Case Study: Canal & River Trust improves accounts payable efficiency with ITESOFT

Canal & River Trust - Customer Case Study

Canal & River Trust, a UK charity managing a 2,000-mile network of canals and rivers, needed to improve a manual accounts payable process after moving its AP team into a shared services centre and reducing staff from 9 to 5. With about 60,000 supplier invoices and 10,000 expense claims each year, the team was spending too much time chasing blocked invoices, dealing with long payment cycles, and coping with limited control and efficiency. ITESOFT was selected to provide an advanced invoicing solution integrated with SAP.

ITESOFT implemented a scanning and invoice automation solution with true OCR, real-time certified SAP integration, and well-defined workflows. The result was a more controlled and efficient AP function that increased invoice volumes to 100,000 while reducing the team from 9 people to 5, improving productivity by 78%, and saving the equivalent of 16 full-time employees per year. Data quality improved by 80%, blocked invoices were resolved faster, and early payments helped generate supplier discounts and strengthen relationships.

Canal & River Trust

Mick Crowder

Head of Shared Service Centre