Looking for a Weproc customer review that is concrete, well documented and not a sales page? Seafrigo, one of the world’s leaders in temperature-controlled logistics and transport, agreed to explain on video how it fully digitalized its purchasing management — from paper and Excel files to a unified Procure-to-Pay process.
In this 8-minute testimonial, Seafrigo’s purchasing, accounting and operations teams speak candidly about their situation before Weproc, the criteria that tipped the balance, how the rollout went and the benefits they measure day to day.
Their experience summed up in three phrases, chosen by the teams themselves: process visibility, spend control, streamlined processing.
⏱️ The essentials in 2 minutes
- The company: Seafrigo, temperature-controlled logistics and transport, present on 5 continents and in 25 countries.
- The trigger: group growth through acquisitions, rising purchasing volumes, and a process still run on paper and Excel files.
- The No. 1 selection criterion: a customizable solution able to adapt to a multi-company, multi-business group organization.
- The rollout: simple to set up, with teams mastering the tool “very quickly”.
- The benefits: end-to-end visibility from purchase request to payment, time saved on invoice entry, zero forgotten purchase requests.
Seafrigo’s video testimonial on Weproc
Video chapters
- 0:00 — What appealed about Weproc
- 0:18 — Seafrigo, the cold chain specialist
- 0:47 — Why streamline the purchasing process
- 1:06 — Before Weproc: paper, Excel and chasing approvals
- 3:00 — Why Seafrigo chose Weproc
- 3:40 — Rollout and getting started
- 4:31 — Interfacing with the accounting software
- 5:00 — Weproc day to day
- 5:52 — Benefit No. 1: visibility
- 6:26 — The responsiveness of Weproc support
- 7:09 — Purchasing that has become more strategic
- 8:19 — Three words to sum up Weproc
Who is Seafrigo?
Seafrigo at a glance
5
continents covered
25
countries of operation
Group
multi-company, multi-business
Seafrigo is one of the world’s leaders in temperature-controlled logistics and transport. What sets the group apart from a conventional logistics provider is its specialization in cold chain management: most of the products it carries are perishable, which calls for rigorous temperature management at every link in the chain.
This operational requirement comes on top of a complex group organization: several companies, several lines of business, and sites spread across five continents. That context weighs directly on how purchasing has to be structured — and on the constraints that purchasing management software must be able to handle.
“Seafrigo is present on all 5 continents, in 25 countries: that allows us to meet our customers’ expectations anywhere in the world.”
— Excerpt from the Seafrigo testimonial
Before Weproc: paper, Excel and the race for approvals
The need to streamline the purchasing process did not appear overnight. It took hold gradually, driven by growth: new companies joined the group, the volume of purchases to process increased, and the right tooling was needed to respond efficiently to changing needs.
An entirely paper-based approval workflow
Before Weproc, approving a purchase request and then the corresponding invoice was an obstacle course. The workflow described in the testimonial speaks for itself:
1. Print and fill in a form
Every need was formalized on a paper document, filled in by hand.
2. Chase down the managers
The necessary approvals were obtained in person, by going to see each approver.
3. Send the form back to the purchasing department
The purchasing department then took over to place the order with suppliers.
4. Start all over again for the invoice
Invoice approval rested entirely on the purchasing department, with the same manual workflow.
Folders, pigeonholes and scans that go wrong
On the accounting side, things worked in much the same way. Invoices were entered and then scanned using a system of labels and barcodes, sorted into folders by approver — purchasing department, senior management — then placed in pigeonholes and physically carried up to the people concerned.
Two direct consequences are mentioned in the video. First, approval delays: when a scan goes wrong, nobody notices, and a manager never receives the invoice they were supposed to approve. Second, the practical impossibility of checking anything: on a 300-line stock sheet, working out whether the corresponding invoice exists or not is next to impossible.
“It really was nothing but paper. There were quite a lot of approval delays… Sometimes the scan goes wrong: we thought everything was fine; in the end, no, a manager still hasn’t received the invoice.”
— Excerpt from the Seafrigo testimonial
Excel forms sent by email
On the purchasing side, the process took the form of Excel forms for purchase requests and purchase orders, sent to suppliers by email. Order tracking, meanwhile, was entered manually in Excel spreadsheets.
A system described as “very time-consuming”, exposed to the risk of manual entry errors, and one that did not allow the various purchase requests to be handled optimally. With, implicitly, two classic blind spots: off-process purchases — more frequent and hard to identify — and the lack of any tool for centralizing data, hence limited visibility over spend.
Why Seafrigo chose Weproc
The first criterion mentioned in the testimonial is unambiguous: customization. A group organization with different companies and different lines of business requires the software to adapt, not the other way round.
The three reasons for choosing Weproc
A customizable solution
Tailored to the group’s specific needs, particularly its multi-company, multi-business organization.
Straightforward communication
From the very first conversations, the need was understood quickly — something Seafrigo describes as “reassuring”.
A fast response on rollout
Expectations in terms of schedule and implementation were met.
“We have a group organization with different companies and different lines of business, so the software also had to adapt to our complex organization, and it did.”
A simple rollout and fast adoption
The rollout “went well” and was “fairly simple to set up”. Two factors come up in the testimonial to explain this.
The first has to do with the tool itself: intuitive, with access tailored to each user, so that everyone sees only what concerns them. The teams say they “managed to master the tool very quickly, because it really is simple to use”.
The second has to do with the support provided: the Weproc teams came on site to explain how it works, an approach considered “very useful, and very quick after that”.
Native integration with the existing information system
Weproc is used in SaaS mode and interfaced with Seafrigo’s accounting software. Data is transferred from one application to the other on a daily basis, which keeps the process continuous with no re-entry. As for data security and access control, the system meets the group’s requirements.
This point is often underestimated when choosing a purchasing tool: without a connector to the ERP or accounting software, digitalization stops at the order and leaves accounts payable working the way it always did.
The benefits seen day to day
Benefit No. 1: end-to-end visibility
This is the benefit Seafrigo mentions first. Weproc provides visibility over the purchasing process that the group did not have before — visibility shared by all users, from the purchase request through to payment of the supplier invoice.
In practice, the first screen consulted in the morning lists all requests in progress: everything that has been requested but not yet turned into a purchase order. The most widely used feature is order status tracking — from submission of the request to approval, then to receipt, with delivery date information and the delivery note that accompanies the receipt.
“The number one benefit of Weproc for Seafrigo is visibility: it gives us visibility over the purchasing process that we didn’t have before, from the purchase request through to payment of the invoice.”
— Excerpt from the Seafrigo testimonial
Benefit No. 2: “huge” time savings on invoices
“The biggest gain is going to be time. That’s absolutely certain.” When it comes to invoice entry, the process described is straightforward: you drop the invoice in, it is read automatically, and only a few changes remain to be made if the account allocation isn’t right from an accounting standpoint. The invoice then goes off to accounting.
The time freed up is explicitly reinvested: “a huge time saving to focus on other tasks that are more interesting”.
Benefit No. 3: no more forgotten purchase requests
This may well be the most far-reaching change. Since Weproc was introduced, no purchase request goes unprocessed: from the moment a request arrives in the software, it is necessarily dealt with. Previously, with exchanges by email, a request could “fall through the cracks”.
The result is described as process reliability — a notion that goes beyond a mere productivity gain and touches on the quality of service delivered to the operational teams.
Benefit No. 4: complete requests the first time round
Weproc brings together all the information the manager needs to approve the purchase request, and that buyers need to order the right items from the right suppliers. For a specific need, a web link, a photo or any other document can be attached directly to the request.
The practical effect: no more going back to a file several times because information is missing. The manager receives a notification, opens the request, has everything needed to approve it or not, and the requester is informed of the decision via Weproc.
Benefit No. 5: more strategic purchasing
Beyond day-to-day operations, Weproc has moved purchasing management towards a more global form of steering. The group now has complete visibility over its spend, with precise segmentation. That segmentation makes it possible to prioritize spend optimization actions at a strategic level, according to purchasing volumes per identified segment.
This is the typical shift from a purchasing function in execution mode to a purchasing function in decision-making mode — the same movement seen at other customers, as in Apivia Courtage’s customer story.
Benefit No. 6: collaboration between departments
Weproc has made exchanges with other departments easier. The clear picture of the chain, from purchase request through to invoicing, makes it possible to go to the right person without wasting time working out “who, how and when”.
The complete history is also mentioned as an everyday use: finding a past order whose reference you can no longer remember becomes instant.
And what about Weproc support?
This is a point that few testimonials tackle head-on. At Seafrigo, contact is made by email and the answer comes back “quite clear, step by step”. The support service is described as “quite responsive: within an hour, we have everything we need”.
“The support service is quite responsive: within an hour, we have everything we need.”
— Excerpt from the Seafrigo testimonial
Seafrigo’s final verdict on Weproc
Asked what advice they would give to fellow accountants, the Seafrigo teams reply that Weproc is “modern” and “meets a lot of today’s needs” — 100%.
The line that perhaps best sums up this experience fits in a single sentence: “I absolutely cannot imagine going back today.”
Three words to sum up Weproc, according to Seafrigo
Visibility
over the process
Control
of spend
Streamlining
of processing
What this customer story says about a successful purchasing project
The Seafrigo case highlights four constants found in most successful purchasing digitalization projects.
| Constant | What the Seafrigo case shows |
|---|---|
| Adaptability takes precedence over feature richness | A multi-company organization requires tailored configuration. It is the first criterion Seafrigo mentions. |
| Ease of use determines adoption | A tool mastered “very quickly” does not need to be imposed: it gets used. |
| Accounting integration closes the loop | Without a daily transfer to the accounting software, the time saved on invoices does not exist. |
| Visibility comes before savings | It is spend segmentation that makes it possible to prioritize optimization actions. |
Read other Weproc customer reviews
This video testimonial from Seafrigo adds to the customer stories published by other Weproc customers, across a variety of sectors and organization sizes. You can browse all Weproc customer reviews, or explore in detail the platform’s Procure-to-Pay coverage, from purchase request through to supplier payment.
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