"Basware can do much more than just invoice processing"

Home / Case Studies / TU Delft

With 161 hectares, Delft University of Technology has one of the largest campuses in the world and it is the highest ranked Dutch university in various international rankings. These kinds of rankings are important for attracting both national and international talent; enabling high-level research.

Some 23,000 suppliers provide the appropriate resources for these studies. This results in about 125,000 purchase invoices annually, which the prestigious educational institution wants to process automatically as much as possible. TU Delft has set itself the goal of receiving eighty percent of all invoices via xml. And that is proving to be an adventure.

Optimize purchase-to-pay process

TU Delft took its first steps toward invoice processing automation back in 2007 when it adopted Basware Invoice Processing. That was joined by Basware Purchase Management in 2011, and TU Delft soon migrated to the fully updated Basware on-premise version. "At that point, all sorts of other questions arose. After all, Basware could do much more than just invoice processing. We wondered what else it had to offer for us," says procurement manager Mees Walhof.

Deloitte Consulting was engaged to come up with a development direction for optimizations in the purchase-to-pay process. From Deloitte's consulting report came very ambitious goals. "If we implemented everything in it, we could save ten percent annually," says Walhof. "However, that was too much, considering all the processes and tooling we would then have to have in place."

"At that time, many small and medium-sized companies did not know how to send xml invoices. They also did not have human resources to spend extra time to log into different portals," adds Sandra Heuvelman, who is responsible for optimizing document flow to and from suppliers.

"The acceptance rate is high. Meanwhile, nearly 1,000 vendors are connected to Basware Network."

Receive all invoices as xml via Basware Network

Basware could work even better in conjunction with Basware Network. This portal allows TU Delft to receive all incoming invoices as xml while suppliers can deliver the invoices in any format (paper, pdf, xml) or manually enter invoice data into the so-called key-in portal. The portal then converts the supplied invoices to TU Delft's standard format and then delivers them including pdf invoice image and any other attachments.

At TU Delft, invoices first pass ICreative Validation Service (IVS) before they are delivered. With IVS, ICreative offers functionalities to fully automatically enrich incoming invoices with supplier data from the ERP system, such as internal supplier numbers and payment date. IVS also provides options to reject invoices that do not comply with the business rules set by the organization or request additional information.

"Thanks to the service, invoices with additional information enter the correct records immediately. Also, incorrect invoices can be rejected and automatically returned to the supplier," Heuvelman said.

Onboarding campaign: connecting suppliers to network

The validation functionality was one of the main reasons for TU Delft to partner with ICreative. Another important reason was the so-called onboarding campaign to connect suppliers to Basware Network. This involved actively approaching the top segment of suppliers and informing them about delivery via Basware Network.

Getting all suppliers on board, however, is quite a job. Consequently, the connection process initially got off to a difficult start. "We couldn't put too much pressure on them because it was new for many suppliers," says Heuvelman. "We didn't know too much about it ourselves yet either. That's why we were happy with the help of ICreative, which provided us with the right documentation, among other things."

Supplier acceptance rate is high

After a year, almost fifty percent of invoices were already coming in via one of the e-invoicing methods. Heuvelman: "By now everyone has heard of it and I notice that accounts receivable departments know pretty well what we expect of them. In that respect, the world did change."

That means TU Delft can now start to tighten its invoicing policy a bit. For example, the educational institution has adjusted the definition of digital invoice. "So that's not a scanned PDF invoice from an e-mail," he said.

In September, TU Delft wrote to 2,000 suppliers, giving them the choice of either submitting their invoice in XML or using Basware Network's key-in portal. And it's working. "The acceptance rate is high. Meanwhile, almost 1,000 suppliers are connected to Basware Network. That's a great result, but of course we're not there yet. We would like a multiple of this."

Exchange orders and invoices automatically

For an increasing number of suppliers, TU Delft places purchase orders in the Basware Network. In this case, the supplier receives a notification email with a link to the order on the portal. The supplier can then easily convert the purchase order (PO) to an invoice using a so-called PO flip.

The advantage is that the invoice matches the order and can therefore be matched automatically. A more ultimate form of this that TU Delft is working toward is touchless processing: a completely integrated connection between supplier and customer in which orders and invoices are exchanged fully automatically.

Curious about the possibilities for your business?

  or