We attended a presentation last week at SAPinsider Financials 2010 given by Monte Nuckols, supply chain vice president at Johnson Controls Automotive, an $18B JCI business unit. They implemented Dolphin’s accounts payable solution suite to automate, and then optimize, their two shared services centers that service the unit’s 180 plants globally.

 They process 2,500,000 invoices per year, most of which are more than 5 pages with 100 items per page. Before they automated invoice processing, it took hundreds of people just to enter the data. Nuckols said that he had little or no visibility into what was going on with the approval and payment process until the invoices were posted. Some of the results he mentioned were: 

• Lower invoice-processing costs
• Shorter process cycle time down from 10 to 7 days
• Fewer late payments
• Less time responding to inquiries
• Savings totaling millions of dollars

The invoice to pay automation project earned The Chairman’s Award, which is the highest company-wide recognition for Johnson Controls employees.

Glad we were there.

Interesting article this month in Financial Executives magazine on “Whatever Happened to the Paperless Society?”  Predicted in 1978, we clearly are not there, yet the case for going paperless offers a long list of benefits most of which will result in cost savings as well.  It’s a moving target and it is moving forward.  Chaz Miller, director of state programs for the Environmental Industry Associations in DC, wrote that it is doubtful that society will ever become paperless “…but a less-paper society is inevitable”.  Automating paper-intensive operations is a core part of business today and the benefits of improving performance and reducing costs go hand-in-hand with a company’s green initiative.

Expect the Accounts Payable process to run lean and green.  It should diagnose bottlenecks in seconds, generate minimal waste, and keep vendors and partners happy with fast inquiry response and timely payments.   Dolphin makes lean-and-green a reality with an SAP-certified combination of technology, best practices, and expertise.  Get the whitepaper.

Dolphin Will Present Case Studies, Strategies and Proven Solutions for Accounts Payable, Cash Flow Optimization and Legacy Decommissioning

WEST CHESTER (March 11, 2010) – Dolphin experts and customers will show Financials 2010 attendees smart best practices, in-depth case studies and expert strategies for taking the time and cost out of accounts payable, accounts receivable and legacy systems migration. 

Financials 2010, March 16-19 in Orlando, offers case studies, strategies and education for teams that use, evaluate, deploy, and support SAP® solutions for financial management.  Learn about Dolphin’s solutions platform and talk to experts at booth #545.

Dolphin experts and customers will speak at the following sessions:

Key tips and techniques to optimize cash flow and working capital in SAP ERP Financials

Brian Shannon, Director of Business Process Automation, Dolphin

Wednesday, March 17, 4:00 pm – 5:15 pm
Business process optimization expert Brian Shannon uses real-world examples to illustrate how to automate and streamline organizations’ accounts payable and accounts receivable processes to optimize cash flow. The approach leverages standard SAP functionality, such as SAP Business Workflow and the SAP Content Server, to support organizations’ working capital needs. 

Shannon delivers proven tips to streamline the Accounts Payable process, reform Accounts Receivable cash bottlenecks, forecast cash flow and early pay discount opportunities, and improve the overall transparency and analytical capabilities of both of these critical working capital process components. In addition he discusses how to integrate existing Order-to-Cash or Procure-to-Pay processes and components seamlessly and will help attendees understand third-party solutions, such as e-Invoicing, OCR, Process Tracking Dashboard, Document Navigation, and Analytics that can help deliver automation and transparency to improve cash flow.

Bringing Home Accounts Payable to Gain Control of the Process

Dolphin customer with more than 150 plants worldwide.

Thursday, March 18, 11:45 am – 1:00 pm

Find out how this manufacturer tackled issues surrounding their outsourced accounts payable program by bringing these processes back in-house. Understand what deficiencies and gaps the current outsourced accounts payable and reporting solution created and how they developed an in-house process to resolve such issues. Hear firsthand details of the process they now use to address invoice receipt, workflow initiation, approvals and exceptions, posting, payments, and analytics.

Best practices for consolidating and retiring legacy systems without compromising access to important financial data and documents

Thomas Langner,  Product Manager-ILM Suite, Dolphin

Thursday, March 18, 11:45 am – 1:00 pm

Not all legacy environments are created equal. Dolphin’s Langner uses real-world examples to spotlight the tools and options available for system consolidation and legacy decommissioning, focusing on how to retain and manage critical historical financial data and documents while gaining significant cost savings by retiring and migrating data from multiple legacy systems to a single SAP global archive server. 

Attendees can visit Dolphin at booth #545 to learn about the Dolphin platform and talk with experts on business process optimization, information lifecycle management and legacy decommissioning.