1. Eurocopter : “eInvoicing
as a Strategic Value Driver
in Global Organizations”
© 2012 Ariba, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. The starting point (pre-2009)
• Too many late payments : Eurocopter had to
improve and accelerate its supplier payment process
• Why those delays?
Manual Poor quality of Difficulty matching
processing inbound invoice data PO’s and invoices
Frequent mistakes, wrong recipients, time wasted
going back and forth = no added value

3. 2009 : a new deal
• French « LME » (Economy Modernization Laws) about
to shorten DPO’s
• Eurocopter was also in need to…
Improve pan-European Capitalize on a Shared Services Securize VAT
Suppliers Relationship Center organisation to save money compliance
Management (SRM) (FAS) and improve internal
processes
Immediate need for a new
inbound invoicing solution

4. 2010 : e-invoicing on its way
A 2-step process
• Step 1 : Eurocopter’s system
• A dedicated SAP module developed for matching PO’s, delivery bills and invoices
• Automated dispute management: workflows
• Step 2 : Invoicing Management
• Post & scanning (with SAP integration)
• Full tax-compliant e-invoicing :
100% automated P2P processing:reception / matching / archiving / validation / payment

5. Process overview
Purchase Orders Suppliers
SAP
e-Invoicing data e-Invoicing data (Supplier
(Eurocopter format) - Legal Checks format)
- Business Data Checks
- e-Archiving

6. Where are we at today?
• >200 suppliers from 15 countries fully
integrated
• 50 more in the pipeline (project/test phase)
• All invoices aimed at French, Spanish and German sites
managed by EADS shared services center in Spain
In 2012, Eurocopter will receive
>200,000 tax-compliant e-invoices,
i.e. 70% of electronic invoices !

7. What makes Eurocopter happy?
• Dramatic time and money savings
• High data quality: automatic PO/Inv matching;
no more administrative disputes;
• SAP direct integration of invoice data in right format
in the right place
• Invoice data enrichment by b-process
• Tax-compliance
• Law-compliance (LME)
… and a very efficient SRM tool…

8. And what makes our suppliers happy ?
• Shared benefits : equally dramatic time and money savings
• On-time payments = better cash flow
• 100 % visibility on invoice status
(reception / processing / validation /
online correction / comments)
• Ariba’s b-process is the new
aerospace industry standard
(EADS, Eurocopter and IATA)

9. As a conclusion: 2 major lessons learnt
• Need to create strong internal support
• Project management led by Procurement
with IT,Legal & Tax, Finance
• If several countries involved : 1 local
project mgr/country
• Need to organize relationships between Suppliers – Solution
provider – AP
• Supplier support is essential in this Win-Win solution.
• Get one 100% dedicated resource (for maintenance and
testing / changing / validating all invoice templates for each
supplier)

10. Next steps : flying higher !
EADS implementing e-invoicing worldwide
3 billion invoices / year from 30,000 suppliers in 103 countries
> 30 billion € worth of paid invoices / year