enabling accounts payable departments to add value and reduce cost using oracle webcenter imaging
TRANSCRIPT
Enabling Accounts Payable departments to add value and reduce cost using Oracle
WebCenter Imaging
Session 11411
Brad Storts and Jay Canupp
Axia Consulting
AXIA Consulting LLC www.axiaconsulting.netAXIA Consulting is a premier consulting firm that provides technology and business consulting services to local middle-market and Fortune 500 companies as well as government agencies. Focused on real, business oriented results, AXIA consistently delivers tremendous value by accomplishing projects on-time and on-budget while achieving our client’s strategic, operational, and technology objectives.
Brad Storts [email protected] Brad has 20 years of experience in technical and application implementation and managing ongoing operations. He has lead technical projects including creating a disaster recovery solution, re-architecting an enterprise storage environment, and upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7. He has also managed application projects such as implementing Oracle’s Governance, Risk, and Compliance software suite and Oracle’s WebCenter Imaging. He has helped build project management office capabilities, successfully leading efforts to build processes to centrally manage IT projects and heading up several software and RFP selections and project cost/benefit estimates.
Jay Canupp [email protected] Jay is an accomplished senior consultant with over fourteen years experience serving in various roles on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) teams and Business Intelligence projects within the Utilities, Software, Manufacturing, Insurance, and Public Sector industries. He has experience with Oracle Purchasing, Financials, Inventory and Human Resources. He is a strong functional analyst with deep technical skills allowing him to quickly resolve elusive application issues for himself and his team members. Jay is an experienced business process analyst in supply chain management as well the accounting processes with deep experience in international implementations. He is also a PMP certified project manager. Jay has also lead multiple enterprise reporting projects using a variety of tools such as OBIEE, Discoverer, FSG and Business Intelligence Publisher.
AbstractOracle WebCenter Imaging includes complete document lifecycle support. This presentation will review the business problems this technology solves, the technical requirements and functional capabilities of Oracle WebCenter Imaging, and some tips and tricks on implementation. This presentation is based on a recent implementation at a Midwest utility that processes 7,000 invoices per month.
ObjectivesObjective 1: Provide an overview of WebCenter Imaging functionality.Objective 2: Discuss the business value in capturing documents, workflow routing, and automating data entry.Objective 3: Provide high level information on implementing WebCenter Imaging.Objective 4: Answer any questions on WebCenter Imaging implementation and support.
High Level Agenda• Review Accounts Payables invoice processing• Discuss Oracle WebCenter Imaging components• Lessons learned / best practice for Oracle WebCenter Imaging implementations
http://www.oracle.com/us/legal/index.html
Manually keying invoices Invoices read using optical character recognition, supplier lookup is automated
Invoice lost in the approval process Invoices routed through a workflow, with daily email reminders for approval as well as reporting on invoices taking longer than normal
Documentation that invoice was approved
Invoice approval stored as well as comments and workflow tracing
Pulling invoices after processing Invoice images are stored electronically, attached as a link to the Oracle E-business suite record, with searching capabilities on invoice images
Invoices processed increases yet AP departments cannot add staff
Invoice processing becomes more automated, speeding entry
Oracle WebCenter Imaging provides a solution to many AP challenges:
Oracle Document Capture• scans the image• fixes the image (delete unneeded pages, rotate pages, crop,
etc.)• Allows for indexing (basic information about the document)
Oracle Forms Recognition• Reads the invoice and attempts to automatically gather
information• Invoice #, date, purchase order, vendor, individual lines• Creates a payload to write to EBS open interface table• Creates a payload to write to BPM
ABC Industries
ABC Industries
Oracle Forms Recognition• Vendor Search: Can search on company name, any part of
company address, internal and external vendor ids• Purchase Order: can look up order information using the purchase
order• Can read and populate information about each invoice line• Can run in learning mode to increase chances an invoice is read
properly
Imaging and Process Management• stores images and allows for searching, printing,
downloading• Content Management functions
Oracle BPM Worklist• Routes the invoices for approval• Allows AP clerks to organize work
Oracle EBS• Invoices are automatically entered into AP from the
oracle AP interface tables• Invoice image is attached to the invoice header record• Invoice tracing is attached to the invoice header record
Oracle Business Activity Monitor• reporting tool for BPM Worklist
Implementation• Requirements
o What documents to send through this process?o What should the workflow be?o For your highest volume suppliers, consider using batch
processes (ERS, AP Open interface table loads)o Don’t spend too much time working on requirements
without first standing up the solution – you need to understand the out of the box configuration and see it first hand
Scanners• Scanning station
o Took an image of one station for backup / redeploymento Maintenance kito Dedicated scanning station (faster and cleaner than
multifunction device)o Xerox Documate 262i scanner work well as an example
Oracle Document Capture• Foxit PDF Reader over Adobe
o Reads PDF’s fastero Less intrusive software update processo Less likely to “freeze”
• ODC cannot read excel spreadsheets that are password protected
• Embedded graphics in the signature of an email (image001.gif)
• Embedded emails (outlook icon)• Reroute exceptions to an exceptions mailbox • Monitor the log for errors:
Oracle Forms Recognition• Sends invoices to the IPM_VALIDATION supplier
if it can’t find the true supplier• Consolidate lines to a single invoice line• Pass network id and tie to an Oracle id• Add Vendor Id, Vendor Site, and Org ID to
vendor list• Require Org ID / Company Code – if a purchase
order is entered on the wrong company it must be deleted and re-entered
• Remote application publishing for running OFR from a server (ran OFR verifier stations from a virtual server, used an MSI package to run from the user’s desktop)
• AXF import – may need to adjust the Oracle instructions for permissions to the AXF objects
BPM Worklist• Purge and the SOA INFRA table; also monitor this
table for growth to eliminate a table space error• Occasionally will need to restart a workflow• Initial problems mailing to a large list• Initial issues with displaying many lines of history • Firefox to read long comments (IE limits pop up)
Oracle E-Business Suite• Created a default hold code to force approval• Default the customer registration number, notify on OFR
rejections• IPM holds – default does not allowing accounting, suggest
you check to allow accounting• IPM_Validation default supplier: for each supplier site, set up
the supplier site as ‘PAYEE’ under payment details
Testing• Pull lots of different kinds of invoices: service v material, po’s
with releases, different orgs, pre-approved v approval required, debit credit memo’s, different suppliers, overmatched po’s, invoices without a po
• After loading invoices through OFR, use SQL to pull invoice headers and details lines and compare to invoices entered manually on a field by field basis
• Run invoices through the entire process (pay invoices, create accounting entries, see projects updates, close the AP month)
Business Process• Vendor invoice formatting makes a big deal• Put a purchase order on the invoice (a correct one)• Keep invoices “clean”
ABC Industries
ABC Industries
ABC Industries
Business Process (Continued)• Process Improvements are key• Train approvers to respond quickly to get discounts• Approval process may not follow the rules• Look for opportunities in improving the process, not just
installing software• You may need to clean up some vendor setup for purchasing
and pay sites; manually you select the vendor pay site but with OFR it can be automatically pulled from the purchase order – which might have the wrong pay site if it is attached to the correct purchasing site
Important Metrics• When using OFR we achieved a hit rate of 80% on “clean”
invoices. Hit rate greatly depends on the invoice format.• Invoice data entry time can be cut by more than half but not
for all suppliers. Some invoices may be better suited for “key from image”. For example may professional services invoices can include detail that is difficult for OFR to handle.
• Overall invoice cycle time were reduced by as much as 40% (some suppliers). Bottlenecks are more visible to supervisors and managers allowing them to take action before an invoice discount is lost or an invoice goes past due.
Architecture
Oracle EBS• Remember to purge the open interface table
Questions? Comments?
