Constellation Europe implemented an Invoice Management Solution from Documation and:

• Reduced AP headcount by 2.5
• Removed manual data entry
• Reduced costs
• Increased control
• Increased efficiency
• Reduced duplicate payments

The below presentation is one from ex Constellation Europe AP Manager, Andy Tiller.

Read the full Constellation Europe AP Automation case study for more information.

If a reduction in accounts payable costs sounds like something you’d be interesting in gaining, please come and talk to us at Documation. Email info@documation.co.uk or call +44 23 8064 7776 today.

Our previous post outlined the first five benefits of a paperless office. We saw how problems such as document retrieval, document security and audit trails are all issues that can be removed or managed using document management solutions.

Read on for the next five benefits in this top ten list:

1.      Business Development

Automating some of the more menial tasks frees up your staff to focus on more strategic tasks. For example, one of our customers using the Documation Invoice Management Solution (IMS)  had their accounts payable staff focus on negotiating improved supplier discount benefits. Within six months they had managed to pay for their new IMS system with the savings they had made!

2.      Document Security

On a different note as to who can access secure documents (see point 5), another security based benefit is that all documents are stored on a secure server. A comprehensive disaster recovery plan will cover the data, hardware and software critical for a business to restart operations in the event of a natural or human-induced disaster.  A document management system assist with this by creating a virtual filing system; storing all your key data and information in one secure place.

3.      Better Customer Service

Document management solutions let you access all of your customer data instantly and easily. Being able to retrieve information such as orders and related documents enables you to proactively provide better customer service and respond to enquiries and complaints faster.

4.      Email Efficiency

The majority of business communication is now carried out via email. It is vital for organisation to be able to track, store, monitor and analyse emails and email usage. High quality document management solutions enable you to save emails into the system and attach them to relevant documents and folders, just like any other document – making the process of retrieving emails faster and more efficient.

5.      Return on Investment (ROI)

The savings made from managing documents more effectively soon starts to pay for itself; the majority of Documation customers receive a return on investment (ROI) between six and 12 months. Additionally, there are many different deployment methods available to ensure customers get they get the most out of their investment.

If you want to find out more about the range of document management solutions from Documation and how they can help your organisation improve efficiency and control, whilst cutting costs, then please get in touch today - call us on +44 (0) 23 8064 7776 or email info@documation.co.uk.

Each year, a typical business use printer emits 456 kgs of carbon dioxide. Taking into consideration that a tree typically absorbs 13kg of CO2 per year, this means that an unbelievable 35 trees are needed to offset just one office printer’s emissions.

Picture the volume of financial documents coming into your organisation… now think how often they get photocopied. A recent study by Gartner found that invoices alone can be photocopied up to 11 times in its life. These statistics soon create a powerful case for implementing paperless processes.

Below are the first five benefits of a paperless office. Make sure you come back on Tuesday for Part Two! Alternatively you can register to receive these blog posts via email.

1.      Online Storage & Retrieval

Document management solutions, like the ones from Documation, store all your documents online; making it quick and easy to retrieve. All documents that come into your workplace can be scanned and indexed very quickly. This makes it very easy to manage the documents and gives instant access anywhere to anyone who needs it.

2.      Automatic Audit Tail

Legislation, like BIP0008 and the US’ Sarbanes Oxley, now mean that organisations must adhere to strict guidelines on compliance regarding the storage and access of documents. With a document management system each document has its own audit trail – starting from the moment it entered the system and including actions such as opens, prints, forwards etc. Documents cannot be removed from the system from an unauthorised individual or before the legal amount of time has passed.

3.      Time Savings

According to research taken by Datamonitor in 2007, managers spend 25% of their time looking for information, with over 40% using incorrect information at least weekly and 60% missing information that could be used for business purposes – and typically three individual sources are required to find information on competitors, customers, projects or other departments. By using a document management solution, the time taken to find information can be all but removed since all the documents are stored in a central, online repository, allowing for easy and instant identification and retrieval.

4.      Simplicity

Document management solutions enable you to simplify many business processes. Some routine tasks can be fully automated, whilst others can be improved by enabling users to take action or authorise tasks and transfer data with the click of a button. The procurement process (link to iPurchase page) and approval of invoices (link to IMS) are two of the best examples of daily tasks that can benefit from document management automation.

5.      Accessibility & Security

Many departments will have sensitive and confidential documents that only certain employees should have access to. Document management solutions allow you to give access rights based on security levels to individuals who need access to certain documents. This is especially useful in departments such as finance  and HR who may have sensitive documents that only senior management are privy to.

We’ll be posting benefits 6 to 10 on Tuesday. However, if you think you can think of some that we’ve not mentioned already, please leave your suggestions in the comments section - we’ll see if you can think of any we’re not covering!

Document management is becoming one of the fastest growing areas of investment within organisations; and it’s clear to see why.

The benefits of control and efficiency, combined with the potential for huge cost savings, are too large to ignore.

Simple File & Find solution: Do you store a lot of paper? If so then a simple file and find solutions (such as the Documation iRetrieve) is perfect. This solution is one of the most cost effective uses of document management. Once your paper documents are captured (usually through scanning), they are then stored for as long as you want. Optical and magnetic storage is becoming cheaper each year, so this solution also comes with one of the fastest ROIs

Invoice Processing: If you currently process your invoices manually, then employing an invoice management solution can help you cut costs and gain huge increases in efficiency and control. These solutions come with full audit capabilities and support compliance legislation such as BIP0008 and Sarbanes Oxley.

Accounts Receivable:  Automating the accounts receivable department can help improve cashflow, reduce operating costs, increase efficiency and improve customer service. Use document management in this area to manage sales invoices, sales orders, delivery notes and all associated correspondence.

Procurement: If used in conjunction with an invoice processing solution then you’re onto a real winner! Implementing a procurement solution speeds the process up greatly, and ensures business rules are adhered to. 

Digital Mailroom: Traditional mailroom processes are slow and inefficient, dominated by paper documents. By moving to a digital mailroom, organisation are able to reduce operational costs, streamline and accelerates business processes, and deliver improved customer service.

Documation have experience in implementing all of the above.  For more information on how your organisation can benefit from any of the above solutions, please get in touch with us. Call +44 (0) 23 8064 7776 o email us on info@documation.co.uk

During times of economic uncertainty, it’s common for companies to tighten their purse strings a little. So it can be difficult to obtain funds to pay for much needed software solutions. Many organisations processing the invoices in a manual way have identified the requirement for an invoice processing solution, but can’t get access to the budget required to pay for it.

If this sounds familiar, read on, there are strategies you can employ that will help secure funding in a recession. Firstly make a strong case outlining the benefits (both tangible and intangible) that your organisation will receive from implementing the desired invoice processing / invoice management solution. These benefits can be combined and analysed to create the return on investment (ROI) model, which will outline how soon you can expect to receive an ROI – anything less than 6-12 months is too long.

Invoice processing software comes with one of the fastest ROI’s of document management solutions. Accounts payable departments operating in a fully manual way can be a huge financial drain on an organisation. High staff costs, storage costs and lack of control and efficiency in the process are all areas that can be removed or reduced by implementing an invoice automation project.

Documation have created a white paper outlining how companies can justify an invoice processing solution:

• The paper outlines the tangible and intangible benefits of an invoice management solution;

• It highlights the all important effect an invoice processing solution can have on your cash flow and bottom line;

• It explains the different purchasing options open to organisations – allowing you to receive the initial benefits of invoice automation on day one, but without a large capital outlay;

• The white paper illustrates why companies employing invoice management solutions have an invoice processing cost that is 84% lower than those utilising a manual process.

Concluding the white paper is an offer from Documation for a FREE Feasibility Study.

To find out more, download the white paper now!

Document management software supplier, Documation, will be focusing on the cost benefits and efficiency gains the public sector can receive from document management at Cimtech’s Future of Electronic Information and Records Management in the Public Sector event.

The exhibition is being held on the 7th July 2010 at the Fielder Center, University of Hertfordshire. The event will host delegates from local authorities, government departments, agencies, health trusts, police services, further and higher education and all other public authorities.

Steve Pittway, Commercial Manager at Documation explains the importance of this event: “The management of information and records is more crucial in the public sector than the private sector as governments are directly accountable to the members of the public.  A strategic approach to records management is vital to facilitate recordkeeping and retrieval. Documation have been working with public sector bodies over the last two decades to help them manage their paper – automating processes and ensuring compliance is met.”

Documation can be found at stand 16 and will be exhibiting from 9am-6pm, showcasing a range of document management solutions including their award winning Invoice Management Solution (IMS), procurement solution, archive & retrieval solution and their digital mailroom solution. The event features workshops and keynote speeches focusing on new and forthcoming best practice guidelines and standards.

To find out more about the event, please visit the Documation website: http://www.documation.co.uk/cimtech-public-sector.asp

Documation, a leading provider of document management solutions in the UK and Europe, has upgraded their optical character recognition (OCR) engine to the market-leading EMC Captiva® InputAccel® 6 enterprise capture solution.

Documation previously used B-Wize and the Captiva InputAccel 5.3 solution; the decision to move solely to Captiva InputAccel 6 was made because Documation believe it to be the highest quality OCR engine on the market today. Captiva integrates seamlessly with Documation’s Enable platform, from which all their document management solutions are created.

John Wallace, CEO of Documation explained the decision: “Captiva InputAccel 6 is widely recognised as the leading OCR engine on the market and we are wholly committed to providing it as part of our document management solutions. Captiva’s powerful ability to handle input from a range of document sources and manage everything from departmental to high volume enterprise capture, answers the needs of our customers. This means that no matter what document type, or what volume of documents our customers have, Captiva is able to efficiently and effectively capture that data. We are delighted that our first tranche of clients have now gone live with Captiva InputAccel 6, and look forward to continuing our partnership with EMC”

Working closely with EMC support enabled Documation to integrate Captiva InputAccel 6 into the live sites of existing customers in the building, retail and financial service industries, utilising diverse document workflow solutions including Digital Mailroom, Accounts Payable and Membership Administration . The first clients went live in January, and all existing and future customers will be offered Captiva InputAccel 6 as standard.

Captiva Product Sales Specialist at EMC, Owen Kilbane stated “We are very pleased to have been chosen by Documation as their enterprise capture solution. EMC Captiva is a complete set of enterprise capture technologies that provide businesses with a more effective method of scanning, classifying, indexing and validating documents. Captiva is used by global companies allowing them to transform a deluge of external data into usable, business-ready content, no matter what its format or point of origin. We look forward to expanding our relationship with Documation through a continued integration with the EMC Documentum enterprise content management solutions.”

Captiva’s ‘building block’ approach makes it easier for independent software vendors, like Documation, to create intelligent capture systems for the conversion of paper documents into electronic images and data. Combined with Documation’s document management solutions, Captiva captures documents, extracts data and automatically routes this information to the line of business system, allowing clients to benefit from improved document processing efficiencies, greater management control and significantly reduced processing costs.

Recently, we have seen an increase in the numbers of enquiries regarding our Digital Mailroom solution. This would appear to be the result of cost-saving drives brought about by the  current economic climate – traditional mailroom processes are slow and inefficient, dominated by large amounts of paper. In order to maintain a competitive edge, organisations realise that they need to operate as efficiently as possible. The recession has created a buyer’s market in which the cost-efficient companies are retaining and attracting the majority of customers.

Companies utilising a digital mailroom find that:

• they have lower operational costs
• are able to streamline and accelerate their business processes
• can ultimately deliver improved customer service.

The scale of benefits provided by digital mailrooms means that these solutions come with a super fast ROI – and isn’t that what everyone is after right now? Solutions  that not only improve processes, but also allow companies to reap the cost saving rewards in as short a period as 6 months.

The Documation Digital Mailroom automatically captures and classifies all information entering the organisation – whether it’s paper, fax, email etc… all incoming information, regardless of format is captured and then routed to the appropriate person, department or backend ERP, CRM, ECM or workflow solution. At the same time, the solution provides tracking and an audit trail of that correspondence; from initial capture, to its long term storage.

What are the specific benefits of the Documation Digital Mailroom solution?

• Reduced operational costs
• Increased efficiency
• Increased customer service/satisfaction
• Improved mail security
• Streamlined operations that conform to regulatory requirements
• An essential tool in disaster recovery and business continuity
• Super-fast ROI

Due to the high demand we experience for our Digital Mailroom solution, we regularly host free webinars focusing solely on the software and the benefits that YOU can receive by implementing a digital mailroom solution. To find out when our next webinar is being held, visit our events page.

Alternatively, get in touch with us and we can arrange for a Business Consultant to speak to you regarding your specific areas of interest.