Case Study: Global Package Delivery Company achieves 40% lower invoice processing costs and 70% faster invoice cycle times with SAP Ariba

Smart Invoicing to Reduce Processing Costs, Ensure Compliance, and Manage Cash Better

A global package delivery company faced a heavy paper-based accounts payable process with manual invoice matching for services and catalog spend, no ERP validation checks, long PO invoice processing (up to 26 days), frequent supplier follow-ups to resolve exceptions, difficulty handling multiple transaction types (including EDI), and missed early payment discounts.

The company implemented Ariba InvoicePro, Contract Management, Procurement Content, and Sourcing to automate invoice validation, support multiple file formats, and enforce PO/contract compliance. The rollout processed about 500k invoices in the first wave, cut services processing costs by ~40%, reduced cycle time by over 70 (to six days versus 20–25 days previously), lowered supplier and user inquiries, established accurate payment-term dates, reduced exception handling, and improved DPO while enabling more early-payment discount opportunities.