'Purchase to Payment' - Process Efficiencies for SMEs

In these unrelenting times of austerity, it is SMEs who continue to suffer and have to make further cuts. However, savings can be made through improving efficiency of business processes in order to maximise budgets. One area which presents an opportunity to fine tune such processes is within the finance department itself.

While the majority of businesses have invested in implementing Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP) over the years, this technology fails to virtualise and automate all processes – leaving finance departments with manual paperwork to be completed, often during the “purchase to payment” process.

Nearly 80% of all invoices are still delivered to a business on paper. And where an electronic method of delivery is implemented, invoices are still delivered as PDF files, presenting an unstructured document for the individual that cannot be read by the ERP program.

Few SMEs have the luxury of moving to a full Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) approach, which is often taken by many enterprises to standardise documents sent between recipients. In addition to this, with paper based files and PDFs likely to be maintained for years to come, SMEs need to consider solutions that will combat these issues and embrace unstructured documents.

 

SMEs opting for an invoice process solution that automates the accounts payable process will eliminate clerical tasks associated with filing and processing invoices through automation thus, reducing cost and resource spent. Furthermore, the system increases control and visibility across the company, and allows immediate and secure access to the data.

A business automation approach based on document capture, management and workflow can enhance existing business processes and compliment the investment in existing ERP systems. With costs of new generation document management and workflow systems, SMEs now have a viable option to transform their purchase processes that offers a compelling ROI. 

Click here to discover how Invu’s Invoice processing solution can benefit your business. 

Document & Content Management for Housing Associations: A White Paper

Most of the white papers we’ve produced to date have been generic in kind – that’s not to say that they’ve not had focus, but they’ve been as applicable to a manufacturer as to a constructor or a charity. We’re taking a slightly different tack with the latest off the production line. This is sector specific , notably Housing Associations and other Social Housing providers. That’s not to say that some of the points we make aren’t valid elsewhere of course, but the focus is on a group of organisations which is of increasing importance to Invu. The number of HAs that we deal with continues to rise and rise.

The Social Housing sector faces all manner of pressures, from keeping costs down to service levels to financial control. Document and content management can play their part in alleviating these pressures by acting as so much more than simple passive repositories. This is mature technology which can be optimised to deliver even more value and this paper sets out to explore the options. It’s borne out of our experience to date and, in particular, where we’ve been back to existing customers to explore how they can benefit from work we’ve done for other HAs with the latest versions and technologies at our disposal. For example, the Adactus invoice processing, workflow and QLF integration project has delivered a solution which is of genuine interest to many other HAs. Great news and those customers taking the solution on board will see real benefits, from ROI, service level improvements and that critical financial control.  

Why not download the whitepaper http://www.invu.net/info/whitepapers.aspx and see if your organisation can reap the benefits too?

A tale of two cities?

In our news section, we’re talking about a tale of two cities. Not exactly original, but it comes to mind with two new case studies – Seren Group in Newport and, a quick hop down the M4 in Cardiff, Hendre. They are both engaged in social housing and both have been delighted with their Invu experience. Housing Associations (HA’s) are waking up to Invu with its wider portfolio of products and integration opportunities with housing systems. Forty plus HAs have adopted Invu and, increasingly, the demand is for document management at the heart of the business.

HAs face a bombardment of documentation, from invoices, to maintenance orders, to tenant correspondence and much more. Service levels can massively improve if the documentation is immediately to hand and a 360˚ view of a tenant’s affairs or suppliers transactions are to hand. HAs come under tight regulation and service levels are an important benchmark, so being able to respond quickly with all queries answered first time is a significant measure of success. It’s also a measure of efficiency and cost saving. Right now there are still many HAs find themselves reliant on paper filing and queries may take hours or days to get answered and then only in part – add in the “whilst I’ve got you”, almost mandatory supplementary question and you could be back to square one. You can see why a good eDM solution is needed.
HAs face particular issues with accounts payable – often working with a host of suppliers. Many of these are likely to be local and small in keeping with an ethos of trading in the community where possible. Quick payment is often critical to these suppliers. However, manual processing of paper invoices can be a slow process. Invu’s invoice processing solutions cut through this – we’re getting increasing and encouraging demand here. Invoices are scanned, the relevant data is extracted from the invoice and then looked up against the finance system for supplier details, POs etc. This then initiates an automatic workflow for authorisation – what might currently be 1-2 week’s worth of round trip can be simplified to minutes, all without the fear of loss and all whilst still having sight of the information for queries. Extending Invu Document Management out beyond a passive repository can make a huge difference to the way businesses work and this is a great example of a sector where the fit is especially good. Invu’s engagement with HAs continues to get closer and stronger – we hope to see our South Walian friends at Seren and Hendre joined by many more HA peers using Invu.many more HA peers using Invu.