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Open ECX introduce electronic Invoicing to Howarth Timber and Building Supplies, with a seamless integration into their Kerridge Commercial Systems ERP.

The Business:
Howarth Timber

Howarth Timber and Building Supplies is the largest privately owned timber company in the UK. With over 1000 employees, and 180 years of trading experience, the business provides a wide range of products and alongside first-class expertise and service. The company operates out of 33 timber and builders’ merchant branches, complemented by dedicated manufacturing divisions supplying highly specialist timber engineering products and services.

The business prides itself on being at the forefront of the industry, and works with some of the top suppliers in the UK in order to provide the highest quality of products to their customers. Around 15% of Howarth Timber and Building Supplies suppliers were using EDI, with the bulk of the remaining 85% not suitable for the technology for reasons such as size or technical capability. This meant roughly 60% of their total received invoices were not applicable for EDI, and the business decided to look for a digital partner that could accommodate for these suppliers.

The Requirements:
Digital Invoicing Accessibility

The Open ECX electronic invoicing solution has provided a path for Howarth Timber and Building Supplies suppliers who could not previously use digital invoicing technology. There is no impact on suppliers to change their systems or ways of working. They simply need the ability to create and send a PDF invoice, and the Open ECX system processes, validates, and converts the invoice independently into Howarth Timber and Building Supplies back-office system, Kerridge Commercial Systems.

Open ECX’s dedicated onboarding team managed the onboarding of Howarth Timber and Building Supplies suppliers. As Open ECX is one of the largest eTrading communities in the industry, many of Howarth Timber and Building Supplies suppliers were already in our network, resulting in a fast and efficient onboarding process. Since rolling the new system out, more than 200 key suppliers now send invoices via the Open ECX solution, with invoices being processed quickly and reliably.

“I am pleased to say that the system is delivering everything we wanted from it. We started roll-out on a phased basis for the first 100 suppliers and have continued to onboard on an ad-hoc basis more than 200 suppliers in total. For these suppliers, the process has become pretty slick, with their invoices processed and validated very quickly and reliably.
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