Sodexo Optimizes Order Processing From Over 800 Restaurants With Esker

Esker, the leader in document process automation solutions, recently announced that Sodexo, a pioneer in Quality of Daily Life Solutions, has selected Esker to automate and outsource the faxing of food orders from 800 of its locations in France — more than 25,000 faxes per month. The Esker solution enables Sodexo to reliably streamline and optimize the sending and tracking of food orders — two critical processes for its restaurants.

Up until now, Sodexo restaurants were equipped with fax machines. Every day, site managers printed and manually faxed food orders to central purchasing — tasks that were demanding in both time and consumables. Sodexo, who had already developed a tool to manage purchase orders (SOL application), was looking to improve the reliability of order processing with an integrated fax services solution.

Over the summer of 2010, Sodexo invited three fax services automation solution providers to submit proposals. The selection criteria was primarily based on quality of service, cost per page, vendor ability to manage order peaks (70% of faxes are sent between 6-11 a.m.), service availability and traceability. Sodexo selected the Esker solution, which was already in place in one of its subsidiaries.

Deployed in just three months and integrated into Sodexo's business application, the Esker solution automates and outsources the faxing of over 25,000 orders each month. Directly from the business application, the site manager fills out the order form and simply clicks on a button to launch the sending of the fax. The data is automatically transmitted to Esker, who centralizes the processing and ensures the faxing to central purchasing. Each order contains a unique identifier. Central purchasing delivers receipt acknowledgment and processes the order. Esker directly inputs the orders into the Sodexo business application, resulting in improved traceability.

"Processing food orders is critical for us, particularly with regards to fresh products," said Francois Jambou Diaz, Front Office System Director, Global IS&T, Sodexo. "An error in order taking or a technical failure can result in restaurants not being delivered to on time. The Esker solution has freed us from paper faxes and streamlined our order processing. This new process is transparent to our users, who, directly from our business application, only have to click on a button to send their orders."

Esker has enabled Sodexo to achieve significant savings in paper use and fax hardware, along with eliminating the need to print purchase orders. Automation has also improved the reliability and efficiency of the corporate chain-of-command.

By the end of 2010, the Esker solution had been deployed at 450 Sodexo sites in France — representing an order volume of 16,000 pages per month. Over 2011, it will be deployed at an additional 350 sites, resulting in 25,000 orders per month.

About Sodexo
Sodexo, world leader in Quality of Daily Life Solutions Quality of Life plays an important role in the progress of individuals and the performance of organizations. Based on this conviction, Sodexo acts as the strategic partner for companies and institutions that place a premium on performance and employee well-being, as it has since Pierre Bellon founded the company in 1966. Sharing the same passion for service, Sodexo's 380,000 employees in 80 countries design, manage and deliver an unrivaled array of On-site Service Solutions and Motivation Solutions. Sodexo has created a new form of service business that contributes to the fulfillment of its employees and the economic, social and environmental development of the communities, regions and countries in which it operates.

About Esker
Esker is the worldwide leader in document process automation solutions. Addressing all types of business processes, from accounts payable and accounts receivable to sales order processing and procurement, Esker cloud computing solutions enable companies to automate the reception, processing and sending of any business document with one platform. Esker helps over 80,000 companies across the world to reduce the use of paper and eliminate manual processes while improving their productivity, efficiency and environmental impact.

With 33 million euros in sales revenue in 2010, Esker operates in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific with global headquarters in Lyon, France and U.S. headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin. For more information, visit www.esker.com.

SOURCE: Esker