Construction

Customer Success Stories

Digital Workflows Empower Finance and HR. Saving time and speeding payments with Workflow Automation.

4 April 20188 mins
Iron Mountain logo with blue mountains

Industry:

Construction

Challenge:

Make AP and HR processes simpler and more effective

Solution:

Workflow Automation

Value:

  • Rapid ROI from headcount, postage and time savings
  • More productivity, less errors and quicker payments
  • Better experience for managers, staff and suppliers

Paper-based shared services

Passionate about quality and safety, this leading construction company keeps industry moving with its focus on highways and expert project management.

It also acts as a shared services centre for other businesses and, over the course of a year, processes more than 86,000 invoices.

This used to rely on traditional paper-based processes. Invoices were mailed between branches for project managers to write codes and sign-offs by hand.

That created cost allocation errors for accounts payable (AP). Meanwhile, lacking an effective tracking system invoices could get delayed or lost, leading to time-consuming supplier escalations.

Workflow automation provided an instant saving on pay and training costs for at least one headcount.

 

Saving time and speeding payments

Workflow Automation made these problems evaporate. The solution seamlessly integrates with the company’s ERP system, enabling invoices to be quickly uploaded and processed with ease.

The new set-up follows a hierarchical structure based upon the exact requirements of each department and financial authority limits.

The system tracks how long invoices have been waiting in the approver’s queue and sends out automated notifications and escalations. For example, to alert AP to act to avoid late payment.

There’s added mobility too. Integrating with Android and IOS platforms, Workflow Automation means processing no longer must wait until managers return to the office. They can approve invoices remotely and, on the move, directly from their mobile devices.

Digital advantages everywhere

The solution paid back in many ways. With the old paper-based approach, temporary staff had to be hired to cope with seasonal peaks in manual data entry. Workflow Automation provided an instant saving on pay and training costs for at least one headcount.

Further savings followed on postage and time spent sending invoices back and forth, lowering overheads even more.

Greater control and visibility of AP business processes, for outstanding invoices in particular, means more productivity, less errors and quicker payments.

Also, because users can only choose validated codes, finance teams don’t have to waste time investigating and correcting cost misallocations.

Greater control and visibility of AP business processes, for outstanding invoices in particular, means more productivity, less errors and quicker payments.

Extending benefits to HR and beyond

Building on this success, the company leveraged Workflow Automation to transform work practices and empower its HR department as well.

Previously, employees would frequently have to hunt around locating paperwork and posting scanned copies to HR.

That information now lives at their fingertips They can quickly access documents – from driving records to compensation claims and benefit entitlements – when they need them, from any location.

Digitising repetitive manual tasks has also increased visibility into core processes, allowing HR to proactively track, manage and report on service levels.

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