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IFS and Pagero: Keeping the world turning by turning business digital

April 26, 2022

This instalment of our Partner Stories series focuses on the long-time collaboration between IFS and Pagero. In 2009, leading enterprise software company, IFS, sought a partner to help them comply with e-invoice legislation. They knew they needed a company that understood digitalisation to be more than simply adopting a new tool. With the IFS and Pagero strategic collaboration now spanning over a decade, the partnership has expanded to a Global Alliance, enabling customers to achieve full digitalisation while allowing IFS to focus on its core business: developing and delivering best-of-breed enterprise software and boosting digital transformation worldwide.

Partnership facts: IFS and Pagero

Partnership start: Partners since 2009 in Sweden; agreement expanded to a Global Alliance in 2019
Services: Accounts receivable and accounts payable digitalisation, full order-to-cash and purchase-to-pay automation, compliance
Currently operating in: More than 80 countries
Number of businesses using our integrated solution: More than 170

Valued partners — not just another logo

Back in 2009, IFS decided to partner with Pagero to be able to comply with upcoming e-invoice legislation changes in Sweden. But that initial partnership agreement was just the beginning of a long term, strategic collaboration.

“We are picky. We like partners we can proudly stand next to,” explains Kevin Dickinson, VP of Technology Alliances at IFS. “For us, it’s not about who has the most partner logos on their website. It’s about having truly valued partners. That’s why it was so important that we found a partner who understood that digitalisation is more than just adopting a new tool. It’s a change in mindset to achieve efficiency, accuracy and insights from e-invoices and supplier data that you cannot get with paper.”

“We have an integrated solution that enables customers to send and receive digital, automated orders and invoices.”

Kevin Dickinson, VP of Technology Alliances, IFS

From local compliance provider to global digitalisation partner

Since its beginnings in local e-invoicing, the IFS and Pagero relationship has developed into a worldwide alliance that helps end-users across industries achieve full digitalisation.

“What we have today is a truly integrated solution through the Pagero Automated Trade Platform for IFS. It enables customers to send and receive digital, automated orders and invoices directly from IFS with any supplier or customer worldwide,” says Dickinson.

“We make it easy for our mutual customers to go digital with painless implementation,” explains Kristin Hahne, global partner manager at Pagero. “The IFS and Pagero partnership provides advanced, easy-to-use solutions such as EDI (electronic data interchange) and e-invoicing. We also provide services specific to purchase-to-pay, like our Supplier Portal, PDF invoice capture and spend analytics, and order-to-cash, such as print and email distribution and order capture. As a result, companies save time and resources through optimised, automated processes, receiving the benefits of true digitalisation,” she adds.

What is true digitalisation?

Digitalisation or digital transformation is the incorporation of digital technologies into the different areas of services or businesses. However, achieving true digitalisation means much more than installing a new tool or system. It is about committing to rethinking and redesigning organisational processes, making the most of newly available technologies and changing the way companies operate with increased efficiency via automation. By digitalising operations, organisations collect and access valuable data from orders and invoices and use it to determine trends, patterns, pricing insights, and buyer preferences.

Supporting customers when it matters the most

For over a decade, the IFS and Pagero collaboration has powered solutions for more than 170 organisations. Pagero helps IFS customers digitalise business processes without the need for system or format changes. For Dickinson, Pagero’s solid expertise with IFS is a key aspect of the partnership. “Not only is Pagero a trailblazer in e-invoicing and digital transformation; it is also highly knowledgeable in IFS and the industries we focus on, allowing us to offer a tried-and-true digital business solution to users and to their customers,” he states.

“We only work with organisations that share our values and our passion for service,” continues Dickinson. “Our philosophy of the ‘Moment of Service’ represents our commitment to providing solutions for customers in those moments when they need us the most: when they are facing their own customers or addressing challenges in the field,” he explains.

“Pagero’s end-to-end service for sending and receiving documents is a perfect example of our service philosophy with a time-efficient, reliable and 100% digital trading platform,” adds Dickinson. “The solution ensures correct pricing to remove mistakes caused by manual steps and avoid potential overpayments. All this makes the advantages of true digitalisation tangible and helps us fight resistance to change,” he says.

Main reasons for resistance to digital transformation

Kevin Dickinson, VP of Technology Alliances at IFS.

Lack of executive response and sponsorship:
Digitalisation must be a management-supported initiative, not only an IT or procurement project.
Reluctance to commit to real change:
More than installing a new set of tools or applications, digital transformation means rethinking processes inside the organisation to achieve efficiency.
Erroneous perception that digitalisation is costly:
In reality, it is a proven way to reduce costs by minimising manual handling and errors. Digitalisation allows reorientation of financial and human resources to more strategic tasks.

With joint R&D, the future starts now

For an innovation-oriented company like IFS, the decision to partner with Pagero made sense not only in terms of philosophical alignment and business profitability, but also from a technical perspective. Both organisations are single-platform, cloud-based solutions with an agile and co-creative approach to new developments.

“You know you have truly strategic collaboration when there is continuous involvement at every level: management, commercial, and very importantly for us, research and development,” explains Dickinson.

“In an increasingly digital and rapidly transforming world, we need to stay agile to meet customer needs. That is exactly what our partner Pagero has helped us do for over ten years, and hopefully for many more to come,” Dickinson concludes.