PEX Network caught up with Prashant Shah, head, procure-to-pay (P2P) at Tesco Business Services, ahead of his presentation at PEX Live: Procure to Pay 2021, which is scheduled to take place online on 8-9 June 2021. In our conversation, he discusses the technologies implemented on the P2P process at Tesco Business Services and offers his views on fostering collaboration between all stakeholders.
Tesco Business Services has evolved the process of P2P over the years, including moving to paperless invoices with suppliers. They are dealing with massive volume of invoices every year, approximatively 8.5 million. In the last four years the company has been adopting RPA technology to make the process more effective and efficient.
PEX Network: What is the aim of the P2P initiative currently underway at Tesco Business Services, and what steps are you taking to achieve these goals?
Prashant Shah: We want to make the P2P process more efficient, and we have laid paperless ways to help our process internally and make a big difference in how suppliers interact with Tesco.
While we’re using largely electronic data interchange (EDI) and electronic invoices for suppliers to send their invoices to us, for the paper invoices coming through we use the optical character recognition (OCR) technology to translate paper invoices to digital record.
EDI invoices account for 98-99 per cent of all invoices processed each year, and there is very little paper involved.
Data analytics also helps us identify opportunities in working capital and cash flow through the optimization of the supplier side of the P2P journey.
PEX Network: The P2P process spans multiple departments. How do you foster collaboration between all stakeholders?
PS: Change is the only constant in today's times and it is vital to keep all relevant groups within the business engaged on any proposed changes. It works well at Tesco Business Services as we have many forums where frequent conversations happen between technical, digital transformation, operations and business teams, and global process owners.
We want to ensure we are not waiting for a moment of change and that we are all talking on a day-to-day basis. Any ideas coming through can come from anywhere before they are discussed and debated. This approach helps us to land the change more seamlessly.
PEX Network: What do you think will be the main developments in the P2P space over the next few years?
PS: The future is about how we take a monotonous activities away, then free up the human talent to make a strategic difference to the business.
In an ever-evolving world, we will continue to find new technologies to implement. What will be key for businesses will be how they will be agile and how they continue to evolve quickly.
Register for PEX Live: Procure to Pay 2021 to hear more about how Tesco is leveraging intelligent automation on its P2P process and ask Shah questions in real time.