Premium commerce experience for Bang & Olufsen
Delivering a seamless, high-end shopping experience through a scalable and design-driven digital platform.
Delivering a seamless, high-end shopping experience through a scalable and design-driven digital platform.
Bang & Olufsen is a global luxury brand renowned for its iconic audio and home entertainment products that blend cutting-edge technology with timeless Danish design.
Founded in 1925, the company has built a legacy of innovation and craftsmanship, offering premium sound experiences through a wide range of high-end speakers, televisions, and headphones.
With a strong global presence and a loyal customer base, Bang & Olufsen continues to push the boundaries of immersive audio and aesthetic excellence.
Bang & Olufsen’s manual process for invoice registration and handling was inefficient and cost-heavy
A high degree of complexity due to the large number of different templates, languages, VAT codes, and more meant a considerable error rate, including duplicate invoices
The old solution was not compatible with the company’s ambitious journey to streamline the organization and focus on their core
competences
In 2018, the Financial Excellence team at the iconic Danish luxury audio company, Bang & Olufsen, did an end-to-end assessment of their invoice handling system. This was step one on their journey from traditional manual processes and tools to a more agile and automated approach. It was also part of the company’s overall asset light transformation to streamline all areas of the almost 100-year-old business in order to focus on their core competencies of innovative product development and design.
Inefficient, time-consuming, and resource-heavy workflows meant they were in the market for a smarter solution for invoice registration. Their solution at the time could read some information, but the rest had to be manually scanned or entered into their ERP system, SAP. This also increased the risk of human error due to, e.g., duplicate invoices or the immense complexity of numerous languages, currencies, VAT codes, etc.
The company went with long-term partner NTT DATA Business Solutuons’ (NTT DATA) solution MAKIRA Capture – after a business case showed significant time and cost saving potential. In addition to being much more automatic, a key factor was the solution’s scalability and the fact that they would no longer have to host, maintain, and pay license fees for their solution.
“We got the most value for money with MAKIRA Capture. It was simply the most cost-effective solution, plus its scalable variable cost structure gives us full flexibility and transparency,” says Nickolaj Almskou Holler, Director of Financial Excellence & Tax.
Today, approximately 40,000 invoices go through Bang & Olufsen’s MAKIRA Capture every year. Sent to a no-reply email inbox directly linked to MAKIRA Capture, it scans,
reads, and interprets each invoice before automatically exporting it into SAP for accounting and payment. Around 95% go through without any manual handling. If an invoice does not match the predefined data, it is automatically sent to NTT DATA’s service center to establish the cause, e.g., changes in a supplier’s invoice layout or wrong currency – before sending it back into the flow.
Automating invoice handling has resulted in a number of benefits for Bang & Olufsen. Thanks to the built-in screening in MAKIRA Capture, the error rate from, e.g., duplicate invoices, has gone down considerably ensuring both compliance and cashflow so that they avoid double payments. Plus, in addition to reducing the cost per invoice, it has freed up both time and resources that are now used for value-adding optimization of other processes and
functions – also giving Nickolaj Almskou Holler’s team a better sense of purpose.
According to him, both the implementation and ongoing cooperation with NTT DATA has been more than satisfactory and allowed them to react quickly: “Collaborations shouldn’t be assessed on whether complications happen – because they will. It’s about how you deal with them. The proactive mentality, continuous adjustments, and healthy sense of curiosity on both sides makes this a great partnership.”
Bang & Olufsen is currently examining how to get even more value out of MAKIRA Capture. Here, the modularity of NTT DATA’s solution is a great advantage as opposed to a fully customized one. Already today, Bang & Olufsen also use MAKIRA Approve ensuring an efficient approval workflow
centered around pre-approved PO numbers. And according to Nickolaj Almskou Holler, there is a quantum leap ahead for his team as they look into also automating the
subsequent processes, including exploring an AI approach.
“To become best-in-class, you have to surround yourself with partners that share your ambitions and are closer to the technological development. And our chances of getting to where we need to be 5-10 years from now are much better with a long-term partner.”
Bang & Olufsen chose MAKIRA to elevate their digital commerce experience — and selected NTT DATA Business Solutions as their implementation partner for a reason.
As a long-term collaborator with deep insight into the company’s processes, NTT DATA Business Solutions offers strategic sparring and ensures smooth, modular development through ongoing dialogue and regular touchpoints. Their proximity to cutting-edge technology allows for proactive recommendations, helping Bang & Olufsen stay agile in a fast-moving digital landscape.
MAKIRA seems to be exactly what you are looking for? Don’t hesitate to contact us and let our team of experts do the work for you.