Who’s bought what Solution – December/January
Double Whammy for Top Image Systems: Atkins and INEOS employ eFLOW Solution
A good month for Top Image Systems no doubt, as both Atkins and INEOS install the company’s eFLOW Invoice Reader to streamline invoice processing.
The selection process for Atkins was one of a highly competitive nature. With 11 vendors prospected, and site visits to the top 6, the global giant, not only the largest engineering consultancy in the UK, but the biggest multi-disciplinary consultancy in Europe, has settled on Top Image Systems to automate the company’s invoice and expense processing.
With a turnover of £1.3 Bn in 2008 for Atkins, it’s no small task. The company’s shared service centre, based in Worcester, England, will process around 200,000 invoices and 85,000 expense documents each year. By utilising the TIS eFLOW Invoice Reader, which will allow easy and effective implementation with Atkins’ JD Edwards ERP, sizable cost savings are expected.
According to Head of Accounts Payable for Atkins, Kevin Ingham, one of the main factors in choosing TIS was that ‘They exceeded our expectations regarding the technical capabilities of the system.’
INEOS, another big hitter, with a presence in 14 countries which manufactures and distributes speciality and intermediate chemicals, had similar needs, seeking a solution that would enable them to increase the accuracy and efficiency of their European invoice process. Upon implementing the TIS solution, INEOS predict they will generate cost savings that will pay for the cost of the project in one year.
Wipro BPO Partner with AmBev
Being the largest brewer in Latin America, with brands such as Stella, Becks, and Brahma, AmBev have entered into partnership with Wipro BPO, the outsourcing division of Wipro Technologies, to manage and implement transformation of their back office shared service centre in Curitiba, Brazil.
The centre will amalgamate the usual back office processes, from finance and accounts payable, to HR and customer service resources, and is expected to provide AmBev with some significant savings throughout the region.
Leicester NHS Trust moves to McKesson
Following a number of difficulties with previous payroll provider Capita, the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust has since selected McKesson as the new payroll provider. The Trusts’ payroll will now be processed from McKesson’s Glasgow based shared service centre.
Although initially the agreement with Capita was to run until 2010, both parties came to the conclusion that it would not be beneficial to continue the partnership. The Trust’s relationship with Capita has been under some strain previously, with payments being late or incomplete, and an incident of staff records being found on the streets of Stevenage. Police were alerted, but no charges pressed.
Despite the issues between the two, ‘a good working relationship’ is said to have been maintained between Capita and the Trust, with sources adding that the time to move to a new supplier was right, due to the complex payroll system needed to service staff.
Utilising ESR, the companies integrated payroll and HR system, McKesson provide services exclusively to NHS organisations, with the Trust adding that time would have been an overwhelming factor when considerations to moving services back in house were made. McKesson are due to take over proceedings in February next year, with the Trust no doubt hoping to be in safer hands this time around.
Lexis Nexis go Touchless with Avanquest
After a nine month project led by Lexis Nexis, Avanquest, and Avanquest partner Readsoft, the decision was made to implement Avanquest’s AP+ to fully automate the accounts payable process for Lexis Nexis.
The choice was also made in conjunction with a 5-year case proving that overall the project will provide savings over the initial outlay cost. Having processed 70,000 paper invoices per year manually, the change has come as a welcome transformation to a process that was described by Isobel George, accounts payable manager for Lexis Nexis as “An area that did a lot of churning, but produced little butter.”
Initially in place for the entirety of the organisation’s UK operations, success will see the automation being rolled out to other territories.
Readsoft Lands €325,000 Deal
One of the world’s leading chemical companies based in Germany, which will remain un-named, has confirmed its decision to invest a sizable sum in Readsoft’s SAP invoice processing solution.
Having previously invested in Readsoft back in 2004, the German behemoth has since been working to refine the automated process, and is now looking to expand the use of the solution to cover its European shared service operations. The company deals in areas from oil & gas, to chemicals and agriculture, employs 95,000 people worldwide with a sales generation of €58 bn in 2007. The new roll out is expected to cover nearly 1 million invoices a year.
Readsoft’s continuing strategy of gaining footholds in multi-national companies with a view to expanding into the group does indeed seem to be paying off, as the news comes shortly after the organisation won their first deal in the Indonesian market. Total E&P Indonesia, a subsidiary of the Total Group, entered into a similar agreement with Readsoft, seeing the processing of roughly 72,000 invoices a year.
3SO Select SAP
The Shared Support Services Southeastern Ontario, or 3SO, has recently chosen the SAP ERP application to centralise the procurement processes for its members.
The decision follows a successful implementation by Kingston Hospital, a member of 3SO, to improve back office processes, including finance and procurement. The group is now set to roll out SAP to the rest of its member hospitals across the South East of Ontario, in addition to expanding on the SAP system already in place at Kingston.
IBM and Sapa Extend Contract
Part of the Shared Services Initiative originally put in place in 2007 by Norwegian Industrial conglomerate Orkla, of which Sapa is a part, the initial 7-year contract with IBM is to be extended. The extension continues the focus of the initial agreement, to achieve cost efficiency and improve service quality.
Under the new terms, IBM will host and maintain several applications, such as their ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), with the number of users set to double since the initial inception in 2007.
Remy Contreau Group Opt for Readsoft
Following on from the agreement with a leading German chemical company this month, Readsoft have recently been selected by the Remy Contreau Group, a leader in the spirits market, to increase their invoice efficiency.
The group, which had a turnover of €816 million for 2007-08, and distributes in 150 countries, will integrate Readsoft’s SAP R in April 2009. The agreement covers the processing of around 70,000 invoices annually at the groups offices in France.
Also to be included is the newly released REPORTER software, which enables immediate access to all the data that will be processed. An additional benefit to including this new tool lies in greater compliance with internal control procedures. "We want to know exactly where the invoices are, what their status is, what operations have been made and by whom" Herve Bourdelais, Supplier Account Manager for Remy Contreau, commented.
Dorset County Hospital Implement VersionOne Solution
VersionOne has won a contract with Dorset County Hospital, one of the leading NHS Foundation Trusts in the UK, it has been announced.
By integrating VersionOne’s document management and imaging software into the hospital's Infor Smartstream system, the county hospital hopes to speed up the processing of 50,000 invoices a year, and create additional document storage space.
Currently, staff need to manually key in data pertaining to the hospital's 5000 suppliers, a task described by Kevin Goater, the Acting Director Of Finance as "very laborious, costly and prone to error". Once in place, the new system is likely to increase purchase to pay efficiency, and reduce the manual entry process by up to 75%.
The new systems are set to be up and running for 150 users in early 2009.
Cortex Chosen by Telus Energy Sector
Growing from 6 employees in 2006, to 70 currently, the Canadian based e-commerce solution provider Cortex has entered into agreement with Telus energy sector customers offering their paperless P2P and Accounts Payable solutions.
The company is certainly on the up, with a 2007 revenue of USD$1.6Million, and serving some 700 clients including ConocoPhillips and Suncor Energy. Interestingly, the solution provided is not limited to incorporating a specific type of software, as Cortex states that information will be able to be seamlessly transferred between companies ‘regardless of which accounting software they use’.
As another example of how rapidly automation processes are growing in popularity, Cortex looks in line to continue its success and is certainly ‘riding the wave’.
‘Big Four’ Member Opts for Brainware
Announced this month, one of the ‘Big Four’ global professional service firms have taken to adopting Brainware’s management solution ‘Brain Distiller’ to service their Accounts Payable process.
They will join the ranks of Brainware’s customers that include British American Tobacco, Halliburton, Kimberly-Clark, and Shell, to name a few.
Basware To Automate Invoice Process for Logica
With a deal said to exceed €300.000, and as a result of Logica centralising its own internal systems and processes, Basware is to provide the automation solution for Logica’s Invoice processing.
The two companies already enjoy a business relationship, as Logica is a reseller for Basware’s P2P enterprise solutions, focused in Scandinavia and other European countries.
The solution is said to be initially implemented in Portugal, with a roll out to all sites in Europe to follow.
Saudi University goes With ESS
Al Faisal University based in Ridyah, Saudi Arabia, has contracted the Indian leader Eastern Software Solutions to implement their ebizframe solution for the university’s major back office functions, from procurement to accounts payable. In an additional part of the agreement, ESS will also manage the IT infrastructure moving forward.
ESS is very pleased having won the contract, as there was stiff competition from other global providers. The opportunity for further exposure to other institutions was noted as a valuable one by Anil Bakht, MD for ESS: ‘This success in Riyadh will go a long way in reinforcing our credentials and the capabilities of our ERP solution ebizframe amidst other educational institutions, Government agencies and the corporate sector in Saudi Arabia, which we plan to aggressively target.’
Although most of the Western market is sown up the big global providers, ESS continues to hold its own in the private sector of many developing economies, as well as government organisations in countries such as Ghana and Kenya. The company has won contracts over the more well known global leaders on previous occasions, and is currently ranked in the top 10 Indian companies.
Norwegian Government Automates With Basware
More public sector and government institutions around the globe are catching on to automation, and the Norwegian Government is no exception.
Having announced an agreement with Basware, the Financial Management Agency arm of the government is to deploy Basware’s solution this month with a view to streamlining financial processes.
The move is aimed at insuring the most effective use of public spending, as the Agency looks after an estimated 300 organisations related to various government ministries.
VersionOne win Land Registry Contract
VersionOne has recently been selected by the Land Registry of England and Wales to streamline their P2P process through automation.
The software solution by Version One, which incorporates OCR (optical character recognition) technology, is to be integrated with the Land Registry’s existing Oracle E-business suite.
The Land Registry is responsible for recording who owns land and buildings across the entirety of England and Wales. The new systems are to be made available to around 100 staff across 26 sites, and are set to go live by the end of this year.
“By having central receipt of all invoices the accounts payable team will be able to instantly know where an invoice is in the approval chain.” Debbie Wilkinson, the Head of Financial Accounting for the Registry, commented.
Carton Service Implements Esker Solution
Manufacturers of folding cartons and pharmaceutical packaging, Carton Services have recently entered into a venture with Esker, who are to provide their e-invoicing and e-purchasing solution to the company.
Carton has already seen an improvement in process, and has added around 15,000 purchase orders as a result.
Total E&P UK Opt for Absoft
Absoft, an Aberdeen based SAP consultancy, have won the contract to implement Readsoft’s ‘Documents for Invoices’, an automated invoice scanning solution. With the installation of the software already completed, Total E&P are already matching as much as 40% of their materials invoices through the SAP system.
Absoft is a value added reseller for Readsoft in the UK, and the new contract is expected to see the processing of some 30,000 invoices per year.
The consultancy is already on good terms with many companies in the Oil and Gas Industry, and a relationship with Total E&P that goes back ‘almost 20 years’, according to Absoft MD Ian Mechie.
