Recognising the potential for further improvement in efficiency and collaboration, Turkish steel manufacturer Borçelik embarked on ‘Project Koza’, a comprehensive finance transformation journey, which aimed to transform the business’s CFO office, encompassing accounting, budget and financial controlling, finance and foreign trade operations.
In Turkish, koza means ‘cocoon’, signifying the project’s aim of transforming the department into a more agile and efficient entity, streamlining workflows, enhancing communication, and empowering employees with better tools and knowledge.
The project implemented an innovative system that leverages optical character recognition technology
Embracing digitalisation
A key aim of the project was to use digitalisation to significantly improve the efficiency and accuracy of various financial processes:
Expenses. Prior to the project, expense reports involved manual data entry, requiring employees to sort through paper receipts and invoices before inputting the details into a separate system. This process was time-consuming, prone to errors and lacked transparency.
The project implemented an innovative system that leverages optical character recognition technology. This solution allows employees to submit expense reports by simply taking a photo of their receipts with their smartphones. The system automatically extracts key information, significantly reducing manual data entry and minimising errors.
The new system provides a centralised platform for managing all export documents and workflows
Furthermore, the system integrates with corporate credit-card providers by automating the capture of expense details from bank statements, pre-populating expense forms with relevant data. Employees only need to provide additional information from the receipt photo, further streamlining the process.
Foreign trade operations. Managing export operations previously involved a complex paper-based system, often leading to delays, inefficiencies and communication breakdowns between various departments. The new system revolutionised this process by providing a centralised platform for managing all export documents and workflows.
Several key features have significantly improved the efficiency, transparency and compliance of the foreign trade operations department:
- real-time visibility into the status of each export shipment. All stakeholders, including sales, logistics and production planning, can easily access the platform to see the current stage of a shipment, identify any bottlenecks and take necessary action. This level of transparency has significantly improved communication and collaboration across departments
- enhanced efficiency: the system eliminates the need for manual document handling and data entry, saving time and resources. The platform also provides features for document version control, electronic signatures and secure storage, further enhancing efficiency and compliance.
By implementing the system, the project has significantly improved the efficiency, transparency and compliance of the foreign trade operations department. This has resulted in cost savings, improved customer satisfaction and enabled a more streamlined export process.
The project focused on streamlining key processes, including automated invoice matching and data extraction
Streamlining processes
Beyond digitalisation, the project focused on streamlining key processes, including introducing automated invoice matching and data extraction. Prior to the project, the accounts payable process involved manual matching invoices with corresponding purchase orders, leading to time-consuming tasks and potential for errors.
To address this challenge, the project implemented an invoice system that automates the invoice matching process by leveraging pre-defined criteria to automatically match invoices to purchase orders. This eliminates the need for manual verification, significantly reducing processing time and minimising the risk of errors.
Furthermore, the system integrates with the ERP system, enabling automated data extraction from invoices and automatic entry into the accounting books. This further streamlines the process and eliminates manual data-entry tasks.
In addition to its core functionalities, the system also offers a user-friendly web/mobile interface that goes beyond the ERP integration. This interface allows for easy generation of purchase orders, following user experience/user interface principles for a smooth and intuitive user experience. Key features include:
- a frequently ordered items list, saving time and effort when creating new purchase orders
- dropdown menus and autofill functions streamline data entry, minimising the need for manual typing and reducing the risk of errors
- prompts for essential information only, eliminating unnecessary data entry and simplifying the process.
As a result, there have been significant improvements in the accounts payable process, including:
- significantly reducing the time required to process invoices, freeing up staff for other tasks
- automatically identifying and flagging discrepancies, leading to a significant reduction in errors
- enhanced visibility in the audit trail, providing valuable insights into invoice-processing activities, enabling better control and management.
Weekly follow-up meetings allowed for real-time problem-solving
Collaborative culture
Recognising the importance of cultural change, several initiatives were implemented in order to foster a collaborative and innovative work environment:
- design-thinking, sense-making and co-creating – training equipped team members with the skills and mindset to approach challenges creatively and collaboratively, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and problem-solving
- ‘Koza talks’ – experts from adjacent fields such as economics delivered short talks to broaden perspectives and encourage cross-functional knowledge sharing
- regular away-days on themes of digitalisation in finance and futurism provided opportunities for team members to learn about emerging trends and envision the future of the finance function
- weekly follow-up meetings facilitated transparency, allowed for real-time problem-solving and kept the team informed about project progress.
Tangible results
Emerging from Poject Koza, the CFO office has undergone a remarkable transformation. By focusing on digitalisation, process improvement and cultural change, the project delivered tangible results, including a staggering 8,200 hours saved annually. This significant efficiency gain can be attributed to the 6,200 hours saved through digitalisation initiatives, 700 hours saved through the implementation of reporting and portal tools, and 1,300 hours saved through process improvements and a leaner organisational structure.
Beyond the quantitative metrics, the project has fostered a more engaged and collaborative work environment. Positive feedback from employees and top management alike highlights Poject Koza’s success in enhancing employee satisfaction and overall departmental effectiveness.
