A government contractor recently approached one of our reseller partners because they wanted to overhaul their purchasing and AP invoicing system.
The old document capture and management system was being phased out after its acquisition by another vendor, which was made even worse by the transition to Windows 10. To further complicate matters, the government contractor’s internal system for processing expenses was already a labyrinth of multi-layered approvals and processes.
Fortunately, a customized system using ApplicationXtender (AX) and Captiva from OpenText got the job done – along with a significant savings.
Solution Highlights
- A savings of at least $35,000 when compared to being forced to move to the new document management platform after the acquisition, plus the professional services costs of migrating all of the government contractor’s data
- The combined ApplicationXtender and Captiva solution captured a difficult workflow that has four multi-directional layers of approval
- The system was further customized to accommodate some challenging exceptions, including a separate process for invoices that exceed the underlying purchase order by more than 10%
- A difficult process is now entirely automated, easily searchable and transparent
- The new system “does a whole lot more” than what the nonprofit had before, including broad capacity for accounts receivable and HR functions
Streamlining a Challenging Process
Being a government contractor, its invoicing and purchasing processes are subject to strict accountability and an approval process that the is not easy to understand.
Depending on the amount of money involved, purchasing decisions wind their way through four levels of approval before reaching the CEO. Then they’re matched against the original purchase order and sent through the system. Those exceeding the original PO by more than 10% are re-routed through a separate process. Along the way, there are documents to be scanned, checks to sign and email-alerts sent.
Customized Solution
The new system had to be far more than a cookie-cutter program. Accommodating the government contractor’s exceptions to the approval process was complicated. In addition to the rerouting of purchases 10% higher than their purchase orders, there is yet another process for purchases under $500.
Once implemented, the customization was exactly what the government contractor needed at a price that was $35,000 less than the price of migrating from the old document management software, including the professional services involved.
The entire process is now fully automated and lost documents are thing of the past. “Now you put something in the search field and it comes right up,” said their accounting software engineer.