HITEC Power Protection develops, manufactures, and supplies turnkey Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) solutions to ensure an uninterrupted, continuous, and regulated power supply for mission-critical processes. In 2016, HITEC Power Protection decided to automate its purchasing and invoice processing.
HITEC Power Protection operates from its headquarters and manufacturing facility in Almelo, with regional offices and service centers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, Spain, Malaysia, Taiwan, and China.
The company’s global reach is further strengthened by a network of distributors, agents, and representatives who support more than 500 customers in the most demanding industries. These include data centers, the semiconductor industry, petrochemicals, hospitals, banks, and airports.
With budget managers sometimes spending weeks on the other side of the world, a paper-based invoice processing system was not ideal. Invoices would sit gathering dust on a desk for all those weeks, only to be processed once the budget manager returned to the Netherlands. Particularly given the organization’s project-oriented nature, it is important to allocate project costs as quickly as possible so that project managers and service contract managers can monitor the progress and results of their projects.
For Finance as well, the paper-based process was cumbersome. It involved many manual steps and a large volume of paper documents. After the posting and approval process, these documents had to be archived, only to be retrieved from the files during audits and then archived again. A time-consuming process, especially during an audit when more than one document is involved. In addition to the intended time savings, there was a great need for improved control and transparency.
We use Isah, our ERP system, and wanted seamless integration with it. Another factor we took into account is that we have branches worldwide. This raises the question of whether we want those branches to transition to an automated process in the future and, if so, how we want to integrate them. Our primary requirement was a solution for both the purchasing and invoice processing workflows. That combination was our starting point, along with seamless integration with our existing systems. We wanted a cohesive workflow across the various systems, rather than having them simply operate in parallel.
"The many manual tasks have given way to control activities and further optimization of financial processes."
Nicky Klein, Controller at HITEC Power Protection
Nicky Klein is a Controller at HITEC Power Protection. "When I started working at HITEC Power Protection in 2016, one of my first tasks was to support the financial audit. That’s when I experienced firsthand just how much time it took to locate documentation and provide the audit trail. It became clear even during the implementation and testing phase that gathering all the documents and the corresponding audit trail that the auditor wanted to review would become much more efficient.”
"We’ve achieved a clear improvement in time efficiency. Whereas previously 2 FTEs were devoted entirely to invoice processing, that figure is now 0.8 FTEs. The time freed up is spent on improvement projects and enhancing the quality of processes. We now have time to focus on that, and that’s a great benefit. This has also changed the nature of the work in the finance department; the many manual tasks have given way to control activities and further optimization of financial processes.”
"We still have plenty of plans for the future. Personally, I’m currently working on rolling out the automation of these processes at our branch in England. We’re also in the process of digitizing and automating other processes. Take expense report processing, for example: we want to focus on credit card expenses and digitized expense report processing, so that our employees who travel abroad frequently, in particular, can submit their expense reports more easily."
"This also has the advantage of allowing us to allocate our costs to projects more quickly. In addition to saving time for employees, who get their expense reports reimbursed faster, it also improves transparency regarding project results."
“As soon as the solution for the procurement and invoice processing goes live in England, we’ll also look at our offices in other countries. We’ll do this step by step, because it has to remain manageable.”
"It’s really exciting to look ahead and think about what you’d still like to achieve in the future within these financial processes. Automation gives you the time to think more about the future and look further ahead. Not only do you have more time for it, but you also have more data at your disposal."
"As far as I’m concerned, data analysis is truly the next step for Finance. Analyzing data, looking back at the past, and using that to improve the future. I think the finance professional of the future will primarily focus on data analysis and further optimizing financial processes, as well as all other processes within the organization. Data—and how we handle it—is, in my view, the future and will play an increasingly important role in an organization’s success.”