Derbyshire County Council
- 1. CUSTOMER S U C C E S S S T O RY Taking Control: 250,000 Vendor Invoices at Derbyshire County Council OpenText helps reduce physical paper storage, eliminate duplication, provide management reporting, and streamline end-to-end “invoice-to-settle” process times Industry Derbyshire County Council serves a population of 750,000 and employs around 37,000 staff. The Council is responsible for providing many services, including education, roads, and social Public Sector: UK Local Government care services. Some of the day-to-day finance activities of the Council produce a staggering Customer volume of information with some 20,000 vendors, resulting in 250,000 invoices per year being handled by the Accounts Payable team. In late 2008, Derbyshire made the decision to implement an SAP® Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. This would form the basis for a significant programme of change, replacing an ageing mainframe system that was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. Business Challenges With the mainframe IT workforce reaching retirement age and no sign of being able to keep A Ageing mainframe system, difficult to pace with current, let alone future regulations, it was time to start the process of moving away integrate and maintain from their bespoke, in-house-developed mainframe system. E Efficiency drivers and cost-reduction targets Handling vendor invoices: The old way S Skilled knowledge workers reaching With vendor invoices arriving at numerous locations throughout the county, and a manual retirement age process to approve and match invoices to purchase orders, it was possible for invoices to be I Increasing difficulty in meeting new and lost before reaching the Accounts Payable team. When invoices arrived, details were manually emerging regulations entered into the system, further increasing the likelihood of errors. Business Solution “All this led to an inability to meet prompt payment targets. A downside was that early or even prompt settlement discounts could not be claimed. Gaining a clear picture of the Council’s I OpenText Vendor Invoice Management for SAP® Solutions (sold by SAP as financial liability at any point in time was an almost insurmountable task. Change was definitely SAP Invoice Management by OpenText) needed,” says Chris Woodhouse, Finance Lead Officer (SAP), Derbyshire County Council. Business Benefits Selecting the right solution I Greater efficiency in vendor invoice In early 2009, Derbyshire looked at the feasibility of adding the capability of SAP to handle processing vendor invoices in a more efficient way. Business requirements were scoped, along with a I Reduction in processing times stated objective of using a commercially available, out-of-the-box solution that didn’t require I More flexible, detailed reporting and customisation or significant configuration. This was the basis of their SAP ERP project and any analysis now possible additional capability had to follow this model. They also wanted the comfort that any solution I Ability to identify bottlenecks in selected was proven and well supported. They took up the chance to visit an existing processes and take remedial action OpenText Vendor Invoice Management for SAP® Solutions customer and were impressed I Full audit trail, retention, and with what they saw. disposition scheduling “We selected OpenText, then set about the project in April 2009 with the objective of going live with not only SAP but also OpenText in April 2010; an aggressive timeframe,” Woodhouse says.
- 2. Introducing a new way of working Recognising the business benefits An intrinsic part of the project, key to its success, was getting With the solution going live in April 2010, the full benefits haven’t the right people involved. With around 1,000 staff involved in yet been realised. But already some elements are becoming visible the ‘invoice to settle’ process, a lot of people would be affected with others expected in the future. For a fully-matched invoice (i.e. by change. Gathering requirements from the business, keeping one with a full purchase order cover and a full match of metadata) people informed along the way, and having what would be the the time from scan to being sent for payment is now a matter of eventual users of the system involved in testing all paid dividends minutes, with no paper being sent around the Council. with the implementation. Reporting capabilities of the solution are already providing OpenText Vendor Invoice Management for SAP® Solutions now significant improvements over the old system. Queries can be centrally captures incoming invoices and performs initial checks made and feedback is instantaneous, for example, identifying on the documents. Standard metadata is extracted and, where where bottlenecks exist and enabling staff to take remedial appropriate, is matched to a purchase order within SAP ERP. If action to address any issues. The Council is now able to report a full match is found, the invoice is sent for payment. If no exact on its vendor liability, something that was effectively impossible match is found or some other discrepancy is highlighted, the before due to the length of time the preparation took. Reporting invoice is automatically routed to an exceptions work queue which functionality is also being used to analyse multiple low-value appears in the users’ standard work list within SAP ERP. A member transactions with vendors as a basis to support migration to of the Accounts Payable team is then able to view the scanned consolidated invoices. invoice and make any necessary updates and then route the Derbyshire, like all other Councils, are continuously under pressure invoice for approval as normal. to do more with the same or less budget. During their analysis With Accounts Payable staff utilising the solution throughout their phase, they calculated that the cost to process each vendor invoice working day and up to 1,000 staff in total interacting in some way was significant. Derbyshire fully expects that OpenText Vendor with the solution, user adoption is a critical factor for success. Invoice Management for SAP® Solutions will significantly reduce Training of staff was delivered in one of two ways—for power users, these costs. Added to the potential savings in space resulting from formal classroom training was provided, and for other users, a storing less paper and the ability to take advantage of early and series of mini guides with step-by-step instructions and screenshot prompt payment discounts, overall, the solution is on its way to illustrations were utilised. Both methods have been well received providing the return on investment Derbyshire set out to achieve. and user acceptance of the solution has been high. Paving the way for the future Even though the solution has been viewed as an overall success to date—being on budget, on time, and meeting requirements—it’s not to say that lessons haven’t been learnt along the way. For example, the chart of authority is now viewed as overly complex and therefore requires a large amount of time to maintain. This is now under review and will be simplified. Further areas are being looked at in detail to see where processes can be further streamlined, reducing costs and providing additional cashable benefits. “Overall we’re very happy with the solution and look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with OpenText, as together we explore other avenues,” concludes Woodhouse. www.opentext.com [email protected] +44(0)1189 848 080 Visit online.opentext.com for more information about OpenText solutions. OpenText is a publicly traded company on both NASDAQ (OTEX) and the TSX (OTC). Copyright © 2011 by Open Text Corporation. Trademarks or registered trademarks of Open Text Corporation. This list is not exhaustive. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved. 11MACU0179EN