$900 Million Automotive Accessories Distributor

• The increase in product SKUs that our client was offering for sale had caused the number of invoices arriving for payment each month to swell to more than 30,000 – far beyond the capabilities of the existing manual process and the 10-12AP staff charged with processing them;
• The vast majority of these 30,000+ monthly invoices were arriving on paper, and the existing process did not include scanning;
• 80% of arriving invoices were purchase order-based, and so required 3-way matching;
• The increased volume of invoices was spread across 10 different business units, including the newly acquired companies – and each of these units had its own ERP in place;
• Eight (8) unique ERPs were represented among the 10 business units: Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft NAV, NetSuite, SAGE, Infor VISUAL, IFS, MasterTools and Traverse;
• Executive management specified that accounts payable processing should still be accomplished within each of the ten divisions, but it wanted consolidation and oversight capability at headquarters.

This client needed a cost-effective, centralized, automated solution for the efficient capture of invoice data and automation of downstream approvals and processing. However, they knew it would be very difficult to find an automated solution that would facilitate connection between all eight decentralized ERPs as well as a centralized general ledger. The client’s executive team had already reviewed solutions from several other providers, and determined that none of these solutions could facilitate connection to all 10 divisions running different ERPs without installing an instance within each division – which would make it impossible to stay within their stated budget. They needed an innovativeAP automation solution that could provide for decentralized processing with centralized visibility and control – without breaking their budget.

Solution

Optima Global Solutions proposed and installed the Kofax TotalAgility (KTA) software platform in a centralized client data center, and then custom configured and implemented our fully integrated transcendAP accounts payable automation solution on the KTA platform. Kofax TotalAgility is an industry-leading Digital Transformation platform that enables cost effective and efficient business process automation.

transcendAP is able to capture images that a company scans from paper invoices, as well as emailed PDFs/TIFs, then leverage intelligent classification and data recognition technology to extract all necessary data from these digital files, including information from line items on each invoice. This solution enables easy GL-coding, approval of invoices through the process (including a compliant audit trail), and delivery of the approved data to a table for batch import into each of the ERPs used by the different acquired divisions. All invoices are then digitally archived for future reference. The Optima team created and made available specialized analytic dashboards that provide increased business intelligence for the client’sAP and executive management teams.

Most importantly, the Optima implementation team came up with a ground-breaking solution to the problem of providingAP data to the 8 different ERPs installed at 10 divisions, enabling centralized management and control. transcendAP is the onlyAP Automation solution that is completely “ERP-agnostic.” The Optima implementation team set up 10 “capsules,” or different environments, within a single Kofax TotalAgility license, and built a single instance of the transcendAP solution that could isolate and deliverAP automation to all divisions of the company.  Each division would still be responsible for its ownAP processing, and only that division and headquarters would have visibility into itsAP data.

Optima’s transcendAP was the perfect solution for this major distributor of after-market truck parts and accessories.  The ability to integrate with almost any ERP software was a game-changer for a company with divisions that used 8 different ERPs. It is highly scalable, and features robust invoice capture functionality as well as sophisticated validation, verification and exception identification capabilities. It’s easy-to-use interface and flexible management dashboards enableAP and executive management to access comprehensive insight analytics to support better strategic and operational decisions for the business.

Results

Our client has realized all the business benefits it set out to achieve by automating its accounts payable process using Optima’s transcendAP solution – plus some that management didn’t necessarily anticipate when they decided to automate.

Most importantly, the client has gained enterprise-level insight into the accounts payable processing in each of its divisions, including real-time visibility into financial information for more timely and accurate cash flow analysis and management, and better tools and data for strategic decision-making. This has enabled the company to continue to pursue its aggressive acquisition strategy without concerns aboutAP automation and basic financial control after companies are acquired – even when companies under consideration are using an ERP that no other division of the company is currently using.

The client now has improved control overAP spend, which has enabled it to take advantage of more early pay discounts. Late payments to suppliers are also down, and theAP processing team has noticed many fewer “maverick” (out-of-budget) purchases within the first 6 months since implementation. Financial reporting ofAP is now fully centralized, compliance and reporting are streamlined, and the company is now able to complete monthly and quarterly financial closes in a much timelier manner. Finally, processing efficiency for 30,000+ invoices per month is greatly improved since implementation of transcendAP, enabling our client to redeploy a portion of the accounts payable team to complete other critical tasks – often tasks that also support better strategic decisions by executive management.