How Deutsche Telekom Uses Celonis Process Mining to Save €66M in Procure-to-Pay
Deutsche Telekom Services Europe (DTSE), the shared services arm managing over 2 million order items and 9 million invoices annually, deployed the Celonis Process Intelligence Platform across its Procure-to-Pay operations. The platform achieved €66M in total savings including €40M annual savings through a 96% cash discount capture rate, prevented €3M in duplicate payments, and extended to 1,500 employees across 150 use cases.
Impact
€66M
Total savings achieved
€40M
Annual savings from cash discount capture
90%+
On-time payment rate
€12M
Savings from automation
€3M
Duplicate payments prevented
€1.6M
Contractual penalties recovered (2019)
90%+
PO accuracy on first submission
1,500 employees, 150 use cases
Platform adoption
Challenge
Deutsche Telekom Services Europe processed over 2M order items and 9M invoices annually across 10+ fragmented source systems with no real-time visibility into cash discount capture rates, payment timing, duplicate payments, or PO accuracy — creating systematic financial leakage across Procure-to-Pay operations.
Solution
DTSE deployed the Celonis Process Intelligence Platform integrated with SAP, SAP Ariba, Salesforce, and 10+ source systems to create a real-time digital twin of its P2P processes, building a Center of Excellence for Process Mining that scaled intelligent automation and process optimization across 1,500 employees and 150 use cases.
Tools & Technologies
What Leaders Say
“The vision I have is that in five years' time, nobody will need to touch our transactional systems unless Celonis suggests it.”
“Celonis is a game changer. By using process mining, we established a fully data-driven organization.”
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Full Story
Deutsche Telekom Services Europe (DTSE) operates as the shared services center for Deutsche Telekom Group, processing over 2 million order items worth more than €7 billion annually and handling 9 million invoices per year. At that scale, even small inefficiencies in Procure-to-Pay processes compound into material financial losses — missed cash discounts, duplicate vendor payments, blocked invoices, and delivery accuracy issues that trigger contractual penalties.
Before Celonis, DTSE lacked real-time visibility into how its P2P processes were actually executing across SAP, SAP Ariba, Salesforce, and 10+ other source systems. Teams spent time on low-value transactional work rather than exception management. The organization couldn't systematically measure what percentage of invoices were being paid on time, what share of available cash discounts was being captured, or where duplicate payments were slipping through.
DTSE implemented the Celonis Process Intelligence Platform integrated with its full system landscape to create an end-to-end digital twin of its P2P operations. Process mining surfaces exactly where payment delays, compliance deviations, and accuracy failures are occurring. The platform powers a Center of Excellence for Process Mining that scales use cases across the organization — reaching 1,500 employees across 150 distinct use cases.
The financial results are among the most documented in enterprise process mining. €66M total savings achieved to date. Annual savings of €40M driven by a 96% cash discount capture rate — up from whatever the baseline was before Celonis made discount deadlines visible and actionable. On-time payment rate reached 90%+. Intelligent automation generated €12M in savings. Duplicate payment detection prevented €3M in losses. In 2019 alone, €1.6M in contractual penalties were recovered. Purchase order accuracy on first submission exceeded 90%.
Senior VP Peter Tasev articulated the long-term vision: a state where Celonis is the trigger for every system interaction, shifting from reactive transaction processing to algorithmic process orchestration.