Case Study: Stadtwerke Essen achieves accounting digitization and AP automation with Celonis

Process Optimization in Public Utilities, German Company digitizes Accounting with Celonis

Stadtwerke Essen, a municipal utility serving Essen with water, gas, drainage and electricity, faced heavy manual workload in financial accounting: about 43,000 invoices a year with ~80% paper invoices, 100% requiring at least one manual action, widespread CpD postings and a large share (25%) of low-value invoices driving disproportional processing costs. In 2019 the utility selected Celonis for process mining (Celonis Execution Management System) alongside RPA to gain transparent, user-driven insights and find automation opportunities.

Using a Celonis Value Creation Workshop and ongoing process-mining work, Stadtwerke Essen eliminated CpD postings through new processing rules and tracking, semi-automated 25% of low-price invoices and reduced remaining low-value invoices to just two to three manual verification steps. Celonis also supported digitizing remittance advice and internal project management, cutting turnaround times and materially improving accounts payable efficiency; following these gains SWE has rolled out Meter-to-Cash discovery and is developing cross-department KPIs for further Celonis-driven automation.

Stadtwerke Essen

Kathrin Felderhoff

Innovation Manager