Who's Bought What - May 09
Bonhams Cuts Manual Data Entry by 80% with Version One and COA Solutions
Bonhams, one of the oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques, has transformed its worldwide purchase-to-pay efficiency, including significantly cutting costs and reducing manual data entry by 80%, with the implementation of Version One’s document management and imaging systems.
The system, which is tightly integrated into Bonhams’ COA Solutions financial management system, has been made available to authorised staff in the UK and the USA. Bonhams will soon be implementing COA Solutions’ eBIS workflow system for the electronic authorisation of 36,000 purchase invoices each year, further streamlining P2P.
Anthony Adewumi, Systems Accountant from Bonhams, says, “We evaluated several document management suppliers but selected Version One because of the company’s experience, solid reputation and proven ability to tightly integrate into COA Solutions’ financial management system which was a key requirement for us.”
Bonhams’ previous purchase-to-pay processes used to be extremely time-consuming and involved the manual data entry of invoice information and passing invoices around different sites for signatory approval. This resulted in delays due to data entry errors, invoices going missing and the time-consuming internal distribution of documents. Bonhams also incurred significant costs through printing, photocopying and posting paper in addition to employing a third party storage facility to store copy documents.
Using a Kodak i260 scanner and Version One’s software, the 36,000 purchase invoices Bonhams receives each year are now scanned centrally, tagged to the appropriate record in the COA Solutions financial management system and electronically stored. Version One’s optical character recognition (OCR) technology enables the data on these invoices to be automatically captured and verified before being uploaded to the COA Solutions system, significantly reducing manual data entry.
Adewumi comments, “Version One’s systems have significantly reduced paper use as well as administration, including cutting manual data entry by 80%, saving us at least £60,000 each year. Version One’s technology has also freed-up storage space including eliminating the need for us to use an expensive third party supplier to store thousands of paper invoices off-site, saving us further costs.”
Adewumi adds, “With the addition of COA Solutions’ workflow system we will be able to electronically authorise all our invoices, providing us with a fully-automated purchase-to-pay cycle. For the first time, we’ll know exactly where invoices are in the approval chain and be able to pay suppliers in a timelier manner, avoiding late payment penalties.”
KEIPER and Road Ranger Sign up to Procurement Solutions from Osiris Innovations Group
Auto industry supplier looks to standardise and automate MRO procurement, while convenience store chain aims to manage and control all aspects of its multi-facility procurement process
Osiris solution will allow KEIPER staff to search supplier-maintained commodity catalogs in Osiris' OS Catalog and create requisitions and purchase orders in SAP via the Oracle Call Interface (OCI) between OS Catalog and SAP. Once a requisition has been approved to a purchase order in SAP, the order will automatically be sent to the chosen suppliers' OS RAM site via the Intermediate Document Interface (idoc) between SAP and OS RAM. The entire requisition-to-payment process is automated and standardised allowing for all communications to take place between the SAP system and the Osiris platform.
Elsewhere, Road Ranger, a Midwest retail petroleum convenience store chain has licensed Osiris' OS Catalog along with OS Procura. With the OS Procura procurement engine, Road Ranger will be looking to manage and control all aspects of its multi-facility procurement process.
Osiris said that Road Ranger's supply chain will enjoy the benefits of OS RAM. "This application has an immediate positive impact on the supply chain side of the e-procurement process, including electronic purchase order receipt, ship notices, invoicing and payment processing," the company said.
