Case study: Galion Gestion Développement Immobilier

Galion Gestion Développement Immobilier

Innovation, agility, empathy and thoroughness: these values guide Galion Gestion Développement Immobilier in each of its projects. Specializing in commercial, industrial and residential real estate management and development, the company stands out for its sustainable, state-of-the-art achievements. This commitment to excellence applies not only to the projects it delivers, but also to its internal processes, where optimization plays a key role.

With this in mind, Nicholas Gagné, Director of Operations, identified a crucial need for improvement within the company: the automation of accounts payable. With over sixty properties under management, ensuring the efficiency of financial processes was essential to support Galion's growth. 

Drawing on his experience with similar solutions in a previous role, he knew that modernizing this department would improve the fluidity of operations and the thoroughness of financial monitoring. Working with the finance department and all other affected stakeholders, he conducted an in-depth analysis that led to the implementation of Zeendoc, a solution powered by XMA Solutions. A year later, the results are in.

Their challenges

Managing accounts payable for a real estate portfolio of over sixty buildings represents a considerable challenge. At Galion Gestion Développement Immobilier, the accounting department processes between 45,000 and 50,000 invoices each year. Before Zeendoc was introduced, this task involved three full-time accounts payable employees, and despite their best efforts, a number of issues were hampering the efficiency of operations.

Lack of governance and visibility
One of the biggest challenges Nicholas identified was the lack of governance in the invoice approval process. There was no structured way of tracking who was approving what, or tracking changes made to invoices. Although no major problems had arisen to date, the risk of errors or non-compliant approvals remained very real, with potential long-term repercussions. It was definitely a factor to be addressed sooner rather than later.

Fragmented communication and inefficient processes
Invoices were managed mainly by e-mail and via the accounting software, making it difficult to track exchanges and centralize information. Tracking down an invoice-related discussion was often a headache, needlessly lengthening processing times.

In addition, manual handling and the massive use of paper led to errors and uncertainties:

• Misplaced invoices, leading to late payments despite healthy cash flow.
• Tedious follow-up, with employees wasting time chasing up the same documents without knowing what stage they had reached.

Nicholas illustrates this issue well with a concrete example: “We manage service stations, and when a convenience store commissions a technician, they usually send us the invoice. Because of late payments, not due to a lack of liquidity, but simply because the invoice had gone astray or the approval process was still underway, the technician wasn't paid on time and was taking it out on the convenience store's employees. We were damaging the relationship of trust we had with our suppliers or customers, and that was the last thing we wanted.”

An urgent need for optimization
In the end, the lack of visibility over the status of invoices was a colossal waste of time. As Nicholas points out: “We often found ourselves having to resend an invoice without knowing where it was in the approval process. It took forever. We were really looking to improve efficiency.”

Decision and transition

When Nicholas began his research, he sought quotes from three other suppliers offering similar solutions before settling on Zeendoc. Galion was already a customer of XMA Solutions for its printing needs, and our representative had initiated the conversation with the former VP of Finance, now retired. At the time, the solution seemed promising, but the timing wasn't right to take the process any further. It was with Nicholas's arrival on the scene that the project really took shape. Having already used similar solutions, and recognizing their value, Nicholas saw this project as an opportunity not to be missed. With the discussion already underway at Galion, all the conditions were in place to move forward.

Before proceeding, it's important to define what accounts payable automation is, and to outline the typical process of our solutions.

Firstly, accounts payable automation is a technology that uses a digital system to reduce manual and repetitive tasks such as data entry and validation of invoices, purchase orders and receipts. With automation, you can receive invoices, manage validation and approvals, and eliminate data entry through a single platform.

Here's what the typical process looks like from the moment you receive an invoice.

You can imagine that introducing such a solution into a company where three full-time employees deal exclusively with invoices may raise concerns about their future. Questions like “Is my job becoming obsolete?” or “Will I be fired?” immediately spring to mind. 

This is exactly what happened at Galion. We mentioned that the company had gone from having three accounts payable employees to just one. When we asked Nicholas if these people had been fired or reassigned, he laughed before replying, “They've been reassigned to other tasks, there's always a ton of work to be done in the accounting department.” He adds that, unsurprisingly, those directly affected by the Zeendoc implementation were the most reluctant at first - a perfectly normal reaction. And that's a good thing! These employees are in the best position to understand the processes in place. Their feedback enables us to tailor the solution to really meet their needs, so we want to hear from them. 

Otherwise, apart from the normal changes needing to be done to the IT systems, the onboarding went really well!

Implementation and results

When it came to implementing the project, the first thing Nicholas pointed out was that our solution architects speak the same language as their customers: an accessible language, far removed from technical jargon. Regardless of your level of IT knowledge, our team ensures that every step is clear and understandable, making implementation smoother and more reassuring.

One less thing to stress about!

As mentioned above, optimizing human resources has enabled Galion to reduce the number of full-time accounts payable employees from three to one, freeing up time for other value-added tasks. This new efficiency has also translated into significant financial savings. The speed of payments to suppliers has also improved significantly, strengthening business relationships - one of the biggest benefits according to Nicholas. Finally, cash flow visibility is now much clearer. Previously, a project scheduled for payment in a quarter could be postponed simply because of the time required to collect and approve invoices, distorting financial planning. Today, thanks to Zeendoc, Galion is able to meet its forecasts and monitor its cash flow in real time.

Conclusion

When we asked Nicholas if he would recommend our solution to other companies, his answer was a resounding yes. He points out that Zeendoc is a simple, flexible and scalable solution that could benefit a large number of companies looking to optimize their accounts payable management.

He says that Zeendoc has met their expectations from A to Z. Now that the solution has been in place for over a year, their needs are evolving, and Zeendoc continues to adapt to meet them, which he sees as a real asset. “It's a solution that grows with us,” he concludes.