De Agostini: Automating paper-based invoice processes with SAP Build Process Automation and SAP AI Services
Explore De Agostini’s journey with SAP
De Agostini Publishing S.p.A. offers a whole universe of hobbies and interests to a worldwide audience. But long before it gets collections and build-up models to customers, the company must first process its invoices with suppliers. De Agostini brought its vision for optimized invoicing to partner Digix Plus. SAP Business Technology Platform with the SAP Build Process Automation solution and SAP AI Services provided the foundation for their combined imagination.
| Industry | Region | Company Size | Partner |
| Consumer products | Milan, Italy | <500 employees | Digix Plus |
paper-based vendor invoices processed in a year.
of PO-referred invoices automatically processed.
hours saved per month.
CIO, De Agostini Publishing S.p.A.
Applying imagination to improve critical business processes
De Agostini is built on imagination. The company creates innovative collectibles, build-up model series, and scale models and delivers them right to customers’ doors.
When De Agostini prepares its collections and build-up models, it involves many suppliers for content and components. This means the management of about 54,000 paper- or PDF-based supplier invoices per year – especially where electronic invoicing is not present – is a key process.
To connect more people with the products they love, De Agostini continues to grow by expanding its network of international business partners and suppliers. But the company realized it would need to imagine a new approach to vendor invoicing, which was growing increasingly complicated, error prone, and slow as the company acquired more brands.
The company didn’t want to let long invoicing cycles ruin the magic of the De Agostini experience for its customers or suppliers. After having integrated Editorial Planeta, a leading publishing brand in Spain, it started a project to increase the automation rate in the supplier invoice management process. It had a dual objective: First, automate the process to reduce manual effort by the administrative team as well as the activities outsourced to an external provider. Second, integrate the newly implemented solution with existing systems within the company’s IT landscape.
CIO, De Agostini Publishing S.p.A.
Smoothing financial processes with SAP Build Process Automation and SAP AI Services
To smooth financial processes after its new business acquisition, De Agostini decided to take full advantage of the power of SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). It engaged SAP partner Digix Plus to deploy a solution that increases the automation rate in the vendor invoice management process for Spanish and Latin American markets.
In the same way that De Agostini provides an outlet for people’s hobbies and imaginations, SAP BTP provided the business with a platform for imagination through technology innovation.
The custom-built automated invoicing solution is based on a range of technologies included natively in SAP BTP. Users across the enterprise tap into the solution through SAP Build Work Zone, which provides a central, role-based access point with an intuitive interface.
E-mails containing a scan or a PDF version of the invoice are sent to a specific address and are processed by the SAP Build Process Automation solution, which can extract any attached file. The files are then processed by the Document Information Extraction service, part of SAP AI Services, enabling the processing of unstructured documents while supporting data confidentiality and reliability. In a first step, the service classifies the document and keeps only invoices and, in a second step, automatically extracts the information from the invoice. (See the figure.)
The solution helps ensure that essential data points are captured correctly and monitors invoices for missing or incomplete mandatory data, such as crucial purchase order numbers, amounts, or other key details. The extracted and validated information is then prepared and transferred to the target systems, such as SAP S/4HANA, through smart data services in SAP HANA Cloud. The system asks users to intervene only in rare situations where the application flags errors, such as when there’s missing data.
Throughout solution development and implementation, De Agostini continuously monitored KPIs. This was essential for assessing the degree of automation that the new solution achieved. Taking advantage of a comprehensive built-in KPI dashboard, the company measured the number of invoices processed automatically, content recognition accuracy, completeness of mandatory data, user intervention rate, and processing speed.
By gathering these insights, De Agostini could work with Digix Plus to refine the solution. For example, when the company detected incomplete mandatory data in the automatically processed invoices, it knew it needed to improve the recognition models. Digix Plus helped De Agostini use AI models for document classification and developed custom recognition templates for specific suppliers to boost the accuracy of the Document Information Extraction service. The company successfully fine-tuned its AI models to understand the nuances of invoices from top suppliers.
CIO, De Agostini Publishing S.p.A.
Automating as much as 90% of paper-based vendor invoices and cutting costs
By automating many manual steps in its vendor invoicing processes, De Agostini expedited suppliers’ invoice management cycle. This fulfilled the company’s core goal of slashing the time for invoice acquisition and processing and has even fostered stronger supplier relationships.
Now, the company has achieved an automation rate of more than 91% for PO-referred invoices and more than 80% for invoices without POs and realized savings of about 500 hours per month.
SAP BTP also gives De Agostini the power of agility. The company can swiftly adapt to market shifts, regulatory changes, and emerging challenges thanks to the flexibility offered by automation and AI. The rapid deployment of its automated invoicing solution sets a precedent at De Agostini and fosters a culture of adaptability and innovation. Because the business can quickly deploy AI, the company’s leaders say they feel prepared to navigate the complexities of tomorrow’s business world.
With automated invoicing, De Agostini can continue building upon its bonds with suppliers. The company is also free to focus on its mission of inspiring customers’ imaginations.
Extending the reach of process automation as the business grows
De Agostini will extend its automated invoicing solution to the rest of the companies within its divisions. It also plans to integrate a workflow for the invoice approval process.
This automated invoicing transformation project marks a successful journey into the future of business built on automation and AI. De Agostini won’t stop here. The company is currently evaluating how it can use SAP Business AI for predictive analysis within the supply chain enabled by Document Information Extraction, premium edition and generative AI.
Featured partner
Digix Plus is an SAP partner based in Italy specializing in the digitalization and integration of enterprise systems. It develops innovative solutions that help businesses across industries take advantage of business AI and process automation.