A top global commercial vehicle manufacturer operating in 38 countries with approximately 1,800 active vendors needed to overhaul its invoice processing workflow. Prior to an upgrade of the company’s existing legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform, invoices and payments were processed manually.

Under this inefficient system, analysts spent valuable time on phone calls, sending emails, confirming receipts, researching missing data, and routing paper to and from vendors. This cumbersome process was causing a significant negative impact on payment cycle times.

An upgrade to the legacy ERP platform provided both electronic data interchange (EDI) and imaging capabilities, so the company elected to transition to paperless processing.

The company’s move to a paperless AP environment would affect PO and non-PO invoice processing. They turned to Exela to deploy a solution that would automate invoice processing through a digital vendor portal meeting the following objectives:

• - Improve supplier satisfaction by providing easy access for self-service
• - Reduce staff and operating expense
• - Reduce paper submissions
• - Transition all vendors to the new web portal 

Due to the complex nature of the customer’s environment, Exela recommended a transition plan divided into multiple phases, with the first two phases focusing on the most critical aspects of the solutions: PO invoices and non-PO invoices.

Once the first phase was underway, invoice mail and supported documents, faxes, and emails were routed to Exela’s Troy, Michigan facility for processing. Exela provided the scanning, data capture, validation, and processing of imaged data for use in the new environment.

One of the key challenges of the launch was getting vendors to transition to the self-service portal. In addition to sending out notices and adding portal information to internal documents, AP analysts were tasked with encouraging widespread adoption. The customer set recruiting goals for analysts, offering prizes to top recruiters who hit major milestones, such as being first to get 100 vendors signed on. As the numbers increased, an intern was hired to call lagging vendors and encourage them to join in.

Saving time for both internal customers and suppliers was a primary goal in developing the digital vendor portal. A snapshot dashboard was developed, displaying the status of multiple invoices on a single screen, which made it easy to track payments by vendor ID, invoice date, amount, clearing information, and other data. All data was made available for export to PDF, Excel, and Word file formats. The dashboard enables suppliers to easily view status as well as confirmation of what invoices were in the system.

• - 96% AP invoice digitization achieved
• - 95% AP invoice automation achieved (from ingestion to authorization)
• - Easy-to-use platform resulting in quick adoption and improved vendor satisfaction
• - Improved payment accuracy and timeliness
• - Workforce reduction of 22 FTEs due to streamlined AP operations
• - Enhanced reporting and tracking, providing a comprehensive view of the invoice pipeline

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A Fortune 100 Property and Casualty Insurance Provider needed to overhaul its commercial lines underwriting support infrastructure and procedures. Its operations were spread out among seven different regions and managers, which posed several problems. At the top of the list were inconsistent practices, which opened the door for non-compliance with external and internal standards. Decentralized processes resulted in costly workflow redundancies and inefficiencies. Unreliable support caused the Underwriters to pick up those administrative duties; keeping them from their core responsibilities. Inefficient underwriting support also translated into longer policy development and processing times, with critical tasks often taking up to 2 weeks to complete. In all, the company’s underwriting support operations, including its staffing configuration, processes, and systems required a complete facelift. Without a solution, the company risked losing money and customers.

Lack of Workflow/Procedural Standardization and Consistency— Processes and workflows were not standardized among regional operations due to each division working in silos under separate management. Additionally, some individual workers were following different sets of procedures within the same office and in some cases relying on more than five different applications for researching historic policy information. There were no controls in place to monitor employee performance and ensure compliance and accountability, resulting in varying levels of performance between employees and offices. There was no clear chain of custody process, which was needed when operations moved from one phase to another. A lack of standard procedures and tasks lead to some work being duplicated by multiple employees.

Inconsistent Support— An unevenly distributed underwriting support workforce and inefficiencies in operations lead to a workload imbalance among groups. Often times, groups were burdened with more work than they could process, while, other times, there was not enough work to keep them busy. Also, the inability to move work between offices lead to one office being over six months behind in some work while other offices had bandwidth.

Lack of Internal Controls— There were not any standard auditing procedures to ensure compliance with requirements such as, timing of legal notifications, Agent and Insured notification requirements, correct form and mailing type, etc. Additionally, there were no measures in-place to monitor worker productivity, which contributed to delays and inefficient utilization of resources.

Outdated/ Labor Intensive Procedures— To worsen things, employees relied heavily on outdated, time consuming methods to collect, document and organize data. Inefficiencies were inherent in the system due to cutting and pasting content into Excel spreadsheets, and accessing and entering information into multiple databases. The systems did not have a way for the support staff to identify issues for the Underwriter’s review, forcing Underwriters to search through every record looking for issues.

Since 2005, Exela has provided a wide range of services to this company including, mail services, imaging, fleet management, and front office support. As its trusted partner, Exela was a natural choice to assume management of all of the company’s underwriting support operations. To improve underwriting support productivity, Exela documented all tasks and developed SLA and QA measures. Exela also reviewed the workflows with a Six Sigma black belt who identified multiple efficiency gains.

Some of the tasks that Exela assumed responsibility for included:

• - Creating endorsements and examining forms for completeness and accuracy
• - Accessing and researching historic policy information
• - Looking up and correcting Vehicle Registration Number errors and transmitting information to the DMV
• - Pulling weekly reports and distribution to Underwriting Managers to review system errors
• - Inputting policy changes; renewals, reinstatements, non-renewals and cancellations (received by email) into computerized
• - Receiving and routing checks to Billing Department on site Cash Department for Processing
• - Monitoring mailbox for Risk Advisory notice emails from Claims and creating notification task for Underwriters
• - Regularly responding to queries from insured, claims and agency personnel regarding forms, underwriting procedures and file information
• - Adding and deleting drivers and vehicles from commercial fleet policies as well as running Motor Vehicle Records on all drivers

One of the company’s major initiatives when choosing to outsource its underwriting support activities was to consolidate operations into two locations. Adopting a more centralized business model helped in several ways. To begin with, the number of managers was reduced from 7 to 1; and a uniform set of procedures was established and followed by all workers at each site. The more concentrated configuration also facilitated a free flow of best-practices among employees and locations. Resource utilization was optimized by eliminating redundancies and re-allocating labor as needed.

• - By consolidating into two sites the company realized savings of 15%, with additional savings of 12% from implementing best practices across the organization
• - The time to complete administrative tasks was reduced from two weeks to 25 hours
• - Before outsourcing its operations to Exela, the company was only achieving 50-60% of its SLAs. After Exela took over, more than 99% of SLAs have been met
• - Relieved Underwriting Assistants of repetitive administrative tasks, such as handling DMV requests and reporting errors, etc.
• - The elimination and/or consolidation of email boxes being monitored improved response time to agents and quicker creation of tasks for processing
• - By eliminating work backlog and implementing more streamlined processes, customers received premium notices on a timely basis

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The bank was facing narrowing profit margins and a growing workforce dedicated to manual paper check processing. In order to combat rising costs and slow processing, they sought a partner that could introduce automation technology in order to streamline their remittance operations, while also helping them avoid a traditional BPO model, which would be culturally misaligned with their commitment to their existing workforce.

• More than 600 employees

• Growing costs

• Slow processing times

• Employee-centric culture

Exela provided a solution that retained and converted the existing onsite workforce and added the technology necessary to digitally transform their traditional onsite activities.

• Exela manages six bank locations across the U.S.

• Onsite technology upgrade, including state-of-the-art scanning equipment

• Integrated with Exela’s omni-channel payment processing platform

• Introduced process efficiencies and cost savings

• More than 170 million transactions are captured, digitized, and processed annually

• Guaranteed employee benefits and human capital continuity

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With a stringent reliance on paper and ongoing resistance towards digitization, the Legal industry seems poised to gain the most from Managed Print Services (MPS.) Currently, law firms spend up to 13.7% of their annual income on document output, with the bulk of it going towards maintenance and supply fees. By utilizing older printers with slower speeds and limited functionality, firms are incurring higher rates per document, while investing more in equipment repairs and replacements. Without any substantial auditing or reporting tools, firms have limited insight into their equipment footprint and viability. Key performance indicators such as, usage, downtime, and volumes cannot be measured accurately, preventing any type of proactive decision-making or preventative maintenance.

In the absence of any coordinated technical support, attorneys are forced to sacrifice billable time to troubleshoot device issues, or replace supplies. Plus, without usage data or an effective audit trail, firms are concerned about elevated risk of data breach and non-compliance with data security legislation.

A New York based Am Law 200 law firm specializing in a wide range of areas including, Litigation, Cyber Security, Employment, and Real Estate, was one of many firms impacted by these issues. Struggling with the high costs associated with managing a large fleet of equipment, outdated devices, inefficient workflows, and low productivity, the firm reached out to an outside provider for assistance. As long-time partner of the firm and well established supplier of MPS services, Exela was uniquely qualified to take over the firm’s on-site operations.

Recognizing the firm’s immediate and long-term requirements, Exela presented a multi-faceted solution consisting of labor (staffing, onboarding, training, performance reporting), and full management of the firm’s fleet, including equipment replacement, repairs, recommendations for optimization, supply replenishment, and tracking and reporting.

• - MPS Services
  • - Before beginning the implementation process, Exela’s team conducted a complete audit of the firm’s equipment to determine the optimal fleet configuration and size
  • - Exela replaced the firm’s equipment with new, high-speed multi-functional devices (MFDs)
  • - Exela helped the Firm reduce its footprint of over eighty printers to a combination of twenty-nine MFD’s and less than fifteen printers—a 45% device reduction
  • - Exela provided all toner, labor and parts to support the ongoing maintenance of the firm’s fleet
  • - General Equipment Operation: Exela cleared paper-jams and managed paper stock
  • - Exela managed the procurement, delivery and inventory of supplies; installed toner and non-toner supplies, and recycled supplies where applicable
  • - Device Maintenance/Repair Support: Exela’s team responded to ongoing equipment service requests and managed escalations in alignment with pre-established Service Level Agreements
  • - Daily equipment service checks; paper replenishment; proactive device maintenance and routine cleaning
  • - Strategic Recommendations—After the solution was fully deployed, Exela continued to work with the firm to identify opportunities for further cost savings and enhanced optimization. This included recommendations for reducing equipment redundancies, as well as unnecessary repairs and replacements. Ongoing efforts were also focused on reducing service interruptions that could disrupt critical case-related activities
• - Staffing
  Exela on-site staff received rigorous training to ensure adeptness in their respective areas. The team would proactively check and monitor all equipment daily, performing routine key-op services Exela’s staff become first responders for all equipment inquiries, completing minor repairs as necessary to maintain optimum equipment uptime.
• - Reporting
  To provide the firm with more transparency into its operations and facilitate optimization, Exela provided monthly management reports, consisting of the following:
  • - Total volume on each device, separated into copies, prints and scans
  • - Report showing the total number of print jobs during a given billing cycle and whether those jobs were completed on time
  • - Total number of binding and assembly jobs
  • - Detailed listing of equipment service calls, length of calls and response time
  • - Additional items as requested by the firm

During the past few years, the firm has been able to reduce costs by more than $100,000 annually, due to a combination of labor optimization, solutions training, and equipment reduction, among other things. The firm’s print fleet was significantly reduced through the replacement of inefficient, outdated desk top printers with new multi-purpose office equipment. Efficiencies and savings were gained by tracking and auditing device usage and individual print jobs. In fact, the amount of wasteful printing decreased by 10%. Tighter security controls and enhanced activity monitoring reduced the risk of any data breaches. Employee productivity spiked, as users enjoyed more convenient device configurations and print options. By consolidating individual print queues and reducing fleet size, the firm alleviated the time and resources required by its IT department. Once its fleet was fully optimized, the firm was also able reduce its carbon footprint by 30%.

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Prior to an upgrade of the customer’s existing SAP ERP platform, invoices and payments were processed manually. Under this inefficient manual system, analysts were spending valuable time on phone calls, sending emails, confirming receipts, researching missing data, and routing paper to and from vendors – all of which had been negatively affecting payment cycle times. The SAP ERP upgrade provided both EDI and imaging capabilities, so the customer elected to transition to paperless processing. The move to a paperless AP environment would involve approximately 1,800 active vendors and affect PO and non-PO invoice processing. The customer tasked Exela with developing a solution that would automate invoice processing through a digital vendor portal, while meeting the following objectives: improve supplier satisfaction by providing easy access for self-service, reduce internal manpower cost, reduce paper submissions, and transition approximately 1,800 active vendors to the self-service web portal.

Due to the complex nature of the customer’s environment, Exela recommended a transition plan divided into multiple phases with the first two phases focusing on the most critical aspects of the solutions, PO invoices and non-PO invoices. Once the first phase was underway, invoice mail and supported documents, faxes, and emails were routed to Exela’s Troy, Michigan facility for processing. Exela provided the capturing, validating, and processing of imaged data for use in the new environment.

One of the key challenges of the launch was getting vendors to buy-in to the self-service portal. In addition to sending out notices and adding portal information to internal documents, AP analysts were challenged to encourage widespread adoption. The customer set recruiting goals for analysts, offering prizes to top recruiters who hit major milestones, such as being first to get 100 vendors signed on. Group progress was shared during weekly meetings, creating a competitive atmosphere.

Saving time for both internal customers and suppliers was a primary goal in developing the digital vendor portal. A snapshot dashboard was developed displaying the status of multiple invoices on a single screen, which made it easy to track payments by vendor ID, invoice dates, amounts, clearing information and other data, and all data was available for export to PDF, Excel and Word file formats. The dashboard enables suppliers to easily view status as well as confirmation of what invoices were in the system.

• Easy to use system resulting in quick adoption and improved vendor satisfaction
•  
• Improved payment accuracy and timeliness
•  
• Overall streamlining of AP operations led to a reduction of 22 FTE’s
•  
• Enhanced reporting and tracking providing a 360 view of the invoice pipeline
•  
• 95% AP invoice automation from a single digital portal from ingestion to authorization

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A national health care company was processing more than 50,000 invoices a month. It wanted to improve customer service and patient care across its 308 urgent care facilities. To accomplish this, the company needed to transform its paper-based Accounts Payable workflow, which was causing documents to be lost and payments to vendors delayed. AP workflows among the facilities lacked standardization, integration and visibility. And, there was no efficient system for collecting information from a large number of invoices at once. The company was also unable to find invoices when there was a discrepancy. By automating their AP process, Directors at each center could now re-focus efforts on helping patients.

To achieve its goals, this company decided to replace its existing AP process with an entirely automated workflow. It selected Exela's end-to-end cloud-based BancPay solution for its exceptional invoice management capabilities. Featuring a user-friendly interface, the solution provides easy access to invoice images for routing and approval. As an added benefit, the company's suppliers can check the status of invoice payments online, facilitating greater communication and workflow management.

• Improved customer service through more accurate payments to vendors
•  
• Realized savings by reducing AP staff by six employees
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• Reallocated resources for additional customer-service initiatives
•  
• Increased productivity and visibility into the AP process
•  
• Expanded opportunities for future automation initiatives

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