Scaling order intake without increasing headcount, for Ercos SpA
The challenge: growth hitting operational limits
As order volumes increased, Ercos started to feel the limits of its order intake process. Orders arrived through email in different formats, often as PDFs, each requiring interpretation before being entered into SAP. The variability across customers made standardization difficult.
The process worked, but only up to a point. As volumes grew:
- Processing time increased
- Teams spent more time on repetitive work
- Errors became harder to avoid
- Scaling meant adding more people
The approach: structuring a fragmented process
KAPTO replaced the manual execution of order intake. Incoming emails and attachments arenow handled automatically:
- Relevant data is identified and extracted
- Information is validated before use
- Orders are created directly in SAP
The different formats and customer-specific variations are handled within the process, so the workflow remains consistent regardless of input.
What changed: from effort-driven to system-driven
The process is now easier to manage and behaves consistently across cases. Order intake no longer depends on manual interpretation at every step.
Most orders move through the system without intervention, while exceptions are clearly isolated and handled separately.
In addition, exceptions are now visible in a structured way and can be linked back to their root causes. This makes it possible to identify where issues originate, whether in internal workflows or in customer-provided information, and address them directly.
Most inefficiencies were not internal. They originated from inconsistent customer inputs. These are now systematically detected, allowing targeted actions to reduce friction and improve overall process performance over time.
This makes the process:
- More predictable
- Easier to manage
- Less dependent on individual effort
- Continuously improvable through better understanding of exceptions
Results and business impact
Order intake is now handled with a high level of accuracy and significantly less manual effort.
- 99.5% accuracy in processing
- Over 70% efficiency improvement
- Clear reduction in manual workload across the team
These improvements translate directly into day-to-day operations:
- Shorter order cycle times
- More reliable and consistent customer service
- Higher operational capacity without increasing headcount
Ercos can now handle growing demand without putting additional pressure on the team or slowing down order processing.
