Case study: Coca-Cola

“eCom’s service is second to none,” says Parish Samuel, National Credit Manager, Coca-Cola.

• Better customer service
• Improved staff morale
• Improved cash flow
• Strong return on investment
• Better system tools

Let’s start by talking about how Coca-Cola is using eCom.
Firstly we wanted to scan our invoice documents, as we need to keep them for seven years. We generate about 600 pages per customer per year on average, and document storage and retrieval is expensive.

Initially, there was hardly anything in the system except sales information from the AS400. It had huge capability but nobody was using it.

So storage and retrieval costs were drivers. Anything else?
We needed more space and wanted to improve business processes. When I came on board the number of invoices had doubled in a short time. So storage was becoming a big issue.

We’re talking big numbers, I take it?
Two and a half years ago the volumes were about 600,000 documents for invoicing. That’s since grown by about 10-15%.

And many customers too?
About 16,500 outlets. A big customer like Progressive can have 300 outlets. Then there are dairies to city council offices to even pharmacies. Vending machines are not included in outlets – there are 8,000 of them.

We also have about 20,000 suppliers, from raw materials – bottles, caps, cleaning ingredients – to fork hoists, leasing vehicles, electricians, coin pick-ups, vending machine commission, shelf space from grocery outlets.

When did you start noticing the benefits of the eCom solution?
Almost immediately. Beforehand, we had one-and-half heads filing and retrieving documents. We reassigned those staff from day one to more productive roles. Likewise, numbers in accounts receivable have gone from 14 to 8, despite a 28% increase in volume in the last two years.

Document storage costs started falling. eCom worked with us to migrate hard copies automatically to the document management system.

There have also been intangible benefits such as better customer service. Staff can now retrieve invoice information instantly and can email and fax from their desktop.

All up, the system paid for itself in 18 months.

Easier document retrieval would also improve cash collection, wouldn’t it?
That’s right. Disputes and queries can be quickly resolved. For example, if someone disputes their signature we can bring up their last few invoices, mark the signature, and email it to them. There’s no calling back in half an hour after going and retrieving the physical file.

That’s also lifted staff morale. Giving the staff the right tools for the job has had a major impact.

How has eCom’s service been?
From the suppliers that I have worked with the best service I have had is from eCom. They understand our business, they know what we want. If you log a call with their help desk you get a response, an intelligent response, and you don’t have to follow up. If they can’t do it off site they are on site getting it done, minimum disruption.

So where to from here?
Now that we have realised the power of the technology we’re thinking, why just AR? It’s a centralised document storage facility that the whole company can use and benefit from.

What about EDI?
Another big plus for eCom was the EDI between ourselves and Progressive. One quick call to eCom and now we have a system in place. And the cost was not high.