The AA keep 14 million members moving
Keeping the show on the road, The AA process weekly and monthly payroll, as well as collecting millions of monthly direct debits for membership fees, through AccessPay.
This means all 7,300 staff are paid on time as the finance team submit Bacs files via the cloud-based platform.
“In case you underestimate the difficulty of having to log-in to multiple banks, these are all the card readers I use” he laughs incredulously. Not having one for AccessPay is perfect for someone like me.” Lewis Jones, Head of Treasury Operations and Payroll
With two banks connected, AccessPay provides The AA with a file agnostic solution which takes files from their ERP systems and submits them to Bacs. This process automation has helped the motoring giant; who has been at the nation’s side for over a century, to provide drivers with a trusted membership to cover breakdown assistance, car insurance and more.
Integration… against the clock for the AA
A speedy implementation project, the business came to AccessPay in 2017 after their incumbent supplier notified them that their their previous solution was no longer supported.
The AA use SAP for generating outgoing payments files, and Tiara for managing Direct Debits, so required a replacement Bacs solution that could integrate with both systems and be implemented quickly.
The rapid deployment delivered by our implementation team was crucial for avoiding any drop in service in order to continue serving the AA’s 14 million members and to protect their incoming revenue stream.
“The AA has built its reputation on the service that it provides to its members. It is therefore essential that we work with a partner who can provide resilience but also flexibility to maintain that.” Lewis Jones, Head of Treasury Operations and Payroll
Keeping the AA moving
The AccessPay platform was configured to work with AA’s existing back-office systems before being rapidly deployed to replace the existing system.
This meant The AA were connected to their chosen banks before their existing solution expired, so they could continue collecting and making payments without any costly downtime.
Dialing up the benefits as a group of specialist businesses, The AA’s finance team needed to view their financial data in an easy and accessible way.
“AccessPay gives us a very good dashboard that we use to see a breakdown of each company area. Another good thing is the UX, we can easily confirm that all the files have been submitted to the bank. This function was added in 2020 and shows that the process is complete, so we know that there are no errors in the payment files and we don’t have to worry.” Ross Matthews, Banking Scheme Manager
Bacs reports are automatically sent to The AA’s ERP system to make onward reconciliation easier, this level of connectivity is crucial in driving efficiency for The AA given the volume of direct debits collected each month.
The AA are building services for a digital future
The AA are now working with AccessPay to facilitate Faster Payments to support one off transactions like insurance claims. A finance partner for a digital future, The AA has future-proofed their business with AccessPay, ready to continue providing exceptional service to members for the next 100 years.
With a broad customer-base Lewis says they are conscious of developing digital solutions for the next generation of UK motorists – while still catering for older long-term customers.
“New drivers are much more aware of digital technologies for consumers and are as equally aware of the banking technology coming through.
We recognise that more people will be driving cars who expect to have an instant service available to them and we want to be able to capitalise on this with our digital applications and partners.” Lewis Jones, Head of Treasury Operations and Payroll