Digitization of Hesperia’s back-office with Economitza and Bavel

24 hotels

160+ suppliers

100% digitized

The starting point

Javier Carazo, the current Resources Corporate Director at Hesperia, was hired by the hotel chain to lead the procurement department and arrange the internal processes of all the company’s brands: Secrets, Dreams, Hyatt, La Manga Club and Hesperia itself.

The procurement department had been externalized and there was a lot of room for improvement. In general, the tasks related with the purchasing process were manual, with many emails and excel worksheets. One of the critical points was data management and collection, which was very complex as it involved operating different purchasing and accounting systems. Carazo also identified that a large part of the problem was rooted in that the external purchasing center was not integrated with the hotel chain’s ERP.

Subsequently, the business management team was also considered responsible, as inefficiencies were detected in the management, settlement and resolving of discrepancies with the invoices, requiring several manual processes to correct them. The team assigned two members exclusively to resolving discrepancies and an external supplier was tasked with the accounting, at an additional cost.

“For me, the savings that can be achieved resulting from volume sales is important; however, we must also make sure that the processing of each order is optimal. Every cent counts”, explains Carazo.

Faced with this situation, Hesperia decided to begin a digitization process with the aim of optimizing both the purchasing process as well as the associated administrative process.

For me, thesavings that can be achieved resulting from volume sales is important; however, we must also make sure thatthe processing of each order is optimal. Every cent counts.

JAVIER CARAZO
Resources Corporate Director
at Hesperia.

The result is a digitized and optimized process thanks to a smooth coordination process between Hesperia,

The solution

In a first phase, Hesperia decided to partner with Economitza. The hotel chain trusted its purchases to Economitza’s manager in Spain. This way, Hesperia began using Economitza’s E-Market to create their database of products and suppliers. With Economitza, Hesperia was able to manage and consolidate their materials database, generate the electronic order and integrate all this information in their ERP.

To complete the digitization process, Hesperia decided to trust Bavel to digitize their administrative process. Bavel was integrated with Economitza’s E-Market to create an automatic workflow: BAvelreceives an e-order generated by Economitza’s E-Market and sends it to the corresponding supplier. In turn, the supplier sends the electronic invoice to Bavel, who adds it to Economitza’s E-Market. Economitza’s E-market checks the invoice against the order and adds all the information to Hesperia’s ERP.

The result is a digitized and optimized process thanks to a smooth coordination process between Hesperia, Economitza and Bavel.

“We have launched this project in record time. Coordination between the three teams has been key. We are very satisfied and ready to continue digitizing processes with our partners”, says Carazo.

The outcome

In less than a year, Hesperia has been able to digitize their procurement and administration process. Currently, they have already digitized their transactions with more than 50 suppliers and expect to reach 160 suppliers in 2022. This amounts to 50% of their operations in terms of invoice accounting.

Thanks to the digitization of processes, discrepancies have been almost completely eliminated as they are automatically resolved before a person is tasked with processing them. This way, the team has been released from having to carry out tasks that did not add value to the business.

The hotel chain is now able to process its orders and invoices without requiring any manual intervention. During the first 6 months since the project was launched, more than 5,000 invoices have been automatically processed. Consequently, the hotel chain only requires assigning two employees to control the processes associated with the orders placed by digitized suppliers and the invoices of its 24 hotels. The hotel chain has also minimized the need for external support, which is now only tasked with processing transactions generated by suppliers that have not yet digitized their operations.

The following phase of the project consists of developing and implementing electronic delivery notes and sending digital orders to achieve a process that is paper free in all its phases. Hesperia will also collaborate with Bavel in this phase.