Natixis CIB in New York achieves 90% invoice processing accuracy with Power Platform

Natixis CIB in New York, part of Groupe BPCE, a leading banking group in France, faced challenges in its invoice reconciliation processes. With the existing system, invoices were received via email and processed manually, leading to a high workload for employees, delays, and a risk of human error.

“A dedicated employee would filter invoice-specific emails from their purchasing or vendor procurement aliases. Then they would manually enter each invoice into a purchasing system and submit it for payment. There were few controls, or reporting,” says Bruce Koplitz, IT Manager at Natixis CIB NY. The lack of automation and centralized data management made it difficult for the team to keep track of invoices, resulting in delays and potential business risks.

Automating invoice processing with Power Platform

To address these issues, Natixis CIB NY collaborated with the Tech Expertise and Solutions department at Groupe BPCE. The company turned to Microsoft Power Platform, using Power Automate and Power Apps to introduce low-code development into its processes and improve the accuracy of data extraction. Initially, Natixis CIB NY developed its own AI Builder custom component to extract data from invoices. However, the company’s efforts to train its own AI model resulted in only 60% to 70% accuracy.

Then developers used a prebuilt AI model in Power Automate to extract invoice data from emails automatically. They stored this data in Microsoft Dataverse and used Microsoft Power BI for visualization and analysis. In addition, they developed a Power Apps canvas app to monitor AI flow activity and accuracy, and manually adjust invoices if necessary, so any discrepancies could be quickly resolved.

Reconciling invoices with more accuracy, visibility, and control

Building on Power Platform had a profound impact on Natixis CIB NY invoice reconciliation processes. The team achieved a 90% accuracy rate in the AI model for invoice processing. This significant improvement in accuracy led to timelier and more efficient invoice reconciliation and payments. “We proposed working together with Microsoft because it could be a great opportunity to use AI Builder in real life. We tried the prebuilt model of invoice processing in AI Builder, and the result was stable with a success rate of 93.3%,” notes Bryan Mercier, Head of I.D.E.A. Project Division, Tech Expertise and Solutions at Groupe BPCE.

Business process automation also reduced the manual workload and minimized human errors, allowing employees to save time and focus on more critical tasks. With 3,000 to 5,000 invoices processed each year, this reduced the workload for one full-time employee by more than half. The visualization capabilities in Power BI provided better visibility and control over the invoicing process, helping senior managers make informed budget decisions. “We were able to extrapolate the key attributes out of every invoice and reconcile back to our system. With the visualization capabilities in Power BI, we can reconcile key information from invoices with our purchasing records to identify any gaps,” says Koplitz.

Expanding automation across business groups

To manage and optimize the deployment of Power Platform, the Tech Expertise and Solutions department at Groupe BPCE established a center of excellence, offering training, support, and a community user group for developers and administrators as they continue to explore opportunities to automate operational tasks. Mercier explains, “Our goal is to be the Power Platform center of excellence for the entire group. We are here to define the governance of Power Platform and ensure compliance with our IT and security rules.”

Koplitz concludes, “Senior management now has visibility into how many invoices we’re processing. We have the controls in place to make sure we were staying within our budget and a reduced risk of error from manually inputting data.”

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