We are BW

How BW went from folders of paper invoices to minutes in COINS
Invoices processed through Open ECX
~12,000
Speed to process
Real time
No disruption to BWs supply chain
Zero
Industry
Construction
Product
Invoicing
Company size
~12k invoices annually
ERP
Coins
The Business

With over 17 years' experience building commercial office interiors, BW are fit-out and refurbishment experts. With innovation at the forefront of everything they do, BW are completely focused on completing their fit-out and refurbishment projects defect free.After significant business growth, BW recognised that manually inputting invoices was inefficient and decided to explore electronic solutions to increase invoice processing efficiency and streamline supplier payments. They implemented eInvoicing in 2019.

The Challenge

Before Open ECX, BW had one person whose job was to input and check invoices manually. Every invoice had to be scanned in, logged, and passed over for authorisation. The office was full of folders. It was a time-consuming, paper-heavy process that scaled poorly as the business grew, and left the team with no capacity to focus on anything beyond keeping up with the incoming volume.

Pain point 1

One person was dedicated to scanning, logging, and manually processing all invoices, creating a single point of failure and a process that couldn't scale with the business.

Pain point 2

Every invoice required physical scanning, manual logging, and passing for authorisation, a paper-heavy workflow that filled the office with folders and consumed significant time.

"Prior to Open ECX, we had one person inputting invoices and checking them. We had to scan invoices in, we had to log them in, and we had to pass them over for authorisation. We had loads of folders in the office."
Izabela Jeziolkowska, Assistant Accountant, BW

The Solution

The Open ECX platform automatically converts and validates PDF invoices received from suppliers into XML files, eliminating the need for costly manual methods and integrating seamlessly with BW's COINS back-office system. eInvoicing is open to all buyers and suppliers regardless of size or technical capability, with no barriers to entry and the platform fully tailored to BW's specific business requirements.

BW implemented eInvoicing in 2019. With approximately 12,000 invoices now going through Open ECX, the team is literally minutes away from clicking through invoices and authorising them in COINS. The scanning, the logging, and the manual passing for authorisation are gone. It all happens automatically.

How it worked
1
Open ECX integrated with BW's COINS system, automatically converting PDF invoices from suppliers into XML and passing them through for authorisation without any manual steps.
2
Suppliers continued their existing process with no changes required. BW's team simply stopped receiving paper and started seeing invoices ready for authorisation in COINS.
3
The platform was tailored to BW's specific requirements, with full configuration to match their authorisation workflow and COINS data structure.

The Outcomes

BW went from scanning, logging, and manually passing 12,000 invoices for authorisation to clicking through them in minutes. The person previously dedicated to manual invoice input has been freed entirely from that task.

Suppliers have experienced no disruption whatsoever. In the words of the team: the suppliers have got no issues with the new system at all. It's just a normal process for them. The change has been invisible to the supply chain and transformative for BW's finance team.

Outcome 1
~12k
Invoices now processed through Open ECX
Outcome 2
Speed to process massively reduced
Outcome 3
No disruption to BWs supply chain
We're probably looking at about 12,000 invoices going through Open ECX, plus about 20% manual invoices. It doesn't really matter how many invoices we get, because we are literally just minutes away from clicking through the invoices and authorising them in COINS. We don't have to scan them, we don't have to pass them for authorisation because it's all done automatically.
Izabela Jeziolkowska, Assistant Accountant, BW
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