From manual processes to automation: SWDE’s Isabel Connect experience

Processing payments used to be a daily challenge for Société Wallonne des Eaux (SWDE). With thousands of bank statements and manual payments to handle, the finance team spent hours on repetitive work. A routine that brought little value and a high risk of errors. SWDE decided it was time for a change. By automating their payment processes with Isabel Connect, they not only saved time but also gained peace of mind and control.

Keeping water affordable through efficiency

SWDE produces and distributes drinking water for around 2.5 million inhabitants of Belgium's Wallonia region via 40,117 km of pipes and 1,317 reservoirs and water towers. reservoirs and water towers. The company, based in Verviers, believes that water is a common necessity, and should not be viewed as a commodity. As part of its sustainable development objectives, SWDE strives to provide high-quality water that is readily available in sufficient quantities, at a reasonable price.

Stéphane Thirion, joined the company more than 30 years ago. Since becoming Head of Finance, he has always pursued the same goal: "Keeping the price of water under control". In 2019, the automation of payment data became part of that mission.

"Even though our activities are limited to Wallonia, we have to deal with a huge number of transactions. With more than a million customers, SWDE is one of the 10 biggest ‘billers’ in Belgium. As well as receiving between 10,000 and 30,000 payments per day, we also receive around 40,000 supplier invoices each year. These invoicing files are pretty big, both in terms of their size and the amount of money involved."

He adds:

The choice for Isabel Connect

To tackle this challenge, SWDE's IT and Finance teams formed a working group.

"Together, they quickly made the decision to utilise Isabel Connect," says Stéphane. "We had it installed by an external partner who was used to working with Isabel and therefore knew the product well. The integration took about two to three months.”

The Isabel Connect integration was completed early in 2020, just before the Covid pandemic, a stroke of luck:

"With Isabel Connect, everything can be done remotely. Teleworking is therefore no problem at all," he explains. "Because of the number of transactions we process every day, we were constantly faced with the risk of error or fraud. We needed a solution that addressed that as well."

Automation that pays off

Today, automation is firmly embedded in SWDE’s financial operations. Every morning at 5 a.m. CODA files are imported directly into SWDE’s SAP accounting software. When staff arrive, all they need to do is finalise the import. Previously, each of the roughly thirty CODA files had to be entered manually, a process that took several hours.

Beyond the automated import of received payments, the company can now also send payments automatically. Files prepared and validated by various departments - Accounting, Customer Service, HR - pass through an internal directory before being forwarded to Isabel 6’s payment environment.

Looking ahead

“We are very satisfied with the Isabel Connect solution," concludes Stéphane. “If there is one aspect that could potentially be improved, it is the search function. At present, we are limited to a one-year history for account information and a three-month history for payments. In some cases, it would be useful to be able to go back five years.”

For SWDE, Isabel Connect has become a reliable partner by combining efficiency, security, and user-friendliness in one solution.

We're grateful to Stéphane for sharing his story and feedback, which helps us to continuously improve our solutions.