Basware Oyj : Declares the End of OCR

Espoo, Finland, 30 January 2018 - Basware, the global leader in networked source-to-pay solutions, e-invoicing, and innovative financing services today predicted that the number of US invoices that are processed manually using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology is moving toward extinction.

'Traditionally, onboarding suppliers to sending methods other than paper has been a roadblock, hence why OCR has become commonplace in most Accounts Payable departments,' said Michael Jasper, Director of Basware's Network business in the Americas. 'Today, the top suppliers can send an electronic invoice, and two-thirds of the remaining suppliers can send an e-mail from their accounting system. That is why OCR is going to go away,' says Jasper. 'Basware has a way to read those PDF invoices without using OCR, resulting in accurate, real time data at a fraction of the cost.'

McDonald's Germany has seen their invoice processing time improve from 20 days to 7, thanks to Basware's touchless invoice receiving. Basware first migrated the company's largest suppliers to electronic invoices, allowing the AP department at McDonald's to process structured invoice data without human intervention. Together with Basware, McDonald's then offered all its 30,000 suppliers free, flexible invoice sending methods from Basware. The majority of suppliers chose to send invoices via e-mail. McDonald's is now targeting to have 90% of their invoices processed automatically.

'Basware PDF e-invoice helps us save time and money when processing invoices,' says Daniel Voigt, Senior Manager of Process Management for McDonald's Deutschland.

'McDonald's is not alone. We see a surge in growth for invoices sent and received in PDF format,' says Mikko Pilkama, Senior Vice President of Basware's Network and Financing Services business.

'The suppliers can continue to send the same invoices they do today, and customers can ingest the data in near real-time without errors or manual validation steps. This is a real game changer for our industry.'

'Our customers choose Basware due to our unique ability to process 100% of their invoices electronically,' says Michael Jasper. 'Our ability to allow a supplier to send invoices in their preferred method, and do so for free, eliminates all the supplier side objections and results in extremely high adoption rates.'

Moving away from OCR and other manual processes also result in higher automation and significant cost savings.

'We used to have thirty employees working for us - now we're doing the same work with a team of five,' says Serge Flantua, Director of Shared Services in SUEZ.

Read more on this topic here, where Michael Jasper makes a clear case for PDF e-invoicing.

About Basware

Basware (Nasdaq: BAS1V) is the global leader in providing networked source-to-pay solutions, e-invoicing, and innovative financing services. Basware's commerce and financing network connects businesses in over 100 countries and territories around the globe. As the largest open business network in the world, Basware provides scale and reach for organizations of all sizes, enabling them to grow their business and unlock value across their operations by simplifying and streamlining financial processes. Small and large companies around the world achieve significant cost savings, more flexible payment terms, greater efficiencies and closer relationships with their suppliers. Find out more at www.basware.com.

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