Growing Finnish machine rental company, Renta, has built its operation on digitalised processes from the start. By automating its financial and purchasing processes, the company is able to focus on growing the business, as well as benefit from increased efficiency and cost savings.

Technological development is causing turmoil in most industries: on one hand it’s forcing companies to change their ways of working, but on the other hand, it’s giving them the opportunity to do so.

In Finland, digitalisation of financial departments is already advanced and financial processes have been digitalised by invoice processing systems for quite some time. Many of these systems have been implemented years ago, which means the technology is already becoming outdated. The latest technology enables continuous software development and far more efficient ways of working.

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Financial department in transformation

Whether the development of technology is a cause or a result, the financial department is going through a transformation. Organisations are facing the need to standardise and automate financial processes in order to grow their business. As manual processes are being automated, less time is being spent on gathering data and handling invoices.

Furthermore, mobile devices and cloud services enable employees to access systems outside of the office, at any time.

Management teams also increasingly expect the finance department to deliver real-time business data, which further highlights the need for visibility and reporting tools.

The challenges facing the finance department require flexible solutions which can respond to them both today and in the future. Growing businesses need modular systems, which streamline financial processes by automating them from purchase to payment.

Renta Group digitalises its processes and acts as a forerunner

Finnish machine and equipment rental company Renta is still a new, but yet fast growing business. Renta started operating in early 2016, when three well-known businesses in the industry; Telinekymppi Oy, Kehä-Kone Oy and Jasoca Oy joined to form one nationwide company. Renta grew its turnover to over 45 million euros on its second year of operating, and in 2018 they aim to expand internationally.

Renta’s strategy is to be the most modern operator in its industry, which they put into practice through dynamic processes and digital services that enhance the customer experience.

Renta’s customers can for example rent and manage rental machinery, as well as get visibility to equipment costs through an app called Renta Easy.

– Our aim is to become a significant forerunner that reshapes the industry. What this also means is that from the very beginning we have set out to build our internal processes to match today’s requirements, as well as future objectives, comments Lauri Matikainen, CFO of Renta Group Oy.

The entire process in the same system

Renta wanted to create a streamlined and transparent purchase to pay process especially when it comes to equipment purchases. All of the company’s equipment purchases go through an e-purchasing system.

– Equipment purchases are processed through Rillion’s system against pre-approved and category-specific budgets. This improves predictability, and we are able to see the situation of investment budgets and deliveries in the system in real-time. This makes planning of investments and cash management significantly easier, says Matikainen.

The automation of the entire purchase to pay process with Rillion’s solution has brought Renta both cost- and process-related benefits.

– We had an urgent need to set up automated processes for both purchasing and invoice processing. During such a rapid growth of our business, we have had several ongoing projects at the same time. Therefore it’s been crucially important that in addition to invoice processing, we are also able to implement purchases through Rillion’s system, says Matikainen.

Currently Renta and Rillion are piloting an artificial intelligence solution to further increase automation of Renta’s financial processes. Artifical intelligence further enhances account posting automation, as well as supports automation by validating and correcting received data.

– It’s important for us that our solution provider also acts as our development partner. We continuously develop our processes in cooperation with Rillion. As requirements change along with our growth, a strategic partnership and a flexible solution that grows with us will support our business in the long run, says Matikainen.

This is a translation of a Finnish article, published in Kauppalehti. Read the full article in Finnish here.

You can also read our customer reference study about Renta Group

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