Alpek Polyester Strengthens Vendor Relationships by Implementing an Automated AP Solution

The year 2011 was pivotal for Alpek Polyester, as the leading low-cost producer of PET resin led two major acquisitions and, as a result, more than doubled its production. The company’s already centralized, paperless, and partially automated accounts payable system had served the lean organization well up to that point, but it began to burst at the seams as late fees were incurred and lack of visibility tested vendor relationships. The leadership at Alpek Polyester turned to a best practice, end-to-end AP solution to quickly deliver the added efficiencies it needed to resume the company’s low-cost competitive advantage.

Challenge

Despite having many best practices in place, Alpek Polyester still experienced problems with its AP processes, and the growth associated with the 2011 acquisitions exacerbated those inefficiencies. While invoices arrived in electronic form, AP staffers still had to manually key the data into SAP. The manual process was slow and the inaccuracy associated with human touch points were commonplace.

Solution

The project’s goals were twofold: to improve vendor relationships by increasing invoice processing efficiency and improve cash management by reducing late fees. Alpek Polyester decision makers searched for a simple and easy-toimplement solution that could show a solid return on investment.

Results

With Tungsten’s automated solutions for AP processes in place, Alpek Polyester is moving toward a more nimble, cross-trained AP department. Some staff members monitor incoming electronic invoices and drop them in designated ReadSoft folders where they are automatically pulled directly into the Tungsten software.

Focus

• Automated AP processing

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