Blankers Schoon

The need

Blankers Schoon was working with a digital scanning and recognition solution from ERP vendor Nocore. This provided benefits, but still required quite a bit of manual work – for example, regarding forwarding incoming emails and saving and linking PDFs. Blankers Schoon wanted to work with a self-learning OCR program that would eliminate such repetitive work. The company also felt it was time to take additional steps in the digital invoice approval process.

The solution

First of all, Blankers Schoon sought advice from Nocore. The ERP vendor pointed out the options to the company, after which it started its own research. A competitor allowed Blankers Schoon to take a look behind the scenes. People on the shop floor told how they experienced working with Whitevision in practice. That looked good, so Blankers Schoon began talks with Whitevision. Shortly thereafter, the company was convinced: it switched to Whitevision’s total solution.

The benefits of Whitevision

1. More time and less paperwork through the reliable, easy-to-use total solution.
2. Ever-faster processing of invoices because the OCR system is self-learning.
3. Seamless interfacing with ERP system Nocore.
4. Streamlined, smooth, flawless implementation.
5. Quick, direct communication ensures smooth collaboration.

“Whitevision has given us more time and less paperwork,” says Henk van der Maat, finance back office coordinator at Blankers Schoon. He has ultimate financial responsibility, but IT and process improvement are also part of his duties. “We use the smart OCR system and workflow software. We have also installed the Whitevision Smartphone App. This is very handy because our people are often out of the office. The app allows them to quickly take a picture of a statement or receipt while on the go. They can also approve invoices easily!”

Blankers Schoon has invoices come in to a special mailbox linked to Whitevision. “As a result, an invoice is automatically read into Whitevision,” Henk says. “The system recognizes the invoice data and immediately puts it into the administration in the correct way. We then go through a number of steps to check the entry. If the OCR software fails to recognize certain information once, you can indicate what it should have recognized. The more often you do that, the faster the processing goes – because the program is self-learning.” Once the booking is done, an invoice enters the Whitevision Workflow. Henk: “We chose to specify the approver per invoice, but you can also automate this with Whitevision. This is definitely on the cards for us, but at the moment we still want to do it manually for a while. Nevertheless, the workflow process is very fast. The approver receives the invoice digitally and can approve or reject it and add a comment. It is also possible to ask a colleague for advice. This is very convenient. For example, if I need to ask a question internally, I can do that through the system. The invoice then remains with me, the person ultimately responsible.” The fact that Whitevision works seamlessly with ERP system Nocore is a great advantage for Henk: “Such links often result in some trouble, but in this case everything works perfectly. There are absolutely no error messages, so the packages fit together perfectly. An example: when an invoice is approved in Whitevision, it is definitively registered in Nocore. The invoice is then released for payment. Afterwards, we can always find the document very easily in Whitevision as well as in our accounting system.” Whitevision’s streamlined approach was already noticeable during implementation, by the way. “That process went smoothly and flawlessly,” says Henk. “We worked with a regular Whitevision consultant, who visited us to set up the solution. Together we looked at what Blankers Schoon’s administration looked like, who we wanted to designate as approvers and how best to set up the workflow. After implementation, we started working with the solution. Then our Whitevision consultant scheduled a half-day session with us to answer all the questions we had encountered in practice. Very helpful!”

According to Henk, the cooperation with WhiteVision goes very smoothly – although he must honestly admit that he never has to contact the support team. “That’s a good sign!” thinks Henk. “Because it means we haven’t had any problems using the system.” But Henk does praise Whitevision for its communication: “It’s fast and direct. I find that the most positive aspect about Whitevision as a company. In addition, of course, you work with a very reliable, complete and user-friendly solution. We will definitely continue to use it.” Whether Henk would recommend Whitevision to other cleaning companies? “Yes certainly. I am very positive about it. I don’t say that lightly – I have seen several packages and find Whitevision very easy to work with. In addition, the value for money is very favorable!”