and other similar products. On average, Corporate Express processes in excess of 1 million invoices annually.

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The organization is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dutch-based Corporate Express NV, which operates throughout North America, Europe and Australia, has close to 19,000 employees in 21 countries, and does more than $8 billion in global sales annually.

Challenge

Corporate Express needed a solution to automate and streamline its accounts payable practices and system, which required heavy paper-based processing, labor-intensive invoice management, and high staffing costs for data collection, documentation and input.

The high volume of incoming invoices, some more than three pages in length, and the complexity of the forms often made it difficult to locate and retrieve them quickly and easily for reference, approval or distribution. With more than 35,000 active vendors and various invoice formats, accounts payable coordinators were spending up to 12 hours each week to process and route documents to the appropriate people and locations for approval and payment.

In addition, Corporate Express coordinators had to spend many hours in the field collecting and documenting new and outstanding invoices from various distribution centers. Once completed, they would then perform extensive data entry and documentation of each invoice, detailing any specified changes, directions or required approvals.

Solution

Corporate Express underwent an extensive, multi-month needs assessment followed by a vendor review and evaluation. The findings demonstrated that the company was suffering from slow access to information, a labor intensive invoice management system, real-time exposure to liabilities, high accounts payable coordinator expenses, and above average processing time and costs.

After completing this in-depth discernment process, Corporate Express selected Kofax Certified Solution Provider Dataimage to implement a Kofax Intelligent Capture & Exchange solution, the centerpiece of Kofax’s strategy to help organizations streamline business processes.

“Corporate Express was very thorough in its selection process, requesting a highly advanced proof of concept,