Kärcher Selects Esker to Automate Sales Order Processing and Standardize Customer Service

Madison, WI – January 24, 2012 – Esker, a foremost authority in document
process automation solutions, today announced the signing of a contract with
Kärcher North America — a global leader in the production of consumer,
commercial, and industrial cleaning equipment — to centralize customer
service functionalities and automate fax processes with a single,
cloud-based solution.

Of the 450 sales orders received daily — across all of Kärcher’s 12
distinguished product brands and seven North American locations — nearly 90
percent of them come in via fax. Since each fax is manually processed, and
all Kärcher brands have independent customer service organizations, the
visibility, efficiency and confidence in their paper-based method was low.
In an effort to improve processes, optimize staff and simplify the customer
service landscape, Kärcher sought a hosted solution that could easily
integrate with their current SAP® system.

Process inefficiency
“Our current process was unsustainable,” said Jeff Fithian, Senior Director
of IT at Kärcher. “Currently, faxes have to be printed, picked up, walked
around, placed on desks and manually entered into SAP. If a fax image needs
to be retrieved at a later time by our customer service team, depending on
how it was scanned and stored, it can be very difficult and sometimes
impossible to retrieve.” Kärcher pursued a system that would allow their
staff to easily access the original fax image without installing new servers
or software, as well as bypass the large volume of non-value work that
customer service was performing.

Searching for solutions
In searching for the right solution, Kärcher was presented with a number of
options. “We looked into different vendors and even considered doing it
in-house using e-fax/Microsoft Outlook and managing it that way,” said
Fithian. “One day, someone forwarded me an email promoting an Esker webinar
— I attended — and the rest is history. Esker had more experience with SAP
and had exactly what we were looking for in terms of an ‘out of the box’
solution that didn’t require a lot of extra customization on our end.”

Projected benefits
Upon implementation of the Esker solution, Kärcher will be able to link URLs
of faxed images directly on the Esker platform into SAP, where customer
service staff can click on the link in SAP and open the document. Jeff
Fithian expects to see significant productivity benefits, primarily
revolving around the efficiency of the customer service team.

“We currently have a large, geographically dispersed customer support team
supporting our multiple brands. This causes inefficiencies in our customer
service operations as we do not have the flexibility and tools in place to
support our growing business without adding additional headcount,” said
Fithian. “After going live with Esker, we are targeting a 30 percent
productivity improvement for our customer service team. This will allow us
to grow our business without adding additional headcount, and to reallocate
some of our higher skilled customer service personnel to more high-value
activities that better serve the customer instead of dedicating a
significant portion of their time to data entry.”

Future plans
Kärcher has a two to three year goal to leverage the Esker solution for more
savings and process improvements throughout the company. Fithian went on to
say, “Once we get stable with this first phase of the Esker solution, we
plan to pursue further automation of the order entry process, customer
invoicing and Mail on Demand. There is significant potential for us with
this technology and we intend to get as much out of it as we can.”

About Kärcher
A world leader in the production of hot and cold water pressure washers,
Kärcher North America’s extensive line includes over 100 different
industrial and commercial pressure washers. Its commercial and industrial
grade floor cleaning equipment features innovative cleaning solutions from
brands you’ve grown to trust. Kärcher North America’s wash-water treatment
and dry ice cleaning systems provide unique cleaning alternatives in a
variety of applications. Headquartered in Englewood, Colorado, the
world-class Kärcher North America Excellence Center is located on the campus
of our Englewood, Colorado manufacturing facility. For more information,
visit www.karcherna.com.

About Esker
Esker is the worldwide leader in document process automation solutions.
Addressing all types of business processes from accounts payable and
accounts receivable to sales order processing and procurement, Esker cloud
computing solutions enable companies to automate the reception, processing
and sending of any business document with one platform. Esker helps over
80,000 companies across the world to reduce the use of paper and eliminate
manual processes while improving their productivity, efficiency and
environmental impact.

With 33 million euros in sales revenue in 2010, Esker operates in North
America, Europe and Asia Pacific with global headquarters in Lyon, France
and U.S. headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin. Esker is listed on the NYSE
Alternext in Paris (Code ISIN FR0000035818). For more information, visit
www.esker.com. Follow Esker on Twitter at twitter.com/eskerinc and join the
conversation on the Esker blog at www.quitpaper.com.

Corporate Contact: Renee Thomas, Esker Inc. – Tel: 608.828.6140 • Email:
renee.thomas@esker.com
Investor Relations Contact: Emmanuel Olivier, Esker S.A. – Tel: 33 (0)4 72
83 46 46 • Email: olivier@esker.fr

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