Case Study: W.R. Grace and Company cuts cost per invoice to $0.95 and streamlines AP with Tungsten Automation

W.R. Grace and Company Optimizes AP Processes to Reduce Costs and Achieve Best-In-Class Status

W.R. Grace, a 150‑year‑old global specialty chemicals company operating in 40 countries, was overwhelmed by paper‑based accounts payable: 13 AP clerks in North America processed 20,000 invoices monthly, struggled with accountability and lost as many as 60% of invoices. Their highly customized legacy system provided limited SAP integration and high manual data entry and processing costs.

By deploying Kofax ReadSoft Invoices with automated data capture, OCR and workflow integrated with SAP, W.R. Grace consolidated AP into shared service centers and automated invoice matching, approvals and posting. The change cut cost per invoice dramatically (from >$7 to $1.50 in Asia/Europe and from $5 to $2.25 in the U.S., later reaching $0.95), shortened cycle time to 2–2.5 days, increased electronic payments to 83%, improved discount capture to 85%, and delivered about $500K annual savings plus full visibility and stronger SOX audit controls.

W.R. Grace and Company

Michele Blessing

Global AP Manager