Bertelsmann Global Business Services adopts AI innovation to automate invoice processing

Creating future-oriented shared service centre

Constantly raising the bar

Bertelsmann Global Business Services (GBS) is a service unit within the Corporate division of Bertelsmann. It provides comprehensive services for core finance and business processes to approximately 400 customers in 30 countries from all divisions and solution groups.

With about 380 employees located in Germany, the US, and the UK, the company ensures that finance and business processes are handled efficiently. It develops innovative digital solutions and customer-oriented services in various areas such as accounting, financial statements, controlling, reporting, materials management, procurement, and invoicing. The offering is modular and includes consulting services, the provision of process and system solutions, and the operational handling of business processes.

Through this continuously expanding services portfolio the company strives to meet the needs of its customers and contribute to the success of Bertelsmann and its Group companies.

“Clients look to us for best practice and innovation,” said Carsten Waschkowitz, Managing Director for Bertelsmann Global Business Services GmbH. “So, we’re constantly growing our digital capabilities and service offer to raise the quality and efficiency bar.”

A key focus for innovation was invoice handling, a process reliant on document scanning using optical character recognition (OCR) technology. This traditional approach was limited in terms of data capture accuracy and automation. So, staff would often have to manually add correct general ledger accounts and cost element codes and such like. Keen to explore the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) the company was looking for a solution offering to better fit with its SAP technology stack.