Toro's Journey To Automated Vendor Invoice Management
Toro was facing ongoing challenges with labor-intensive and time-consuming vendor invoicing processes, aggravated by the absence of automation. With Auritas' expertise, the company achieved impressive results in their invoice management optimization project. They processed over 700 thousand invoices, while the touchless process increased from 0-20% to over 85% globally. Finally, the company also experienced improved relationships with suppliers.
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85% touchless automation
Reduced manual intervention for better operational efficiency.
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13 Day Reduction in Cycle
Invoice processing cycle time was reduced from 18 to 4.5 days.
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Improved Supplied Relationship
Relationships with suppliers were greatly improved.
About Toro
Toro is a leading worldwide provider of innovative solutions for the outdoor environment including turf maintenance, snow management, landscape, rental and specialty construction equipment, and irrigation solutions.
The company was founded in 1914 and by 2023 has expanded to 125+ countries. It has over 6,800 worldwide employees and as of 2021 has an approximate annual revenue of $3.96B.
About Toro
Toro is a leading worldwide provider of innovative solutions for the outdoor environment including turf maintenance, snow management, landscape, rental and specialty construction equipment, and irrigation solutions.
The company was founded in 1914 and by 2023 has expanded to 125+ countries. It has over 6,800 worldwide employees and as of 2021 has an approximate annual revenue of $3.96B.
The Challenge
In 2021, Toro undertook an important endeavor to digitize its invoice processing operations. Having expanded its presence to over 125 countries since its establishment in 1914, Toro had experienced several modernizations throughout its history. Despite these advancements, the company's team still grappled with the labor-intensive nature and lengthy duration of its vendor invoicing processes.
The absence of optimization in their financial workflows impeded Toro's scalability and hindered their ability to effectively measure performance. Moreover, the lack of automation presented numerous challenges in achieving an optimized invoicing process, further exacerbating the situation.
The Solution
Toro connected with Auritas to get assistance in the process. Auritas’ experts drafted an action plan to address the company's pain points. Starting with an assessment of the current invoicing process, the project focused on enabling the company to scale its operations with ease. By implementing standard global practices, the experts invested on developing and tracking performance metrics to trends progress.
Another important aspect of the solution was focusing on leading the change with business process, not technology; building cross functional change coalition to root the cultural change. Auritas' experts also focused on implementing SAP validation, rejection, exception handling, workflow, approval and posting minimal SAP customizations. It also in integrate EDI and auto ingest emailed invoices, automating and simplifying the process. Finally, it also architected a future state supplier portal integration.
• Phase 1: Digitalize – Focused on growing EDI invoice usage, automating email processes, and reducing paper to drive early digitization.
• Phase 2: Standardize – Streamlined operations by standardizing processes, updating policies, and eliminating unnecessary touch points.
• Phase 3: Accelerate – Increased speed and efficiency through PO-driven workflows, line-item match acceleration, exception path automation, and analytics.
• Phase 4: Operate – Established a Shared Services Center (SSC), tracked performance, benchmarked results, and drove vendor adoption.
• Phase 5: Optimize – Delivered ongoing value through actionable improvements, supplier portal integration, and a continuous improvement model.
Results & Benefits
In just over 12 months, the project drove a comprehensive list of benefits for Toro, which also plans to continue investing on growing and improving their processes with Auritas.