Esker and Horváth Tackle the Digital Transformation Success Gap

MIDDLETON, Wis. – December 03, 2025 – In a move that directly confronts one of the most persistent challenges in corporate modernization, AI-powered automation provider Esker has announced a strategic partnership with global management consultancy Horváth. The collaboration aims to fuse Esker’s advanced technology for finance and supply chain operations with Horváth’s deep expertise in strategic transformation, creating a potent combination designed to help large organizations finally bridge the costly gap between digital investment and measurable business outcomes.

This partnership is not just another technology alliance; it’s a targeted strike at the heart of why so many digital transformation initiatives fall short. Industry research consistently reveals a troubling statistic: fewer than half of all transformation projects successfully align with and achieve their intended business goals. The new venture between Esker and Horváth is built to address this disconnect head-on, promising an integrated, end-to-end approach that moves beyond simple software implementation to drive tangible improvements in working capital, operational efficiency, and overall financial performance.

The Persistent Gap Between Strategy and Execution

For years, CFOs and CIOs have championed digital transformation, yet the promised returns often remain elusive. The reasons are complex and varied, ranging from fragmented IT landscapes and a lack of integration between new and legacy systems to a fundamental failure to translate technological capabilities into actionable business strategy. This creates a chasm where expensive software is deployed, but core processes remain inefficient and financial metrics fail to improve. The result is disillusionment, wasted resources, and a reluctance to pursue further innovation.

The collaboration between Esker and Horváth is engineered to close this chasm. By combining a powerful technology platform with strategic oversight, the partnership provides a framework for ensuring that automation initiatives are not just technically sound but are also strategically aligned with the organization's most critical financial objectives. Horváth brings its proven track record in performance management and transformation, helping clients redesign workflows and set clear, measurable KPIs. Esker provides the AI-driven engine to execute that strategy, automating cumbersome processes and unlocking valuable data.

“Partnering with Horváth allows Esker to bring even more strategic value to our customers,” said Claire Valencony, Deputy Chief Revenue Officer at Esker, in the official announcement. “By combining Esker’s deep automation expertise with Horváth’s strategic consulting knowledge, we help organizations bridge strategy and execution — driving confident, rapid and measurable transformation in finance and supply chain operations.”

AI-Powered Automation as the Engine for Change

At the core of this partnership is Esker’s robust suite of AI-powered solutions, which have earned the company a Leader position in analyst reports from Forrester, Gartner, and IDC. The company’s technology is not a generic, one-size-fits-all AI; it’s a highly specialized suite of tools, branded as “Synergy AI,” which includes “Agentic AI” capabilities. These AI agents are designed to function autonomously—setting goals, making decisions, and executing tasks to orchestrate data and align financial workflows, acting as a digital collaborator for human teams.

Esker’s platform targets the entire cash conversion cycle, from Source-to-Pay (S2P) to Order-to-Cash (O2C). On the payables side, this means automating everything from procurement and contract management to invoice processing. Its systems can perform two-way or three-way matching between invoices, purchase orders, and goods receipts without human intervention, dramatically reducing processing times and freeing up AP teams to focus on strategic tasks like optimizing payment terms and capturing early payment discounts. Customer success stories, such as Yaskawa America’s reported 70% reduction in past-due invoices, underscore the technology's impact.

On the receivables side, the platform automates order entry, invoice delivery, cash application, and collections management. A specialized language model, Synergy Transformer, is custom-trained to extract data from customer orders with exceptional speed and accuracy, minimizing errors that can delay fulfillment and payment. For collections, AI algorithms analyze payment behaviors to prioritize outreach and recommend the most effective actions, helping companies reduce their Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and improve cash flow. One client, for instance, reported a 34% reduction in total past-due amounts within just 60 days of implementation.

Modernizing Finance Beyond Standard ERP Limits

A critical challenge for many large enterprises is the inflexibility and fragmentation of their existing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Decades of acquisitions, regional customizations, and siloed deployments can leave companies with a complex patchwork of technology that is difficult and expensive to modernize. This is precisely where the Esker-Horváth partnership sees a significant opportunity.

“At Horváth, we often see that standard ERP systems reach their limits when it comes to process automation, including AI enhancements, or when ERP environments become too fragmented,” noted Stefan Maus, Partner at Horváth. He explained that the collaboration offers clients “flexible and pragmatic options to bridge these gaps… all without any customer-specific development within the ERP systems themselves.”

This approach is a game-changer for organizations wary of embarking on another multi-year, high-risk ERP overhaul. Esker’s cloud-based solutions are designed to integrate seamlessly with major ERPs like SAP and Microsoft Dynamics 365, acting as an agile, intelligent layer that sits on top of the existing infrastructure. This allows companies to achieve rapid and sustainable process improvements in key areas like AP, AR, and procurement without disrupting their core systems of record. The partnership effectively provides a pathway to modernization that is faster, less risky, and more focused on immediate value creation.

From Automation to Optimized Working Capital

Ultimately, the success of any finance transformation is measured in dollars and cents. The stated goal of this partnership is to unlock liquidity and optimize working capital—two of the highest priorities for CFOs today. By streamlining the entire cash conversion cycle, the integrated solution directly impacts the balance sheet.

Faster, more accurate invoice processing not only reduces operational costs but also improves supplier relationships and opens up opportunities for dynamic discounting, turning the AP department from a cost center into a value driver. Similarly, automating the O2C cycle accelerates cash collection, reduces bad debt risk, and provides a clearer, real-time view of cash flow. This enhanced visibility empowers finance leaders to make more strategic decisions about investments, debt, and corporate planning.

The release of a joint white paper focused on strategic process design for working capital improvement further signals the partnership's commitment to this outcome-driven approach. It demonstrates a shared understanding that technology is merely a tool; its true value is only realized when it is wielded as part of a coherent strategy aimed at achieving specific, measurable financial goals. By combining world-class consulting with leading-edge AI, Esker and Horváth are offering a compelling blueprint for how to make digital finance transformation finally live up to its promise.