Table of Contents
About customer
Central Retail in Vietnam (CRV) started its operations in Vietnam in 2012. With continuous expansion, CRV operates a total of 38 malls, 260 stores nationwide. CRV’s Vision & Mission: “To be the best, sustainable and most admired customer-centric omnichannel retailer wherever we operate”.
Challenge
Given their vast customer base and supplier network, CRV had carried the burden of manually handling and matching a staggering number of 1.8 million invoices annually. Added with that, the process involved 75 full-time employees and took 180,000 hours per year to complete. In the longer term, the mundane nature of the task might even trigger higher turnover rates, especially during peak times.
Solution
Aware that RPA is the most potential rescuer enabling CRV to deal with repetitiveness underlying the invoice handling process, the client teamed up with akaBot – a comprehensive RPA solution, and created a brand-new workflow with bots mimicking human activities.
- Automatically download e-invoices.
- Extract data from e-invoices and convert it into Excel files.
- Compare the retrieved data from the invoice with relevant documents.
- Notify accountants in case of anomalies.
Human employees are included in the loop for final judgement.
“The project allowed CRV to actively facilitate business expansion and accelerate operational excellence across sales channels. The time-saving approach to invoice management also helps CRV improve customer retention, service quality and retail experience.”
Ms Tran Thi Hong Nhan, Head of Finance & Accounting Service Team, Central Retail in Vietnam.
Results
Using akaBot has brought tangible outcomes.
- System: akaBot is easily integrated into CRV’s existing legacy system, allowing for a rapid roll-out. Additionally, having virtual bots taking care of massive datasets, which might include sensitive ones, might lower the security and privacy risks.
- People: akaBot has absorbed a massive number of repetitive tasks for accountants, enabling them to focus on mission-critical tasks and unlock their potential.
Business: Repetitive, mundane tasks are undertaken by running codes, allowing a low error rate and minimizing man-made errors. The embeddedness of akaBot into the invoice handling and matching process has trimmed down US$500,00 within five years and saved CRV 90,000 hours annually.
Future
With the success of invoice-matching automation, CRV can focus more on other added-value such as service quality & customer experience. The success story also sets an example for further steps of CRV in omni-channel developement & digital transformation.
