Consumer Goods Company

Optimizing Invoice Processing with RPA in the Consumer Goods Industry:
A Case Study of Efficiency and Precision

Client Overview

Our client is a well-known Indian consumer goods brand that offers a wide variety of items in areas like Food & Beverages, Hair Care, Oral Care, Health Care, and Skin Care.
Client Challenge

The many formats of scanned invoices our customers received from different vendors presented a serious problem. Since every vendor had a different invoice format and structure, manually extracting and entering data into SAP was laborious and prone to error process.
Automation Requirement

Our customer wanted to automate the extraction and input of invoice details into their SAP system, realizing the need to optimize and accelerate their workflow for processing invoices while maintaining data accuracy.
Our Solution

We worked closely with our client to provide a thorough solution that successfully handled their problem. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technologies were used in our plan.

Key Components of the Solution

OCR Training with ABBYY

We employed ABBYY, a robust OCR tool, to train the system to recognize and extract relevant data from scanned invoice copies. This training process was essential for accurate data extraction, even when dealing with varying invoice formats.
RPA Implementation with UiPath

Leveraging UiPath, a leading RPA platform, we designed and deployed automation bots to take the extracted data and seamlessly input it into the SAP Business system.

Solution Implementation

Scanned Invoice Processing

The solution began by processing scanned invoices, regardless of their format or layout.
OCR Data Extraction

ABBYY's OCR capabilities were used to intelligently extract critical data, including invoice numbers, amounts, vendor details, and other relevant information.
RPA Data Entry

UiPath automation bots then took the extracted data and executed the data entry process within the SAP Business system. This involved accurately populating the necessary fields based on the extracted information.

Potential Problems

During the initial RPA implementation, we encountered an unexpected challenge that temporarily disrupted the workflow. The complexity of some invoice formats posed difficulties for the automation bots, leading to incomplete data extraction.
Revised RPA Strategy

Recognizing the need for adaptability, we revised our RPA strategy to enhance bot capabilities. We fine-tuned the automation bots to handle intricate invoice layouts better and ensure comprehensive data extraction through the re-training process by feeding in more invoice formats to capture accurate data from different formats of invoices.

Benefits Realized

Enhanced Efficiency
The workflow was greatly accelerated by the automation of invoice processing, which also resulted in shorter processing times and an overall improvement in efficiency.

Error Reduction
By removing the possibility of human data entering errors, automation ensures data accuracy and lowers the need for corrections.

Flexibility
Regardless of the format of the invoices, Our client was able to handle them with ease thanks to the solution's flexibility.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we were able to successfully modify Our client's invoice processing procedures by utilizing RPA and OCR technology. The automation solution, which was fueled by UiPath and ABBYY, improved accuracy, sped up the processing of various invoice formats, and lessened the workload associated with manual data entry.