How to successfully automate finance processes according to Maersk expert

PEX Network caught up with Vineet Mehra, general manager, product head and functional process owner – order-to-cash at AP Moller Maersk, and PEX Network Advisory Board member. In this exclusive interview, he discusses his previous experience and success in automating finance processes and offers advice for those looking to emulate it.

Ahead of his session at PEX Live: Finance & Accounting Process Automation 2022, Mehra outlines the major trends shaping automation in 2022 and offers an outline of what to expect from his presentation.

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PEX Network: Can you tell us more about your experience with automating financial processes and any success stories you have had?

Vineet Mehra: I lead the order-to-cash product and functional process design team at AP Moller Maersk. We focus on process transformation where technology plays a vital role in automating processes and making them robust.

As a logistics and shipping company one of AP Moller Maersk’s core financial process is applying incoming payments to customer invoices, but this comes with one main challenge. We deal with approximately 700,000 payments monthly, requiring heavy manual effort due to a lack of automation.

We set out a goal to improve our automatic cash hit rate and for the last few years we have constantly evolved, using different technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA) for bots that read incoming documents and apply payments faster. We have also invested in online e-payment platforms through partnership with payment vendors that connect customers’ banks and our banks directly.

This has led us to move ahead in the automation game, however, there is still a lot to be achieved. We are working both with customers to drive uptake of various tools and bring intelligent automation features such as machine learning to help reduce payment fallout and defects that will make processes robust, reduce waste and improve effectiveness.

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PEX Network: What are the biggest automation trends you are seeing at the moment?

VM: In the past five years we have seen many companies, big or small, that are looking at RPA as a core automation tool. These companies are applying it for transactional processes such as invoice and cash posting and this has helped them immensely optimize time and free up resources for value-adding work.

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We have also seen that RPA has its own limitations when it comes to non-standard business processes or when the flow of information is not structured. For example, in our cash application process we saw our automatic cash hit rate reduced by 50 percent when the input from the customer was not standard or when the process had high variation.

I believe these problems are very much present in any industry. As such, it is of prime importance for product leaders to think and engage with small and medium enterprises and customers to simplify input channels by aligning on information flow and then scaling the automation. In our case, we created an online self-service platform for customers to select their invoices and upload payment proof. This made the flow of information simple and standard for RPA to read and as a result we achieved 70 percent hands-free automation.

PEX Network: What is your advice for any organizations looking to begin automating their own finance processes?

VM: I believe it is key to first understand the business’ priority and vision. While it is easy to look at best practices for finance process automation, as most companies will follow standard processes, each business has its nuances that need attention.

The four goals should be: to have a clear process design; reduce handoffs between teams; align finance’s vision with the core business priority to ensure a seamless flow of information up and downstream; and engage CFOs to sponsor initiatives that have a direct impact on core processes.

My advice is to establish a clear baseline of which business processes are viable to automate and a definition of how process efficiency will be derived when automation comes into play. Practitioners should align with business stakeholders and test simple solutions, not just relying on one technology or enterprise resource planning platform. Businesses should invest in what gives the best result.

I personally prefer the use of connected end-to-end design where finance not only has to invest in process automation, but also improve upstream business to get that improved customer impact.

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My advice is to test simple solutions and not to rely on one technology or enterprise resource planning platform. Businesses should invest in what gives the best result. I personally favor the use of connected end-to-end design where finance not only has to invest in process automation, but also improve upstream business to get that final customer impact.

PEX Network: What do you hope viewers will take away from your session at PEX Live: Finance & Accounting Process Automation 2022?

VM: We at AP Moller Maersk have embraced technology in various forms and I will be focusing on how the use of cloud technology can improve order-to-cash collection processes. I will discuss how this approach resulted in more customer connections and improved agent productivity and analytics. I will detail how this helped to achieve better results with regard to financial risk reduction and highly engaged teams that can focus on their core job better.

Has your business begun automation for financial processes? Let us know in the comments below.

For more expert insights into finance process automation, register for PEX Live: Finance & Accounting Process Automation 2022, taking place on 08 – 09 December.