AT A GLANCE

FUJIFILM Business Innovation

INDUSTRY

BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

• To streamline their entire invoicing process from procure-to-pay to cash allocation, with seamless integration into SAP.

SOLUTION

• Esker Procure to Pay platform and the Esker Cash Application, with built-in AI smarts, were implemented.

BUSINESS BENEFITS

• The procurement and payments system is accessible from anywhere, while Cash Application automatically allocates incoming funds simplifying work for the AR team.
• A customised Esker dashboard presents information at a glance, while full integration with SAP ensures business continues as usual.
• Operator time has been reduced by 40 percent since implementing Esker and each cost centre has full visibility of their spending, helping reduce costs and consolidate suppliers.

CONTACT DETAILS

FUJIFILM Business Innovation
W: FUJIFILM Business Innovation

New Zealand

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OCS New Zealand’s AI-driven finance transformation

September 23, 2025 | Heather Wright

First company globally to adopt full Esker AI cloud finance…

AT A GLANCE

FUJIFILM Business Innovation

INDUSTRY

Agricultural supplies

BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

• To save time, reduce costs and more efficiently process the quarter-million supplier invoices annually.
• Reduce manual intervention

SOLUTION

• Esker Accounts Payable Automation processing supplier invoices into the Microsoft Dynamics 365 F&O ERP system

BUSINESS BENEFITS

• Payment processing times have been halved, with fewer errors, while meeting audit and retention requirements
• The need for manual handling of invoice discrepancies has been virtually eliminated

CONTACT DETAILS

FUJIFILM Business Innovation
W: FUJIFILM Business Innovation

New Zealand

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AT A GLANCE

Isaac Construction

INDUSTRY

• Construction

BUSINESS OBJECTIVE

• Maintain reputation for on-time payment with suppliers
• Ease burden on accounts payable team chasing up paperwork
• Cope with business growth after acquiring another business

SOLUTION

• Esker Accounts Payable Automation delivered by the FUJIFILM Business Innovation Process Automation team

BUSINESS BENEFITS

• AP process now 100% paperless
• Fast and accurate invoice routing
• AI intelligently monitors and alerts errors & changes
• Immediate visibility across the procure-to-pay process

FOR MORE INFORMATION

FUJIFILM Business Innovation
W: https://betterbusiness-fbnz.fujifilm.com
New Zealand
E: kevin.ptak.pc@fujifilm.com
T: +64 21 275 4321

Christchurch-based Isaac Construction has earned a reputation for excellence by making sure everything it does is at the highest possible level of quality. Employing a team of more than 300 specialists, the company delivers a wide range of services, including construction, surfacing, bitumen products, transport, quarrying and professional contract management services.

Isaac recently acquired Blenheim’s Simcox Construction, adding a further 80 staff members active in civil construction, infrastructure works and earthmoving. Even prior to the acquisition, the accounts payable team were busy, often spending time chasing documents. While understandable and a practical reality in a company handling more than two thousand invoices every month, these situations were at odds with the organisation’s policy of paying its suppliers on time.

With the purchase of Simcox, the limitations of paper-based processes became painfully clear as increased volume exacerbated the situation.

“We’ve always done our best to pay on time. It’s reputational; when you get it right, people like to work for you – but paper has its limitations,” explains Arlee Folkers, Group CFO at Isaac Construction.

Folkers knew that Isaac would need a modern solution to maintain its hard-earned reputation.

After testing the market, the team decided to engage with the FUJIFILM team, who were recommending Esker Accounts Payable Automation.

Solution

The implementation process started with several presentations and then a collaborative workshop.

“This proved invaluable, you could tell FUJIFILM had done many of these deployments in the past. They involved everyone who would be touched by accounts payable automation – and they sequenced it very well, so people weren’t in the room unless necessary.”

“Once an invoice is in our system, we can track every single one with absolute ease.”

Attendees included a project manager, a technical specialist and account manager from FUJIFILM, Isaac’s accounts payable employees, the company accountant, a representative from Nimbus (the Enterprise Resource Planning solution used by the business), an IT specialist an external project manager for added oversight.

The additional resourcing was helpful, Folkers adds, because her accounts payable staff members were eager to get the solution in, having been at the coal face dealing with inadequate paper processes.

“They were experiencing frustration and continual problems which had them feeling like they weren’t on top of the job.”

The project went live after just 4 months.

Results

With Esker, the entire electronic system works seamlessly, eliminating paper in the process. Most importantly, Isaac Construction now enjoys complete visibility across the accounts payable workflow. “If someone rings about their invoice, we can answer immediately because we can see it, when and to whom it’s been submitted, as well as where it is in the process. And once an invoice is in our system, we can track every single one with absolute ease.”

As a cloud solution, alongside a mobile app, Esker also allows AP staff to approve on the go.

The system’s built-in AI is also helping with fraud detection, “We’ve also noticed intelligence in the Esker system. For example, a client’s bank account changed but they didn’t notify us. Esker picked it up, though, and sent an alert so we could verify the legitimacy of the change.”

The visibility and workflow delivered by Esker also ensures Isaac Construction has maintained its reputation with suppliers at its Christchurch and Blenheim operations. “We’ve gone from ‘two and a half’ people focused on accounts payable, down to two. And they now have room to breathe,” says Folkers. She describes the entire project as ‘a pleasure’.

“You don’t hear that about many implementations, but FUJIFILM Process Automation has shown that when you get all the right people in at the start, and you have a clear idea of what needs to be done, an enterprise software project doesn’t have to be a headache.”

“The thoroughness of the preparation, including seeing how all the various systems talk to one another, set the scene for what was the best implementation I’ve ever been involved in.”

Source: This article was originally sourced from FUJFILM Business Innovation

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AT A GLANCE

• SealesWinslow

INDUSTRY

• Agriculture

BUSINESS OBJECTIVE

• Free up customer service team from order entry tasks
• Simplify temporary seasonal staff roles and training
• Improve service levels

SOLUTION

• Esker Sales Order Management ‘SOM’
• FUJIFILM Business Innovation’s Process Automation team

BUSINESS BENEFITS

• Removed manual data entry, giving the four-person team more than 8 hours back each day
• Orders processed 90% faster during peak periods
• Self-learning AI has improved accuracy and provided agility
• Provided full visibility into order processing analytics

FOR MORE INFORMATION

FUJIFILM Business Innovation
W: FUJIFILM Business Innovation
New Zealand
E: kevin.ptak.pc@fujifilm.com
T: +64 21 275 4321

Providing next-level customer service can be a fine balance between processing orders efficiently and taking time to proactively help customers.

For stockfeed manufacturer SealesWinslow, a subsidiary of Ballance Agri-Nutrients, there is an added challenge of huge seasonal peaks, which see around half of the company’s annual order book filled in just three months. With orders ranging from 20kg bags of feed to 10-tonne truckloads, and specialised ordering for customised stockfeed additives, order processing can get challenging.

A manual order entry process using emailed orders from both merchants and SealesWinslow’s sales reps saw the company’s lean customer service team stretched during peak periods. While temporary Customer Service staff for busy periods helped, the specialised knowledge required meant they could only do so much.

“The time saving has been quite mind-blowing for us.”

Nardia Crosby, Customer Experience & Shared Services Manager at SealesWinslow had a clear vision: “One of our main goals was to get our customer service team away from performing functions and allow them the time to talk to customers, resolve issues and proactively look at what was happening and how it was happening to minimise and remove issues before they happened.”

Solution

The Ballance Agri-Nutrients’ IT team suggested the Esker Sales Order Management platform ‘SOM’, locally delivered by FUJIFILM Business Innovation’s Process Automation team. The suggestion came with a thumbs up for Fujifilm’s reputation and the team’s ability to respond and implement quickly.

“We had a high volume of sales orders in a set format but with very manual processes,” says Crosby.

Fujifilm integrated Esker SOM with SealesWinslow’s ERP system across three manufacturing plants around New Zealand, allowing it to automatically capture information from sales order emails. For the Customer Service team, that meant no more retyping PDFs into sales orders. AI-driven machine learning accurately extracts relevant data and learns common corrections.

Results

Within three weeks of implementing Esker, SealesWinslow’s four-person customer service team was saving more than eight hours a day across the team. Order processing times are now around one fifth of what they were, and urgent orders can be dealt with instantly.

Crosby says the results were impressive. “The time saving has been quite mind-blowing for us. In a funny way, it was a bit unnerving for the team. Suddenly in our busy period, they had flexibility they’d never had before.”

That time saving has seen SealesWinslow step up its outbound calling, getting feedback from customers, and proactively working to minimise and remove any issues before they happen. It’s also enabling training for the team, even during peak periods.

“One of our main goals was to get our customer service team away from performing functions and allow them the time to talk to customers, resolve issues and proactively look at what was happening and how it was happening to minimise and remove issues before they happened,” says Crosby.

Order duplications are flagged by Esker and the way the two systems interact ensures incorrect information can’t be accidentally input. Fujifilm configured the platform to include SealesWinslow’s freight mechanism, ensuring the automation in its ERP for contacting correct carriers for each region wasn’t lost.

Esker’s autolearning abilities have been the key feature for SealesWinslow. The codes that merchant partners use often vary slightly from SealesWinslow’s own codes, and Esker’s AI has quickly picked up the differences.

“I know auto-learning works beautifully because we did a re-coding change in our ERP system, and Esker picked up really fast on those new codes.”

Esker has also helped fill in gaps in the ERP system’s reporting, enabling SealesWinslow to see for the first time how long it takes the team to process an order and how many times they have to verify information with a merchant or their own reps. That’s allowing the company to focus on those areas and provide training where needed to reduce future issues.

SealesWinslow is adding a new permanent member to its customer service team, and Crosby says their training will be considerably easier thanks to Esker.

You have to know a lot before you can be let loose on our main ERP system, which meant training people in the past took longer. With Esker, it’s much simpler. It has made a huge difference in the way we can work and the way we do that work now.

Source: This article was originally sourced from FUJIFILM Business Innovation

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AT A GLANCE

• Xero

INDUSTRY

• Financial services

BUSINESS OBJECTIVE

• Automate invoices
• Non-finance business users to easily navigate invoices
• A platform to support purchase orders

SOLUTION

• Esker Purchasing & AP Automation

BUSINESS BENEFITS

• Reduced manual data entry through Esker’s automatic matching of invoices against POs
• Faster approval time from several weeks to 3-4 days
• Greater visibility across the finance team through dashboard metrics and reporting

FOR MORE INFORMATION

FUJIFILM Business Innovation
W: FUJIFILM Business Innovation
New Zealand
E: kevin.ptak.pc@fujifilm.com
T: +64 21 275 4321

Background
New Zealand-founded cloud-based accounting software platform Xero knows a thing or two about automation. With more than 2.7 million subscribers, Xero has offices in 18 cities across the globe.

For a business of Xero’s size, it’s not surprising that their AP team were seeking a platform that could not only handle a significant number of vendor invoices but one that would also make it easier for non-finance business users to navigate.

“The platform also needed to support Purchase Orders, and some of the options we initially considered couldn’t do this. But the main thing for us was the automation and its ability to connect back to Netsuite ERP,” says Sam Tsoi, Systems Accountant, Xero.

Solution
After talking to several vendors and an RFP process, Xero confidently selected FUJIFILM Business Innovation to implement Esker Purchasing & AP Automation.

Esker’s ability to support the Finance team in managing Xero’s different subsidiaries was the deciding factor, along with the feature set and convenience of local support.

“We were looking for something user-friendly and intuitive for the end-user. The interface design was quite an important consideration for us.”
Sam Tsoi – Systems Accountant, Xero

Results
The most significant benefit has been Esker’s efficiency in matching invoices against POs. This was previously a manual process, but Esker’s OCR (Optical Character Recognition) automatically converts invoices into searchable data, extracts, and then enters information into the system.

There are other flow-on benefits too. “It’s super easy for invoice approvers to approve an invoice straight from their mobile phone – they don’t even have to log in from their laptop. And of course, faster approval means we’re able to get the invoices paid on time,” explains Antoinetta, Accounts Payable Administrator. “I can easily track what’s happening with a particular invoice, so we’re getting fewer enquiries from suppliers about where payment is or how far along it is.”

Esker has also helped change some of the internal processes across the company. “Before Esker, it was more common to receive an invoice first, and then a PO would have to be raised retroactively. Since implementing Esker, we’re finding that more people are raising a PO initially, and then we’re receiving an invoice to match it.” says Antoinetta.

“It used to be hard to keep up with queries and juggling invoices. With Esker, it’s definitely freed up our time to do other things!”

Esker’s intelligent dashboard has improved visibility within the team. Now they can see the number of invoices coming in, manage, share and track workload. Smart filtering flags important items, such as unmatched invoices or incorrect currencies. “I think we’ve definitely benefited from having something more user-friendly and nicer looking for our business users,” says Sam.

Customised reporting has allowed Xero to build relevant reports for specific business functions, while dashboard metrics ensure the most important data is visible without seeming like ‘information overload’.

Overall, efficiency gains have been significant. The improvements that the Finance team set out to achieve have been met and more. Where previously an invoice would take several weeks to be approved, it’s now just a matter of days, says Antoinetta.

Source: This article was originally sourced from FUJIFILM Business Innovation

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AT A GLANCE

• Comvita

INDUSTRY

• Mānuka honey and bee consumer goods

BUSINESS OBJECTIVE

• Enable remote working
• Faster processing of invoices
• Improved visibility over the procurement cycle and less compliance risk

SOLUTION

• Esker platform
• Fujifilm Process Automation
• Esker Anywhere mobile app

BUSINESS BENEFITS

• Full reporting on requisitions, items purchased, invoices processed, and payments
• Raise POs and pay recurring invoices automatically and electronically without any printing
• Accurate and efficient payments
• Ability to negotiate better rates with future suppliers

FOR MORE INFORMATION

FUJIFILM Business Innovation
W: FUJIFILM Business Innovation
New Zealand
E: kevin.ptak.pc@fujifilm.com
T: +64 21 275 4321

Comvita was founded in 1974, with a purpose to heal and protect the world through the natural power of the hive and is the global market leader in Mānuka honey and bee consumer goods. Their procure-to-pay cycle was being hindered by excessive paperwork.

“Paper costs money, and shifting it around to individual desks takes effort and time,” explains Lisa Blackstock, Comvita’s GM of Finance. “Sometimes invoices would stay on peoples desks, so we’d have a lot of chasing up to do. It was also hard to see which invoices we could pay and which were still waiting for approval, while some invoices required more than one signature, which only magnified the challenge.”

“My team needs more exercise, as they’re no longer running around with pieces of paper!”

Solution
The Fujifilm Process Automation team took a comprehensive and proven approach to implementation, starting with an on-site workshop to understand Comvita’s current processes and identify areas for improvement. This discovery phase informed the proposed solution, which was then built over six weeks. After deploying the software, training was provided, followed by twenty days of support to get the Comvita team comfortable with the new solution.

The Esker platform provided by Fujifilm Process Automation has proven a sweet deal for the company – and a particularly timely one, with the implementation completed just ahead of the COVID-19 lockdown.

Results
Comvita’s executives had no difficulty processing purchase orders and invoices during the lockdown, thanks to the Esker Anywhere mobile app. “The timing of the new solution couldn’t have been better. Quite simply, if we were on the old system, we would have had a major problem,” says Blackstock.

With AI-powered data capture, touchless processing, and digital workflow capabilities, Esker optimises spend requests and goods/services ordering. Every Purchase Requisition is raised and authorised electronically before a Purchase Order is issued. Every transaction is tracked – from purchase request to invoice approval, with full reporting on requisitions, items purchased, invoices processed, and payments made.

Integrating the Esker platform with Comvita’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution was easy thanks to Esker’s multiple ERP integration capability. Comvita gained further efficiency by having a single unified view across their business.

The net result is that Comvita can raise POs and pay recurring invoices automatically and electronically without printing a single sheet of paper. They have complete visibility of their purchases and payments at any time while also meeting their compliance and anti-fraud obligations.

Blackstock says Fujifilm’s engagement, onboarding, and delivery processes were impressive. “This was promised at the start and delivered in practice. The consultant, for example, remained engaged throughout, helping facilitate the implementation and support us in the initial phase of use.”

The company’s suppliers love the introduction of Esker too. “The accuracy and frequency of payments have improved, and they benefit from the improved visibility our team enjoys over the procurement cycle,” Blackstock confirms.

While it is still ‘early days’ for Esker at Comvita, she says the company is preparing to take full advantage of the visibility and analytics. “We’re working on setting up limits and approval lines as well as better understanding our procurement so we can contract approved suppliers and negotiate better rates.”

In short, Fujifilm Process Automation and Esker has made life better for the finance department, Blackstock says. “There is only one complaint, though, my team needs more exercise, as they’re no longer running around with pieces of paper!”

Source: This article was originally sourced from FUJIFILM Business Innovation

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AT A GLANCE

• FarmRight

INDUSTRY

• Agriculture

BUSINESS OBJECTIVE

• Find a solution to solve the tedious, time consuming, paper-bound problem with AP process
• Streamline and automate current manual AP process to improve business efficiency and capacity without adding more resources
• Eliminate the need to handle paper invoices

SOLUTION

• Esker Accounts Payable automation solution that integrates with FarmRight MicrosoftDynamics GP 2015

BUSINESS BENEFITS

• Improvement in productivity and efficiency
• Approvals are now done in micro-moments through the day using the mobile app
• Dramatic reduction in paperwork
• Greater visibility and reporting on the AP function
• Boost to finance governance measures

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Fuji Xerox
W: www.fujixerox.co.nz
New Zealand
E: cassandra.powell@nzl.fujixerox.com
T: +64 9 356 4200

With more than 60 farms under its control across New Zealand and in Australia, a specialised provider of third-party management services has looked to Fuji Xerox New Zealand and the Esker software solution for Accounts Payable(AP) automation.

Thanks to an on-time, on-budget project delivery, FarmRight today enjoys improved visibility, faster processing and a smaller AP team.

Established in August 2000, FarmRight provides expertise to equity partnerships, corporate ownership and large-scale family holdings in the dairy, beef and horticulture farming industry. The business has expanded from the original three managed farms to more than 60, including several in Australia.

It promised to quite literally put AP in your pocket.

The company focuses on providing a full range of investment and management solutions to well governed, long term investors. This includes investors in portfolios of farms as well as traditional equity partnerships. With staff located throughout New Zealand, FarmRight maintains offices in Lumsden, Christchurch and Te Awamutu.

Situation
Chief Financial Officer Mark Paul says each of the properties under management by FarmRight operates as a separate entity. “Our farm managers look after all aspects of every property, and that includes procurement and approval of Accounts Payable.”

He gives an idea of the scale of the AP function: “We handle up to 3,500 invoices each month, with a spend running intothe millions.”

On the farms, goods and services are procured in the normal operation of the enterprise. Until Fuji Xerox got involved, this was a largely manual process, with paper invoices sent through to a central AP team. “The farmers would typically set aside a day each month for the invoice approval activity. Then, we had a team of 7 in the wider administration team who would enter all these invoices into the financial system, send to farm managers for approval and schedule payments,” says Mark.

As a growing business, with more farms steadily being added to its portfolio, FarmRight was starting to drown in the paperwork. “Paper was a real problem. Invoices would come in, be printed and placed in a pigeonhole. An AP clerk would bring it out, enter the data, then scan the invoice which would go into a transaction list for approval by the farm manager – there was a lot of double and triple handling,” Mark explains.

“That meant that we could not achieve any ‘scalability’. Clients are buying more farms and we reached a point where we’d have to grow the admin team, or find a better way of handling AP,” Mark notes.

Solution
While AP automation had come to Mark’s attention several years ago, the systems he saw then were just not very good. “However, technology changes all the time and we knew we needed to think about doing things differently. That meant taking another look at the market and hoping that a level of maturity had come into this particular technology.”

A Request for Information resulted in six proposals, which FarmRight rapidly narrowed down to two serious contenders. Fuji Xerox and Esker, says Mark, stood out owing to a proven track record with several local successful implementations, and demonstrable functionality and ease for users. “Any change you’re going to introduce becomes far easier if the users see the purpose and if it helps them get their jobs done better,” he notes.

“What stood out about the Esker solution is that it promised to quite literally put AP in your pocket, with a mobile app. That really impressed everyone, from the board down. And we wanted something which would work for the tech savvy just as well as it would work for those who are not.”

With the decision made, he says implementation of the Esker solution is surprisingly straightforward. “That’s partially owing to the expertise of the Fuji Xerox team and partially owing to the software itself. Esker is very configurable, which meant it was easy to adapt to our needs.”

Mark says FarmRight wanted a few extra layers of control over the standard solution, and also sought tight integration with its Microsoft Dynamics financials. “This probably took more time than anything else, so I would advise anyone not to underestimate this aspect. But it does make for ‘full automation’, so things flow right through from AP to the system from which the payments are actually made.”

The deployment was completed within four months, Mark adds, with the company timing its introduction with its payment cycle.

Results
His focus on the users of the solution has borne immediate fruit: Mark says farm managers have welcomed Esker AP automation. “Reception has been very positive from the start, and that actually commenced well before the rollout, with various communiques that this was coming.”

In effect, he says FarmRight’s people widely recognised that AP was a problem – a tedious, time consuming, paper-bound problem. “It was one of those ‘roll your eyes and sigh’ jobs every month.”

Now, handling payments is a breeze. With Esker, invoices are received electronically (generally via email) and placed into a workflow, where they are coded and approved for payment. Mark says this is done in micro-moments through the day using the mobile app. “Most of our farmers handle their approvals at breakfast after the morning milking. It’s just made so easy for them.”

The administration team has also seen a dramatic reduction in paperwork. “This was always about efficiency for us, and the team is a lot happier as Esker lets them focus on more pressing issues. We’ve also seen a reduction in the cost per transaction and have immediately been able to move one team member into the accounting team, and another has gone on maternity leave.

In effect, we have a smaller AP team able to handle the volume without issue,”Mark notes.

With greater visibility and reporting on the AP function, FarmRight is able to delegate authority with confidence, while receiving a boost to its governance measures.

He says the Board is pleased, with an on-time and on-budget enterprise IT project also delivering the anticipated results.

There’s more to it than simply dollars, though. “Relieving your people of an unpleasant task is probably the most valuable benefit of all,” he concludes.

Source: This article was originally sourced from Fuji Xerox

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