**Accounts Payable Automation ** Business Process Management
Case Study | Integral
Integral, a JLL company, was looking for a way to better manage and control its invoice operation. After deploying an accounts payable automation solution, it has re-engineered processes and reduced overall late payments by 17%.
Name
Integral UK Ltd
Location
Nationwide, UK
Size
3000 staff
Activity
Facilities Management
Challenges
Process complexity and sheer volume of existing accounts payable
Process 250,000 invoices a year
Support a digitisation and sustainability strategy
Solution
Accounts Payable Automation - DocuWare
Benefits
Delivers significant efficiency, productivity, agility and customer service improvements
Enabled more effective, re-engineered processes
Supported reduction of late payments by 17%
Creates a single source of truth
Described by a user as “100% better than before”
Imagine a single accounts department getting 20,000 invoice emails a month and having to process them manually. That was the challenge facing facilities management business Integral.
Integral provides a range of mechanical, electrical and fabric property maintenance services to some of the UK’s leading business and public sector organisations including Harrods, the RAF, NHS, London Stock Exchange, Rolls Royce and The Royal Opera House.
Integral is a JLL company and as such has made sustainability one of its key values.
This pervades not just the built infrastructure it supports but also its own internal processes and operations. Part of Integral’s sustainability initiative is using digital transformation to improve efficiency, reduce waste and streamline processes. But Integral’s account payable operation lacked effective document handling technology causing inefficient processes.
To support its business operations, Integral has 3,000 suppliers and subcontractors that invoice the business for the products and services they provide. Invoices, that can range from under £10 to several thousand, amount to around 250,000 every year. Invoice processing was increasingly complex and labour intensive. Invoices were pdf attachments to email which were sorted, manually, into many different folders for onward processing.
There were problems and errors because not all emails had invoices, some had other documents and multiple invoices. A limited view of invoice type, measure of workload and a lack of auditing meant invoices were being lost. Some emails went straight to spam because suppliers sent multiple emails simultaneously.
Integral considered various invoice handling products looking for a smart system that was flexible, intelligent and able to recognise an invoice, its content and automatically route it to the appropriate next action.
The solution needed to process incoming invoices and automatically ingest data off documents into a new ERP system being implemented.
Integral decided to work with Ricoh because it was an established partner with JLL. Ricoh was able to provide a solution that could adapt to Integral’s phased approach driven by implementing two new operational systems. Integral needed a solution that could identify different invoice outcomes and create a single document repository for validation and control.
Integral has deployed Ricoh’s Accounts Payable solution based on DocuWare software. It acts as a single, central repository for all of Integral’s supplier invoices and statements. When an email arrives, DocuWare reads the email and associated documents and automatically categorises them - for instance recognising supplier name - ready for processing. In addition, DocuWare applies intelligence to document sorting so that, for example, a high value or urgent invoice is prioritised rather than just processing it sequentially.
Trying to report from our email system was virtually impossible. Now DocuWare provides the traceability and reporting we need automatically.”
Having established document control, Integral is starting to use OCR capabilities in DocuWare to read data automatically from invoices for input into accounting and ERP systems.
Sarah Pearson, Head of Finance Transactions and Controls for Integral, says, “The beauty of DocuWare is it’s incredibly flexible and works with us and at our pace as we develop and improve how we operate.”
As well as managing DocuWare design and implementation using a dedicated project manager, the Ricoh service offering also includes regular update meetings to track progress and customise the solution further to meet Integral’s business needs. For example, Integral needed DocuWare to be able to handle DRC VAT, a construction industry VAT treatment.
The system has also simplified email receipt dramatically, cutting down the number of email rules, addresses and document folders. One member of Integral’s accounts team says, “Working with the Ricoh Accounts Payable solution is 100% better than before.”
Customer service has improved with fewer payment errors and a faster, more efficient response to invoice queries. The solution, along with better ways of working, have meant late payments have fallen by 17%. Integral expects to see continuous improvement in these statistics as the Accounts Payable solution is fully rolled out across the business.
One of the key benefits is how the solution helps Integral develop and improve business processes. For example, creating workflows to deal with problem or exceptional invoices. Integral can look at the way the PO number is defined and which system it belongs to, to then direct the invoice to the appropriate workflow. A sub-workflow could be when there is something wrong with the PO like an invalid invoice or incorrect value. In addition, there are criteria such as invoices valued over £20,000 needing secondary approval or invoices that do not need a PO number such as a utility bill.
“The Ricoh Accounts Payable solution is core to enabling Integral’s move to a paperless, automated process. Fundamentally, it is changing the way our accounts payable system operates and improving on-time payments,” says Sarah Pearson
Ricoh Solution/Products
DocuWare
Consultancy services
Although Integral is in phase one of digitising its accounts payable it has already seen significant efficiency, productivity, business agility and customer service benefits.
Sarah Pearson says, “Ricoh’s Accounts Payable solution enables us to take all the information about invoices and create a single source of truth. We can manage what is happening with those documents far more accurately and effectively. We can see who’s manipulated and processed them, but also see the untouched documents in DocuWare so we can manage the workload. Now we have insight where previously there was confusion.”
With the Accounts Payable solution Integral reduced manual invoice processing and will soon be able to automate data handling. “Even at this stage, the comfort we get from greater visibility and reporting is significant. Information clarity means our data entry process is far more consistent and accurate. For example, we have eliminated many user errors and inconsistencies in different data entry styles,” says Sophie Buxton.
Ricoh is empowering digital workplaces using innovative technologies and services that enable individuals to work smarter from anywhere.
With cultivated knowledge and organizational capabilities nurtured over its 85-year history, Ricoh is a leading provider of digital services, information management, and print and imaging solutions designed to support digital transformation and optimize business performance.
Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group has major operations throughout the world and its products and services now reach customers in approximately 200 countries and regions. In the financial year ended March 2022, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 1,758 billion yen (approx. 14.5 billion USD).
For further information, please visit www.ricoh.co.uk
© 2022 RICOH COMPANY, LTD. All rights reserved. All referenced product names are the trademarks of their respective companies.
