Cottenham creates competitive advantage by reducing friction in the Order to Cash and Procure to Pay processes

Sandy Fesq, Director

Fesq & Company (“Cottenham”) help restaurants and hotels bring you memorable dining experiences. Alongside every meal is a great wine and Fesq & Company brings leading wine maker’s wines to the table making for great dining experiences. As a distributor of wines in Australia and overseas, Fesq & Company source, market and distribute many of the leading wine labels you are already know and love. Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, Fesq & Company is a multi-generational family business that has also established a rum line of products.

Fesq & Company have always been a forward looking and thinking family business able to implement new innovations to drive their business forward. As they grow they source new and different systems and platforms to serve the needs of their customers and suppliers. Fesq & Company wanted to move to a more automated “hands-off” approach to reduce business process friction in the entire Order to Cash and Procure to Pay business processes.

Fesq & Company have adopted the Salesforce platform as their platform of choice and are driving a process of innovation and continuous improvement. The challenge was to refresh their systems with a focus on their core business processes. An evaluation and business case process was undertaken to decide on the right mix of capabilities to take them forward.

Exceleris Consulting and Certinia, Inc were chosen as the preferred partner and ERP solution. The project touched every part of their business and Fesq & Company staff had direct input into how business processes were to be tuned and streamlined.

“Workflow and approvals are great functions, though we have adopted a principle that the system will guide the process and we won’t create work for another person eg an approval.”

Sandy Fesq, Director, Cottenham Tweet

Exceleris Consulting implemented a hyper-automation strategy, combining advanced technologies such as AI, machine learning, robotic process automation (RPA), and intelligent workflows to automate end-to-end business processes at Cottenham Services.

Seamless Order-to-Cash Automation:

Order Management: Automated the conversion of incoming email orders into Salesforce cases, with automatic sales order creation. This reduced manual intervention, minimised errors, and accelerated order processing times.
Quotation Management: Deployed a pricing engine that automatically generates quotations based on complex pricing rules, including markups and discounts, ensuring consistency and accuracy.
Inventory Management: Integrated real-time stock visibility at the point of order creation, enabling informed decisions and optimising stock levels. Automated stock allocation and backorder processing further enhanced order fulfilment efficiency. Additionally, automated pick, ship, and EDI transmission of data to 3PL warehouses streamlined logistics operations. The system also supports stock reservations with vendors and customers.
Invoicing and Payment: Implemented a fully automated invoicing system that handles complex taxation and freight rules, with automatic email distribution of invoices to customers and 3PL warehouses. Automated payment collection via credit cards and seamless bank statement reconciliation streamlined the cash flow process.
Customer Communication: Enabled automated customer statement emails, real-time sub-ledger reporting, and aged receivables analysis, improving transparency and customer relationships. The system also manages credit limits and automatically notifies customers about orders placed on hold due to credit issues.

Streamlined Procure-to-Pay process:

Demand Planning: Leveraged real-time system-driven demand planning based on open orders, stock levels, and safety stock requirements. Automatic creation of purchase requisitions and orders based on preferred vendors and warehouses ensured timely procurement.
Vendor Management: Automated purchase order pricing using vendor catalogues and recorded advance shipment notices with landed cost calculations for freight and duties. The system automatically capitalises shipment costs into inventory values and also manages consignment stock effectively.
Invoice Processing: Deployed OCR/AI technology for automatic creation and three-way matching of vendor invoices, reducing errors and accelerating invoice processing times.
Payment Processing: Automated bulk payment processing with vendor notifications via email, improving vendor relationships and payment accuracy.

Self Running Financials:

Zero-Touch Accounting: Implemented a zero-touch accounting system with automated invoicing and financial transactions, reducing manual workload and errors.
Real-Time Financial Reporting: Enabled real-time financial reporting with drill-down capabilities into source transactions, providing comprehensive audit trails and enhancing financial transparency.
Inventory Valuation: Automated inventory valuation using weighted average computation, ensuring accurate financial reporting and inventory management.
Bank Reconciliation: Integrated automatic bank feeds and reconciliation, significantly reducing the time and effort required for month-end closing.

Winemaker Collaboration:

Providing real-time sales data through Salesforce Community gave key insights to winemakers to optimise distribution needs to fulfil their own marketing strategy. The unique access to market data allowed winemakers to see the “Distribution Footprint” (customer touchpoints, price management, channel strategy – restaurants Vs bottleshops)

KEY BENEFITS

Reduced Sales effort to complete Orders
Improved Credit management and Days Sales Outstanding
Enhanced Demand Forecast Accuracy
Streamlined inbound customer payment processes
Improved Cash position visibility and customer service with automated bank processes

Industry: Distribution

Company Size: Medium

Headquarters: Sydney, Australia

Products Used:

Salesforce Sales Cloud
Certinia OPI Cloud
Certinia ERP Cloud
xlrs Payables Automation
xlrs Banking Automation
xlrs Planner
Asperato Payments
Conga Composer

Outcomes:

Operational Efficiency

Fesq & Company achieved significant improvements in operational efficiency, with order processing times reduced by 40% and procurement cycle times cut by 50-60%.

Accuracy & Consistency

The hyper-automation strategy eliminated manual errors in order management, pricing, and financial reporting, resulting in an doubling of data accuracy.

Customer Satisfaction

Improved order accuracy and faster fulfilment led to a considerable increase in customer satisfaction scores.

Vendor Collaboration

Providing real-time sales data through Salesforce Community empowered vendors to optimise inventory management and production planning, leading to an 50% reduction in stockouts and supply chain disruptions.

Financial Visibility

Real-time financial reporting and automated processes provided Fesq & Company with greater visibility into its financial health, enabling better decision-making and cash flow management.

Scalability

The automated systems implemented by Exceleris Consulting allowed Fesq & Company to scale its operations without the need for proportional increases in headcount and mitigating general fixed cost increases.

Cost Savings

The optimised architecture ensures efficient use of system storage, resulting in business savings of $40K – $60K annually.