Merry Christmas!

 

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Birmingham bound: ReadSoft heads to the 2012 Oracle User Group Conference

Designed specifically for Oracle users, leaders, and management, the 2012 UKOUG Conference taking place at the ICC Birmingham from, 3rd – 5th December, offers great networking opportunities and an easy way todiscover the latest innovations and learn from leading experts who can help a business make the most of its Oracle investment.

This will be the UK’s largest Independent Oracle user event – watch a short video here of last year’s event thousands of professionals are expected to discover cost-effective solutions and explore and understand new technologies, such as Fusion, Oracle’s  comprehensive family of integrated products for creating, running, and managing agile and intelligent business applications.

UKOUG 2012 offers attendees learning opportunities designed to give Oracle using professionals and those that serve the industry, the tools to succeed in the future.

ReadSoft, will be the only Accounts Payable (AP) automation specialists exhibiting at the conference, so feel free to arrange an informal consultation on the latest accounts payable processes. Whether controlling workflow for invoices entering your Oracle E-Business Suite with INVOICEIT, or seeking a solution for complete document processing automationwith PROCESSIT, ReadSoft’s consultants will walk visitors through the necessary steps for automating and fully integrating accounts payable processes R11i and R12 Oracle installations

For businesses looking make more informed purchasing decisions, seeking to increase existing investment in Oracle, or reducing CAPEX then there will be extra advice as to which solutions are ideal for deploying in the in the cloud and the business advantages which can be gained.

ReadSoft will be exhibiting on stand #28, so please feel free to take advantage of this opportunity to consult with us and discover how to reduce invoice processing costs. To register, and to view the full conference agenda visit here.

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Last chance register to demystify Oracle R12

Many organisations are either planning for, or have already taken the step forward to operate on Oracle Applications Release 12. Geared towards enhanced support for shared services, increased operational efficiency and flexibility, faster and simpler period end processing and simplified reporting, R12 boasts more than 2,300 new features over Oracle 11i. There are more than 300 in Oracle Financials alone.  For this reason alone it is easy to see why upgrading to R12 has developed a reputation for being challenging – even for the most on the ball administrators.

Within accounts payable, by automating invoice input and approval in Oracle E-Business Suite, there is huge potential for speeding up invoice processing and achieving better control over financial flow. ReadSoft’s automated invoice processing solution PROCESSIT is focused on improving the R12 automation function and giving improved visibility and control of that function.

The automation of invoice processing removes cost and increases efficiency in the payables process – it aims 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 which is 100% integrated within Oracle R12.

Fully validated by Oracle, PROCESSIT is “ready-to-use” and will be familiar to users working in the Oracle environment.  Organisations can be up and running with R12, taking advantage of the new capabilities without staff having to learn a new system or being concerned over upgrades to the software. But for an upgrade to be successful means delivering on time, on budget and within your ‘downtime window’.

For organisations interested in moving to R12, or getting more from their Oracle investment, ReadSoft will be hosting a live workshop combining demonstrations, group discussions and presentations which will help in the evaluation and planning for a re-implementation or upgrade to R12.

Taking place in Covent Garden, London, 31st January 2013, the workshop will take attendees through the key functional and business benefits of R12, and how ReadSoft can help support the implementation of automated purchase-to-pay.  

To attend the workshop, register here.

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The challenge of managing AP when companies merge – Energizer Holdings

 

Energizer has been trading for more than a century, best known for battery and charger products; the company is actually made up of 30 established consumer brands the world over, from Schick® and Wilkinson Sword® shaving systems to Banana Boat® sunscreens. Today Energizer Holdings has operations in 50 countries and distribution in more than 160 countries.

The company prides itself on innovation to simplify and enhance the lives of customers, yet its inefficient accounts payable (AP) system was failing to meet the company’s own high standards, which could affect its supply chain and customer relations.

Whilst Energizer had been scanning invoices since 2003, the processes remained highly inefficient due to a need to send out approvals and then retrieve them by email. The AP department, operating with seven full time equivalents (FTE) and one temp were dealing with 40,000 invoices, yet were still required to manually key a lot of the data. This in turn required the audit of 100% of these invoices which proved to be a very inefficient use of time. This drove awareness within the company to the need for invoice automation.

When considering invoice automation, return on investment (ROI) was a key element in the decision process. Energizer needed to show to its board that an ROI within 12 months or less was attainable. When the company acquired Playtex the scale of the issue and the possible ROI which could be attained became a tipping point. The decision to adopt  ReadSoft to unify the AP from Playtex and three battery facilities into the one department based in St Louis, Missouri, USA, proved successful, with Energizer able to easily surpass ROI within the given timeframe.

The incorporation of Playtex brought a number challenges including archaic systems and a need to bring the business onto both SAP and ReadSoft. In fact, Energizer operates processes out of two separate SAP systems: one household products division which includes the battery and charger business; and one for personal care brands which was to include Playtex alongside Schick, Hawaiian Tropic, Wilkinson Sword and others. Invoices would be processed in SAP for both divisions, so Energizer implemented two ReadSoft invoice COCKPITs one in each SAP ‘box’, with one feeding into the other where all payments could then be made.

This process of merging companies meant the St Louis AP department was suddenly tasked with absorbing an additional 70,000 invoices, but with ReadSoft in place the team needed to add just one more FTE. Where the staff would have been tasked with incredibly repetitious, cumbersome and boring data entry, ReadSoft removed the manual punching in, automatically populating the system with the required data. The result has been a staff transformation, from ‘invoice processors’ to more analytical positions where staff are resolving issues and letting the system do the heavy lifting.

“Upper management was very happy with results that automation brought to the AP area of the business,” says Mark Franz, Energizer Battery. With the success of the St Louis installation, Energizer is now investigating further opportunities to deploy ReadSoft in to local facilities around the globe including here in the UK.

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Manage invoicing with record to report

Cost reduction is an overarching theme of business in recent years, and there are many tools in the market that have helped organisations become leaner and more cost effective. Operational feedback on how a business is performing is important if a company is to keep ‘on track’, otherwise managers will find themselves repeating cost cutting exercises, reducing headcount and weakening as opposed to strengthening a business for future growth.

Good management processes require real-time information to align the strategic with the financial and operational, and in every case early intervention is necessary to keep a business agile.

Record to Report (R2R) is a management process whereby strategic, operational and financial feedback can be collated in order to better understand how an organisation is performing. R2R relies on the input of current and historic data from internal systems, for the finance function within accounts payable (AP), this means capturing invoice documents into the system. With data extracted from the transactional system, it becomes possible to transform it into meaningful strategic, operational and financial performance information and thus indicators that help create a framework for ‘strategy to success.’ If a finance department is regularly struggling to meet period end consolidations, and demanding additional staff to manage accounts receivables, then there is a clear opportunity to improve R2R.

The R2R process delivers two main functions: it provides the necessary feedback and performance indicators to measure the cost of management. Typical opportunities for R2R within AP are to clarify the finance function and to gain control of invoice flow. As all parts of the invoice-handling process are monitored in real time it is simple to review a system to see if it is operating up to its capacity. This helps pinpoint the origin of any problems that have occurred, and provides instant access to detailed information for tracking issues as they develop.

The other key area of opportunity revolves around the many issues of audit and compliance. R2R helps keep stakeholders and external bodies satisfied with the level of both financial and non-financial disclosures, and the manner in which filings are made to regulatory bodies. R2R is one of the only processes scrutinised by outside auditors, so R2R tools provide vital information to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Deploying R2R within the workflow process of any finance function within an organisation is simple common sense. It is going to help an organisation to keep track of documents, give the finance team control of all payments and quickly spot bottlenecks within invoice processing, improving efficiency and controlling costs.

Because R2R provides accurate real-time information, it becomes a truly powerful tool for delivering positive strategic business decisions. If an organisation is to succeed within its business environment, R2R needs to become the backbone of integrated reporting strategy.

ReadSoft Webinar – ReadSoft moves with Oracle Fusion

On the 13th September at 10:00 am (GMT) ReadSoft UK will be hosting a Webinar on the latest release of it’s P2P Automation solution PROCESSIT. Guest speaker Peter Loughlin from Purchasing Insight will also be presenting on “Understanding The Mix”.

Click here to read further & register now!

This will be the first of three webinars focusing around the R12 and Fusion story. The second Webinar will be focused on the technical aspects of the solution with the 3rd focusing on the commercial benefits including ROI and Hackett Independant Benchmarks.

But that’s not all!

ReadSoft’s current and future releases of PROCESSIT, for automated Accounts Payable, is developed using Oracle’s SOA Middleware Suite which ensures it is totally integrated with Oracle’s E-Business Suite and guarantees that the ReadSoft products are further future proofed, and align with Oracle’s product strategy. The PROCESSIT product from ReadSoft comes complete with all the necessary Oracle components, flexible workflows and licences, this means it is a straightforward process to set up and start delivering the substantial benefits that are achievable from touch-less automation.

ReadSoft Webinar – How to maximise SAP automation to enhance P2P, master data and O2C processes – 15th September at 15:00 (GMT)

On the 15th September at 15:00 GMT we will be presenting a Webinar on “How to maximise SAP Automation to enhance P2P, master data and O2C processes”. Guest speaker Peter Loughlin from Purchasing Insight will also be presenting on the benefits of ‘The Mix’ which encompasses the values of both electronic and paper based automation.

Click here to read further & register now!

This will be the introduction Webinar for a series of presentations which will drill down into P2P, master data & O2C, R2R.

Session 1 – 15th September 2011 15:00 GMT:

As a Director or Manager, running your document or request driven processes off SAP, you will be very familiar with limitations that can impact daily activities.

Processes like purchase to pay, order to cash and master-data management rely heavily on the set up and functionality of SAP. Issues such as fragmented communications with subsidiaries, suppliers, customers and internal functions, or poor visibility and auditability of your process management can lead to a department under delivering.

In this fascinating webinar, you will learn from ReadSoft’s experience as we explain how you can automate the bulk of your processes and transactions, lower costs and significantly increase visability of your audit trail.

How to maximise SAP automation to enhance P2P, master data and O2C processes

As a shared services director or manager running your shared services operation off SAP, you will be very familiar with limitations that can impact daily activities. Processes like purchase to pay, order to cash and master-data management rely heavily on the set up and functionality of SAP. Issues such as fragmented communications with subsidiaries, suppliers, customers and internal functions, or poor visibility and auditability of your process management can lead to a shared service under delivering.

There is a fascinating webinar, hosted by sharedserviceslink.com where you will learn from ReadSoft’s experiences as it explains how you can automate the bulk of your shared-services processes and transactions, lower costs and significantly reduce genuine exceptions.