The dangers of manual processing highlighted by the photocopiers that change numbers. Users of ReadSoft INVOICES automatically protected.

Removing tedious, slow and error prone manual processing is critical for businesses which want to improve their effectiveness, whilst driving efficiency and reducing costs. But, now it is apparent that errors sneaking into many finance functions are not simply the result of user mistyping, but compression algorithms within photocopiers altering numbers.

Computer scientist and blogger David Kriesel has this week highlighted the  Xerox WorkCentre 7535 and the 7556 as devices that in tests would turn the “6” into an “8”, and vice versa, with other numbers being affected too. Talking to the BBC he explained that the anomaly is caused by Jbig2, the image compression standard used in scanners and copiers to make file sizes of scans smaller. Jbig2 will substitute figures it interprets as the same, meaning similar numbers were being wrongly swapped.

Even scans to PDF as images can be affected when low scan quality settings are used. Many scanners will advise that character substitution may occur at low quality settings and though Xerox is not the only manufacturer where this can occur, it has come into the firing line. Unsurprisingly the company issued a statement today which was reported in the Independent  explaining that it takes the matter “very seriously’ and suggested users avoid the problem by printing in high resolution until the matter is investigated fully.

If your finance department uses ReadSoft INVOICES then you need not be concerned by this latest revelation, or worried as to the liability mis-scans can potentially represent. INVOICES’ automation and validation picks up on these typical errors – both at line and header levels – and ensures that all your invoices are processed accurately.  Paper invoices are scanned and digitized, the software handles the data entry, reading and interpreting all invoice files, regardless of format and crucially for those now facing these reported scanner issues provides validation.

All captured invoice information, including barcodes, stamps, and other supplier-specific data, is categorized, and validated against available purchase order, goods receipt, and master data with checking of sums, supplier data, dates, tax amounts all automated.

Discrepancies and missing information are quickly flagged.  Because INVOICES is self-learning, common issues such as character substitution will be quickly recognised routed to a workflow for resolution and if needs be, user verification. Only when validated do invoices continue in the processing workflow, so AP staff only need to get involved for issue resolution and can ensure every documents which leaves the finance department is accurate and numbers are correct.

Digital transformation of government may have begun but it has been a slow start

“There’s almost nothing DVLA does that couldn’t be done digitally, yet a huge amount is still being done on paper. There are huge numbers of people running a clerical paper processing factory,” says Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude, to the Guardian this week. Each day, two HGV lorries filled with letters and paperwork arrive at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. Maude isn’t criticising the DVLA itself, rather he sees the agency as typical of what remains to be done.

Departments such as HM Revenue and Customs, the Home Office, Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), Ministry of Justice, Department of Transport, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) have already been chosen to put a key number of their transactions online. This programme, announced last November, could save billions in the coming years, according to the government’s calculations, and reflects similar aspirations presented by Jeremy Hunt last week for the NHS.

In a speech given on Monday, Maude stated that the digital transformation of government has begun. “We are catching up with the private sector, with plans to build simple, fast, cost-effective online services that are designed around the user’s needs.”

“At the moment the government provides more than 650 transactional services serving about 1 billion users per year – but there are only a handful where a large majority of people who could use the online option do so. Half don’t offer a digital option at all – and apart from a handful of services, if there is a digital option few people use it because it’s not sufficiently fast or convenient.”

It is good to hear government driving for improvement, but the reality is that many departments and especially regional bodies still remain way adrift of private sector expectations for automation, especially within the finance functions. During 2012, ReadSoft carried out its own in depth research of the state of the nation, by benchmarking finance automation in regional government. We did this because there is real value to be gained in the face of ongoing government cuts, which are expected to bite even deeper by this April.

Single tier and county councils (STCC) and district councils (DC) are trying to protect priority services, but with support to STCCs falling by 12 % and to DCs by 16% in real terms, councils are left with three main ways to balance their budgets: by increasing council taxes, charges and fees; using reserves; or critically by reducing spending which is where automation can make such a difference, from improved FORMS and DOCUMENTS management to rationalising the processes around INVOICES and payments.

When we compared local government to the standard benchmarks for enterprise performance 92.6% of all STCCs and DCs in the UK failed to achieve the current benchmark expected of a top performing organisation. This indicates that there is a considerable opportunity to improve efficiency and save money against service cuts within the local community.

The result of this poor digital adoption was that local government was spending an extra £2.61 per processed invoice above the expected benchmark. Efficiency drives would be expected to reduce the cost per invoice to a level sub £0.79, but only 7.4% of local authorities were achieving this level of cost efficiency. With each authority averaging 75,779 invoices per annum, we believe every authority could, on average, save £200,000 every year by automating invoices processes alone. That is £80m right there which could be immediately recovered, before we consider the opportunities from increased efficiency, and improved controls. Consider this, back office automation collates and processes the real-time strategic, operational and financial information necessary for informed decision making to keep departments business agile.

ReadSoft’s research tells us that government authorities struggle to understand how processes perform, and that has wide implications for service delivery. Francis Maude’s comments are encouraging, but to achieve its aims, government needs to be actively making changes now. The cited 650 transactional services seems a lot at first glance, but most private large scale BPOs are operating with many thousands of automated services and applications which can be rapidly rolled out on demand. Government needs to adjust the scale by which it benchmarks itself if it is to realistically achieve the levels of digital transformation within given timeframes.

 

It’s a Kodak moment today at the Oracle User Group Conference #ukoug2012

The 2012 Oracle User Group Conference is proving to be a roaring success, visitor numbers are up, and with ReadSoft being the only Accounts Payable (AP) automation specialists exhibiting at the conference, stand #28 has proven to be a hive of activity. Today our partner Kodak joins us to demonstrate how using high quality scanning and our automation software can advance financial processes.

Deploying advanced scanning systems and automating invoice processing removes cost and increases efficiency in the payables process. The aim is to replace the costly, time consuming, error laden manual management of tasks within the processing lifecycle during Invoice Registration, Reconciliation, Approval, Payment, Filing and Retrieval. This efficiency is largely borne through removal of paper from the process and enabling digital documents and workflow within Oracle R12.

Whether controlling workflow for invoices entering Oracle E-Business Suite with ReadSoft INVOICEIT, or seeking a solution for complete document processing automationwith PROCESSIT, ReadSoft’s consultants are on hand today and tomorrow to discuss the necessary steps for automating and fully integrating accounts payable processes in R11i and R12 Oracle installations

The 2012 UKOUG Conference continues today and tomorrow the ICC Birmingham.