Vaillant Group France Automates Order Processing in SAP® with Esker’s SaaS Solution

Esker, a worldwide leader in document process automation solutions and SAP^® software solution and technology partner, announced today that it has signed a global agreement with the Vaillant Group, a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning technology specialist. Vaillant Group’s French brands, Saunier Duval and Vaillant, will be the first of its European subsidiaries to implement Esker’s on-demand Order Processing automation solution to streamline the processing of customer orders in their SAP environment.

Previously, the Vaillant Group’s sales administration team processed a yearly volume of 130,000 orders manually; however, this method proved to be very time-consuming and was often a source of errors. Looking to increase staff productivity, shore up its order-to-cash cycle and lessen its environmental impact by reducing supplies, the company began searching for an order processing automation solution. Ideally, the solution had to be compatible with its SAP system and Salesforce^® CRM tool and allow for international implementation at other Vaillant Group subsidiaries.

Finding the right fit with Esker

As an international vendor offering a scalable, flexible and software as a service (SaaS) solution, Esker was selected by the Vaillant Group to automate its order management process. "Before Esker, we were wasting a lot of time and paper because of manual handling — from order reception and the internal distribution to archiving and searching for documents,” said Thierry Tournier, Administration and Operations Director at the Vaillant Group, France. "We primarily needed an automation solution to help assign orders to the right person and ensure order traceability. It was less about data entry,” said Tournier. "With Esker, we no longer need someone to route and distribute faxes one by one to the right person. The distribution is done automatically according to a set of assigned rules that we can manage.”

Thanks to Esker, Vaillant Group is able to fully automate the entire order entry process:

• Order is received and all relevant data is extracted; corresponding sales order is created in SAP
• Order is routed to the right person based on customer name, products, geography and level of urgency
• Order data is archived in SAP while a copy of the original order is attached and available to any authorized user when needed
• When required, a duplicate order is provided to a third party

Benefits since implementation

Esker has helped the Vaillant Group achieve many benefits including:

• Eliminated paper and decreased its ecological footprint from the annual consumption of 300 reams of paper (equivalent to 13 trees) previously required to print orders
• Reduced archiving volumes stored internally and with an external provider
• Time saved and productivity gained for sales assistants who can now focus on higher value tasks
• Decreased errors associated with the manual handling of orders
• Improved order-to-cash cycle with orders processed and delivered faster, and receivables collected in accordance with French payment deadline regulations while avoiding administrative disputes

About the Vaillant Group

The Vaillant Group is an international heating, ventilation and air-conditioning technology specialist based in Remscheid, Germany. As one of the world’s market and technology leaders, the company enables people worldwide to enjoy the simplest, healthiest and most energy-saving solutions for heating, cooling and hot water. Their product portfolio ranges from efficient heating appliances based on customary fuels to system solutions for using regenerative energy sources. In 2012, the company, which has been family-owned since its founding in 1874, achieved sales totaling €2.3 billion with 12,000 employees. In France, the Vaillant Group is the leader in wall-hung heating appliances with its two brands, Saunier Duval and Vaillant.

About Esker

Esker is a worldwide leader in document process automation solutions. Addressing all types of business processes, from accounts payable and accounts receivable to order processing and procurement, Esker cloud computing solutions enable companies to automate the reception, processing and sending of any business document with one platform. Esker helps over 80,000 companies across the world to reduce the use of paper and eliminate manual processes while improving their productivity, efficiency and environmental impact.

With 40.3 million euros in sales revenue in 2012, Esker operates in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific with global headquarters in Lyon, France, and U.S. headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin. Esker is listed on the NYSE Alternext in Paris (Code ISIN FR0000035818). For more information, visit www.esker.com. Follow Esker on Twitter at twitter.com/eskerinc and join the conversation on the Esker blog at www.quitpaper.com.

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