all case studies


Global Telecommunications Corporation
Major North American Brewery
Leading Waste Recycler
Major Pharmaceutical Manufacturer
Prominent Canadian Metal Fabricator
An International Materials Handling Supplies Pooling Company
Major North American Energy Company

Global Telecommunications Corporation

A Global Telecommunications Corporation was experiencing difficulty in handling an ever increasing volume of incoming Accounts Payable mail, leading to excessive processing delays. Their desire was to address this problem before it became unmanageable.

• How to streamline the Accounts Payable process while substantially reducing costs
• How to eliminate the handling of paper and the manual Accounts Payable data entry function
  
  

All accounts payable invoices are now redirected to ACI where they are processed and accounts payable data is made available to the client for upload into their financial system for payment processing.

• Over 70% reduction in department overhead
• Elimination of accounts payable hardcopy, faxed or emailed invoices
• Acceleration of accounts payable invoice processing
• Elimination of late payment fees
• Improved opportunity to take advantage of vendor discounts
• Substantial improvement in vendor relations

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Major North American Brewery

A major North American brewery's 13 regional operations were struggling to obtain timely accounts payable information from their shared services centre. ACI's history with this organization began in the early 80's with microfilming accounts payable documents for one of its regional offices. As the benefits of digitizing became apparent (i.e. instant document retrievability, elimination of manual filing) the organization moved from microfilming to digitizing accounts payable documents for all its regional operations. Each regional operation however still had to channel any accounts payable query through the shared services centre.

• How to further improve the process of handling accounts payable queries from the regional operations.
  
  

By storing the organization's accounts payable information on ACI's image warehouse servers, authorized users in the brewery's regional operations could instantly access required accounts payable information via the Internet.

• Accounts payable queries from the regional operations can now be handled directly over the Internet, allowing valuable time in the shared services centre to be put to more productive use.
• Response time in handling accounts payable queries from any point within the organization is dramatically improved.
• Accounts payable documents can be made available on the web much sooner than when channelled through the shared services centre.
• The brewery's auditors, located remotely from the shared services centre, can now instantly access accounts payable documents on the Internet thereby saving travel time and expense.
• The organization now requires fewer shared services centre staff to handle accounts payable queries.

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Leading Waste Recycler

A leading Canadian waste recycler with a shared services centre and multiple field operations in Canada and the US, found itself overwhelmed with accounts payable documents. Because the organization's document handling procedures were cumbersome, provision for storage of these documents and their subsequent retrieval was less than adequate. Not only was expensive service centre space being devoted to storage of an ever-increasing volume of accounts payable documents, but off-premises storage also had to be used. Consequently, response time to any queries from the field was very slow, causing strained relations among field operations, the shared services centre and suppliers.

• How to reduce the time involved at the shared services centre in handling accounts payable queries from regional operations and suppliers.
• How to reduce the time and associated cost involved in filing and retrieving hardcopy accounts payable documents.
• How to reduce valuable space (and cost) involved in the storage of hardcopy accounts payable documents at both the regional operations and shared services centre.
  
  

After carefully analyzing the company's document handling procedures, ACI was able to provide an outsourcing solution for the scanning, indexing and Internet retrieval of their hardcopy accounts payable documents.

• Virtual elimination of space (and cost) devoted to the storage of hardcopy accounts payable documents.
• Elimination of time-consuming and costly manual filing of accounts payable documents
• Instant retrieval of accounts payable information in response to queries from the regions.
• Reduction in the number of staff required to handle accounts payable queries.
• Improved relations among field operations, the shared services centre and suppliers.

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Major Pharmaceutical Manufacturer

A major international pharmaceutical manufacturer, had for years operated on a relatively modest scale in Canada. The firm then entered a growth mode, acquiring new operating units that added to its complexity and placed new demands on its shared services centre resources including management of Accounts Payable. With ACI's help, the firm was quick to see how document imaging would allow it to better cope with growth. ACI provided the scanning and indexing services for their accounts payable documents, allowing users to access these documents locally. While this solution produced major productivity gains in terms of the elimination of manual filing and faster document retrieval, the firm was still open to new methods that might improve its overall management of its Accounts Payable in an environment of growth.

• How to further streamline the Accounts Payable management process and allow the firm to cope with the increasing demands created by organizational growth.
  
  

By storing the organization's accounts payable information on ACI's image warehouse servers, authorized users in the organization's many business units can instantly access required accounts payable information via the Internet.

• Accounts payable queries from the various business units can now be handled directly over the Internet, allowing valuable time in the shared services centre to be put to more productive use.
• Accounts payable documents can be made available on the web much sooner than when channelled through the shared services centre.
• End users are enjoying a dramatic improvement in the time required to respond to their accounts payable queries.
• The organization has been able to take on additional business units with no additional staff required in the shared services centre.

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Prominent Canadian Metal Fabricator

A prominent Canadian steel supplier custom fabricates metal tubing used largely in the automotive field. A single hand-written Work Order containing critical production information (e.g. specifications, instructions etc.) is prepared for each job before going into production. The Work Order travels with the job as it progresses through the various stages of production during which a number of production personnel must refer to, handle and make entries on the document. When the job is completed, the hardcopy Work Order is then manually filed as a reference for repeat or similar jobs in the future.

With so many individuals needing access to the single Work Order, both during and after production, it was not uncommon for this vital document to be misplaced or misfiled thereby causing serious production interruptions, delays and errors. Additionally, locating misplaced or misfiled Work Orders was a time-consuming and costly process.


This particular situation posed a number of related challenges:

• How to eliminate interruptions in production caused by lost or misplaced Work Orders.
• How to reduce the time and high cost associated with locating lost or misplaced Work Orders.
• How to allow users in different parts of the organization timely access to needed information from an individual in-progress Work Order.
• How to instantly access needed information from a past Work Order.
  
  

After carefully analyzing the company's document handling procedures, ACI was able to customize a solution (introducing barcode technology) that addressed all of the above challenges. The solution included the scanning, indexing and subsequent Internet retrieval of their Work Orders.

• Because all the Work Orders were now digitized, the time-consuming and unreliable filing of hardcopy Work Orders was no longer necessary.
• The incidence of lost or misplaced Work Orders was eliminated together with all associated costs.
  
• Past Work Orders could now be accessed instantly for more timely decisions on jobs.
• Multiple users throughout the organization who needed information from a particular Work Order all had concurrent access to such information.

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An International Materials Handling Supplies Pooling Company

An international materials handling company specializing in the pooling of pallets, uses a document called a Pallet Control Note to evidence a transaction (e.g. proof of delivery). Pallet Control Notes were being created in such volumes that the organization found itself literally "buried in paper". Documents were stored wherever space could be found (e.g. in cartons on top of filing cabinets). Subsequent retrieval of a document in response to a customer query was extremely difficult, if not impossible, often resulting in lost pallets and/or not being paid by the customer.

• How to reduce the time involved in retrieving Pallet Control Notes in response to customer inquiries
• How to reduce the incidence of lost or misplaced Pallet Control Notes and thus the loss of pallets as well as their revenue
• How to reduce the storage space devoted to the massive volume of Pallet Control Notes
  
  

By scanning and indexing the Pallet Control Notes and making them available for subsequent retrieval on the company's local area network (LAN), the customer could now instantly access any document using retrieval software supplied by ACI.

• Virtual elimination of time-consuming and thus costly document searches thereby increasing employee productivity.
• The drastic reduction of lost or misplaced Pallet Control Notes thereby decreasing the incidence of lost pallets while ensuring prompt payment for pallet deliveries.
  
• The elimination of the space required to store hard copy Pallet Control Notes.

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Major North American Energy Company

A major North American energy company’s in-house imaging solution was not meeting their expectations in servicing vendor payments on a timely basis. Their issues included lost discounts, late payment charges and strained vendor relations.

• How to reduce the time from receipt of invoice mail to invoice approval for payment.

All accounts payable mail is now redirected to ACI where it is processed and made available for payment approval.

• Significant reduction (from 13 days to 3) in time from receipt of mail to availability for payment approval.
• Significant reduction in administrative overhead.
  
• Elimination of late payment fees.
• Improved opportunity to take advantage of invoice discounts.
• Substantial improvement in vendor relations.

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