Challenge
ASSA ABLOY’s accounts payable (AP) process was slowed by a lack of integration between Oracle Imaging and Process Management (Oracle I/PM) and JD Edwards EnterpriseOne (JDE). Staff had to manually enter invoice data and separately scan and attach supporting documents.
As the company acquired businesses and brought them into JDE, this disconnected process became harder to scale. Oracle I/PM’s planned retirement made replacement urgent, but ASSA ABLOY wanted more than a system with similar capabilities. It needed an automated AP solution that worked within JDE and could support a consistent process across its growing portfolio of companies
“We would not have been able to improve our productivity with our old resources and it would not be possible without the Bottomline solution. At the end of the day, we made a very good choice.”
– Dan Relihan, Director of Enterprise Applications and leader of Business Intelligence
The Solution
ASSA ABLOY selected Transform AP for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne to bring invoice capture and processing into its ERP. Optical character recognition (OCR) captured and validated invoice data, while invoice images and supporting documents remained linked to the appropriate transactions.
AP users were able to manage invoices within familiar JD Edwards screens instead of switching between disconnected applications. This created an easier-to-adopt, repeatable workflow that supported ASSA ABLOY’s growing volumes and could easily extend across every company in the brand’s portfolio.
The Results
With Transform AP, ASSA ABLOY no longer has to rely on cumbersome manual processes. Invoices are now automatically entered into JD Edwards after scanning and remote workers can easily access an image to review invoice information. “The solution posed no technical challenges to implementation, and proved to be an easy to install, user-friendly system that simplifies the entire invoice process,” said Relihan.
Transform AP allows the team to easily collate and access all accountrelated documents through the system. These are uploaded during the coding and approval stage and are easy to attach in the system, so staff members no longer have to spend time searching for and attaching documents individually. The “paper clip” attachment feature helps reduce confusion, ambiguity and questions about charges and prints copies of invoices to support charges.
Transform AP was configured so ASSA ABLOY could benefit from an easy-to-use system that improved productivity. In addition to the easy implementation and transition, the Bottomline support team continues to collaborate with the accounting team to quickly resolve issues if they arise and helping whenever necessary.
In fact, the solution is so effective that ASSA ABLOY eventually plans to implement Transform AP in at least 30 to 40 of its group companies, expecting similar improvements to productivity and workflow.
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