One of France’s top 10 wholesale insurance brokers, Apivia Courtage began digitalising its purchasing processes in 2024. The goal: replace a way of working that depended on individual discipline with a structured, traceable framework shared between business lines and support functions — finance and IT — while keeping an agile, user-centred approach.
The project was led jointly by the Economic Performance Management department and the IT department, around Weproc’s purchasing software. After a year in production, the company reports tighter budget control and smooth adoption by its teams, and is starting phase 2 on electronic invoicing and accounting automation.
Cyril Remblière, Director of Economic Performance Management at Apivia Courtage, looks back at the key stages of this transformation: the project’s objectives, the choice of Weproc, the gradual rollout, the results after one year and the outlook for phase 2.
⏱️ The essentials in 2 minutes
- Context: business growth, a need for stronger safeguards and the arrival of mandatory electronic invoicing in France call for a more structured purchasing framework.
- Choice: Weproc selected over more established solutions, on the grounds of agility, attentiveness and ability to act as a partner.
- Phase 1 (delivered): digitalisation of Procure-to-Pay, budget tracking at commitment level, delegations of authority built into the tool.
- Phase 2 (in progress): electronic invoicing, automated matching and posting through interfaces with the accounting ERP.
- Result: stronger budget management, reliable data captured as close as possible to the commitment, teams on board after one year.
Apivia Courtage at a glance
175
employees
60 M€
in revenue
4 sites
in France
Top 10
in wholesale brokerage
| Sector: | Wholesale insurance brokerage |
| Lines of business: | Health, personal protection, property and casualty |
| Locations: | Tours, Châtellerault, La Réunion |
| Contacts: | Cyril Remblière, Director of Economic Performance Management — Pierre Fruchard, CIO |
Why structure the purchasing function
Until then, Apivia Courtage’s purchasing function relied on manual workflows: approvals by email, purchase orders as PDFs, budget tracking pieced together after the fact. That set-up, workable at a smaller scale, was turning into a risk factor as the business grew and regulatory obligations piled up — electronic invoicing in particular requires a supplier chain that is traceable from end to end.
The Economic Performance Management department decided to start digitalising in 2024, with a twofold objective: regain visibility over spending commitments before they turn into invoices, and build a framework that teams could make their own without pushback.
Initial objectives
| Objective | Expected outcome |
|---|---|
| Visibility over commitments | Anticipate spending from the order stage, without waiting for the invoice. |
| Shared budget framework | Keep approved budgets and actual spending aligned. |
| Digitalised approval workflows | Replace PDFs and handwritten signatures with a tool-based flow. |
| Year-on-year learning | Use historical data to refine budget forecasts. |
| Real-time management | Give performance management active levers for trade-off decisions. |
Choosing Weproc
Two to three solutions were assessed in 2024, including turnkey offerings from well-known, established vendors. The selection process was run jointly by Cyril Remblière, Director of Economic Performance Management, and Pierre Fruchard, CIO.
According to Cyril Remblière, Weproc won out on three points:
Why Apivia chose Weproc
Flexible configuration
A tool that adapts to Apivia’s delegations of authority and cost accounting structure, without imposing a rigid framework.
Quality of the relationship
Sales and technical teams seen as available and committed for the long term.
A partner on a human scale
A positioning judged to be a better fit for a purchasing function still taking shape at Apivia.
“We weren’t just looking for a solution, but for a team able to move forward alongside us over the long term. The idea of partnership means something to us.”
— Cyril Remblière, Director of Economic Performance Management
The rollout
The project was organised in two phases. Phase 1, now delivered, covers the Procure-to-Pay scope: purchase request, approval, order, budget tracking. It replaces the PDF-based workflows and builds the delegations of authority directly into the tool.
Apivia deliberately took an educational approach. Regular workshops were held with Weproc throughout the rollout, with future users involved every time. The management control team ensured functional consistency, while the IT department secured integration into the existing environment.
After a year of use, adoption is smooth: no pushback, no significant workarounds. The tool meets a real need on the ground, beyond the control requirement alone.
Results after one year
Budget management from the moment spending is committed
For Cyril Remblière, the change is clear: analysis now takes place as close as possible to the spending commitment, where it used to be limited to an observation made after posting. Overruns and savings are identified in real time. A history builds up from one year to the next and can be used for forecasting.
Reliable data
The target set by management is for all spending to go through the solution. An unplanned expense has its place: it is entered, justified, then routed to an approval workflow suited to its amount. Nothing escapes the framework, yet it remains flexible enough to absorb the unexpected.
Formalised delegations of authority
Each director has precise rights and obligations, set out in the tool. Accountability is explicit at every link in the approval chain. Even so, Cyril Remblière is keen to point out that the project was never designed or presented as a cost-killing exercise. For the Director of Economic Performance Management, savings will come naturally, driven by reliable data and changing behaviours.
Native cost accounting integration
Apivia’s cost accounting structure (nature, department, project, cost centre) is applied from the commitment stage. Every purchase request is allocated to the right dimensions before approval, which guarantees consistency between Weproc and the accounting ERP. Forecast-versus-actual variances are available without manual reprocessing at period end.
Phase 2: electronic invoicing and accounting automation
Launched in September 2025, phase 2 tackles the entire supplier chain: from receipt of the electronic invoice to the daily transfer of entries to the ERP, by way of matching against the commitment.
The operational challenge, Cyril Remblière explains, is to free the accounting teams from data entry and matching tasks so they can refocus on first- and second-level controls, qualitative analysis and performance management.
Phase 2 milestones
| Stage | Content |
|---|---|
| Electronic invoicing | Receipt and processing of electronic invoices, regulatory compliance. |
| Accounting reconciliation | Invoice/commitment consistency check by the officers in charge, ahead of posting. |
| ERP integration | Automatic daily transfer of accounting entries. No more re-keying. |
Key takeaways
Apivia Courtage’s journey offers several useful lessons for any SME or mid-sized company embarking on a similar initiative.
Digitalising purchasing is not a tool project.
It is a transformation project for the finance function, one that calls delegations, cost accounting and the relationship with business teams into question.
Choosing a human-scale vendor can be the winning move.
When the organisation is still building its purchasing function, adaptability matters more than sheer functional depth.
Adoption is won through education and perceived usefulness.
A tool seen as an everyday service is adopted more readily than a control tool.
Cost-killing is not a credible starting point.
Savings come later, through reliable data and changing behaviours.
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