How BKW Building Solutions could save up to an estimated 10'000 working hours per year with DeepO.

Challenge

Processing more than 340’000 accounts payable documents per year.

Based in Ostermundigen, BKW Building Solutions is a regionally rooted corporate network that plans, implements and maintains comprehensive installations throughout Switzerland. With its large network of suppliers, BKW processes around 350’000 accounts payable documents per year, including invoices, credit notes from suppliers, reminders, delivery notes, order confirmations and more.

Due to the massive document volume, accuracy and organisation are essential, and BKW saw there was a clear and growing need to enable digital reception of supplier documents. But until recently, a number of their suppliers still worked with paper invoices, meaning that BKW’s digital transformation would require the digitalisation of many of their suppliers, as well.

BKW previously used AbaScan, an integrated archiving and scanning solution for their Abacus ERP. Then one day Bewida, their Abacus client partner, introduced them to DeepO. The technology, developed by DeepCloud (a subsidiary of Abacus), leverages cognitive data capture artificial intelligence and machine learning to make document processing automated, fast, accurate and secure.

Solution

Running a DeepO pilot project to process 40’000 documents.

According to Senior Project Manager Simon Häni, BKW decided to launch a pilot project with DeepO in the summer of 2023. They chose a business area of BKW Building Solutions which alone was responsible for around 40’000 processed documents. And they appointed a person internally to become a DeepO specialist, who could learn the tool, and learn to train the artificial intelligence, from the ground up.

They set up a central email address in the form of an electronic mailbox for incoming invoices, automatically forwarded to DeepBox, the DeepCloud document sharing platform. Suppliers were then informed and asked to switch from paper to PDF invoices. The internal DeepO specialist trained DeepO to recognise project numbers from various invoicing formats and automatically post them in the supplier’s Abacus data, which BKW can query using the DeepBox functionality Flow. Additionally, they trained DeepO to “think outside the box”, querying different account assignments than those in the supplier’s master data.

Introducing new technology on this scale necessarily created a learning curve for BKW and their suppliers. One challenge was non-conforming supplier invoices that didn’t meet the normal standard, for example, by having multiple attachments. Another was the frequent inconsistencies in the master data within their system, which over the years had acquired duplicates, missing payment terms, incorrect addresses, and unrecognised payment methods or amounts. To tackle these problems and enable easier automatic invoice recognition, BKW has taken a two-pronged approach. The first involves tweaking the DeepO settings to allow for a wider range of inputs. The second is demanding increasing standardisation of invoices from their suppliers, especially when it comes to key inputs like project numbers.

“A big advantage is that it’s a Swiss solution. In addition, the cost-benefit ratio is many times better than competing products.”

Simon Häni
SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER, BKW Building Solutions

Results

Saving 10’000 working hours year by boosting efficiency with processing automation.

The initial project was a success, and within a few months BKW onboarded a second business area with a 16’000 document volume, followed by four more representing 66’000 documents in early 2024. Eventually, all of the approximately 350’000 documents that BKW Building Solutions processes annually will be migrated to DeepO.

Simon Häni describes the introduction of DeepO as ongoing. Initially, DeepO is used to process documents from high document-volume suppliers. Next, it’s used to process documents that can generate significant time savings. Finally, BKW Building Solutions tackles the special cases, and DeepO is trained on individual supplier documents to automate their processing as well.

Häni aims for 80% of invoices with a project number to enter the accounts payable approval process without manual intervention. When considering all of the manual processes DeepO could replace, including opening envelopes, formally checking, scanning and processing them, by Häni’s estimates, BKW could save up to 10’000 working hours per year, the equivalent of five full-time positions. This will free up time to efficiently handle even more volume with the same trained workforce.

If Häni is right, this will represent an enormous boost in efficiency for BKW thanks to DeepO. Häni cites three main reasons why DeepO is their choice to continue their BKW digital transformation. The first is that DeepO is a Swiss solution, and all documents are processed securely in Switzerland. In addition, in Häni’s experience the cost-benefit ratio is many times better than competing products. The last is the uncomplicated connection and direct support they have from Abacus.