Novuna Business Finance, a trading style of Mitsubishi HC Capital UK PLC, is a leading financial services company. They provide business asset finance to SMEs and bigger corporations across the UK. This includes hire purchase, finance lease solutions, stocking and block discounting provided through brokers, vendor organisations, manufacturers and direct to the business community.
With an asset portfolio of more than £1.6bn, the business is active across multiple sectors from transport and agriculture to construction and manufacturing and was awarded Best Leasing & Asset Finance Provider at the 2023 Business Moneyfacts Awards.
Novuna Business Finance previously relied on time-consuming manual invoice processing techniques, as traditional OCR technology, which reads and extracts written information from paperwork, has historically been ineffective due to the large volume of invoice formats business receives.
The time to process an invoice could range from hours to days if amendments needed to be made as the process had to be repeated, increasing workloads, and consequently delaying pay out. To provide exceptional customer service and improve accuracy and efficiency, the Business Finance division sought a platform that provided end-to-end automated invoice processing.
Novuna Business Finance are committed to closing the digital capabilities gap as part of its digital transformation strategy. Novuna Business Finance carefully considered the situation and evaluated their options before dedicating an entire team to completely redesigning their invoice processing service. Their solution used Evolution AI to automate data extraction, and Workato to integrate into its pre-existing systems.
Evolution AI’s IDP technology accurately extracts high-quality data, which is then passed through Workato, where it is validated against third-party information and directly inputted into Novuna’s accounts payable system. The PoC for the tech stack was completed and the production solution went live in June 2022.
Any issues encountered along the implementation and training process were quickly resolved. As Adam Crockford, Senior Change Manager Automation, notes, Evolution AI’s customer service allows for a “good working relationship which is open and honest”, with Evolution AI’s team being “really responsive”.
Novuna Business Finance’s innovative automation system, with Evolution AI’s technology at its heart, continues to deliver significant benefits. Firstly, data automation has reduced invoice processing time. Moreover, the resolution of removing the need for manual intervention has allowed for the team to focus on areas where their skills are better utilised, enabling an even better customer experience.
Head of Change Delivery, Matthew Colville-Foley, spoke highly of Evolution AI’s solution, saying “The capability to automate more of our work and improve our accuracy in processing documents, without having to introduce new systems for our customers seemed too good to be true. However, the solution that Evolution AI provides has exceeded our expectations on all of these fronts."
Going forward, Novuna Business Finance’s Change Management team plans on continuing its automation of core internal processes, working alongside Evolution AI’s constantly developing data extraction technologies. Once again, Evolution AI has proven to be a flexible and intuitive solution for financial services.
“I would absolutely recommend Evolution AI for anyone in the asset finance and business finance industry”- Adam Crockford, Senior Change Manager.
See also: Novuna’s press release about their work with Evolution AI here:
