From its roots in garment manufacturing in the 1970s, the company has continually innovated. Bidco proudly owns and operates its own oil refineries to support its growing manufacturing base.
The company reaches 350 million consumers across Africa, supported by its factories in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda, and by distribution operations in 12 additional countries.
As its portfolio of products and geographical presence has grown, so has the volume of vendor invoices that Bidco receives and needs to process. Using a shared service center model, invoices are received in both paper and electronic form for processing by the accounts payable team, supported by its SAP® financial system.
However, keeping track of tens of thousands of invoices every year is a considerable challenge. The company was also heavily reliant on paper documents to handle queries. This led to difficulties with reporting, making it hard to have a clear understanding of the company’s overall liabilities at any given point in time. Handling inbound or internal queries would often involve first tracking down the paper invoices, which could be sitting on an individual’s desk.Bidco recognized that to improve its processes, increase efficiency and visibility and identify bottlenecks, the company needed a solution that would provide automation, reporting and tight SAP integrations.