COUNTRYSIDE ALLIANCE
BPMS we were introduced to The Countryside Alliance who were seeking a means by which they could move away from their traditional methods of working with paper within their accounting department.
Countryside Alliance
Industry: Rural Affairs
Location: London, United Kingdom
Departments: Accounting, Invoice Processing
Document Types: Bank statements, account records, incoming A/P invoices
The Countryside Alliance is a British organisation promoting issues relating to the countryside such as farming, rural services, small businesses and field sports, aiming to “Give Rural Britain a voice”. The organisation has over 100,000 members.
BPMS we were introduced to The Countryside Alliance who were seeking a means by which they could move away from their traditional methods of working with paper within their accounting department.
The current arrangements were considered to be time consuming, error prone and resulting in significant volumes of historic invoices taking up valuable office space.
The initiative to move to paperless working coincided with Countryside Alliance moving to new open plan offices where typically there was less storage space for filing than they had been used to.
The Challenge
Countryside Alliance sought a solution which would allow them to move away from paper driven processes within their accounting department.
The delivery was over two phases, the first to provide a document depository whereby purchase ledger invoices could be maintained and retrieved via client defined index criteria and text and the second to deliver invoice processing via automated workflow.
Countryside Alliance work with the SAGE accounting system. A key aspect of delivery was that this should integrate fully with the delivered document management solution to allow the sharing of data and to derive maximum functionality.
It was critical that any solution delivered was user friendly and should not represent a change from the existing processes within the electronic environment.
Through integration, documents should be able to be retrieved via SAGE as well as directly from the platform.
Users outside of the department should have the ability to view, authorise or reject invoices regardless of the device they were using.
The Tasks
- Analyse existing processes
- Develop successive implementation concept
- Integrate DMS with existing applications
- Landscape, Define & develop custom workflows
- Reduce storage space
The Solution
The Countryside Alliance Finance department met with BPMS and following a consultation decided to implement DocuWare Professional Server to digitalise and automate their working practises.
The first stage of this process was to carry out a full scoping exercise of the department’s documentation and existing manual processes with Ben Dowdswell, Finance Director and his team.
The analysis paid particular attention to how the department worked with others in the business in respect of the authorisation of invoices and how these individuals needed to be included within any prescribed solution.
Time was spent reviewing the way in which the department worked with the SAGE accounting solution including the generation of purchase orders and how this aspect would require integration within the DocuWare development.
Having thoroughly mapped Countryside Alliance’s financial documentation, existing workflow processes and user profiles and requirements/access permissions, a detailed Statement of Works was generated and agreed as the basis of the solutions development to fully deliver Countryside Alliance’s requirement of a fully automated and integrated system.
Applied Modules
- Professional Server
- Smart Connect
- DocuWare Mobile
- Intelligent Index
- AutoIndex
- Task Manager
- Storage Robot
The Benefits
Having taken the decision to move to a fully electronic automated system of working, Countryside Alliance have realised many immediate benefits.
Where previously the Alliance had relied entirely on paper documents within the finance department and moving paper around the organisation, they now have a central document depository and can retrieve information accurately and quickly.
The process of invoice authorisation, once cumbersome, error prone and causing delays is now a fluid paper free exercise, backed by a full audit trail.
The Benefits
- Reduced Paper
- No disruption & Greater Efficiency
- Central Document Repository
- Improved Security
- Remote Access
- Full Integration with Existing software
- Improved Customer Service
