University of West London sets the standard for invoice automation with Proactis

Profile

Sector:
Education

No. of students:
12,000+

No. of invoices:
10,000+ p/a

No. of POs:
5,000+ p/a

Operates in:
United Kingdom

Customer since:
2010

Objectives

  • Implement a more efficient and effective invoice process.
  • Meet increasing demands for greater transparency and value for money.
  • More accurate management information.

How Proactis helped

  • Accounts Payable automation now achieved by a single integrated managed service solution.
  • Fully automated receipt and payment of paper and pdf invoices.

Benefits

  • Increased visibility of spend and improved PO compliance.
  • Accounts Payable staff now free to concentrate on more value add tasks.
The more we meet other Universities, the more we realise how ahead we are. Our aim is to have a seamless P2P journey and Proactis will help us deliver this.

Head of Procurement, University of West London
 

Profile

The University of West London is the top modern university in London for employment of graduates, with over 900 staff and more than 12,000 students at sites in London and Reading.

The University has a Value for Money Strategy, to support staff to secure and measure efficiency and effectiveness in all business areas. Procurement around the University is currently decentralised, devolved across individual departments.
University of West London sets the standard for invoice automation with Proactis

Objectives

The institution was looking to streamline its purchasing and invoicing processes, to drive extra value and improve efficiency.

The small Accounts Payable (AP) team, made up of three people, was having to manually manage and process over 10,000 invoices a year, this was both time- and resource-intensive.

The University already used Proactis marketplace functionality so took the option to use the Proactis Invoice Capture Managed Service to automate receipt and payment of paper and pdf invoices.
Implement a more efficient and effective invoice process.

How Proactis helped

Proactis marketplace currently provides the University with a platform to host all supplier catalogues and punch-outs as required. Over 5,000 orders are placed annually through Proactis. The Proactis Invoice Capture Managed Service extends this functionality and ensures that existing and potential invoice volumes can be handled, without the need to add headcount.

Working with Proactis, the time spent manually entering purchase invoices and the associated inefficiencies with invoice exceptions and working with paper have been removed. Through the introduction of document scanning and the import of PDF invoices, purchase invoices could be scanned with the information “intelligently” extracted and automatically validated.

Invoices now come in, are scanned and automatically attached to the relevant purchase order. Alerts are then sent so that goods can be receipted and invoices can be paid.
Accounts Payable automation now achieved by a single integrated managed service solution.

Benefits

Accounts Payable automation has been achieved with the single integrated managed service solution - Proactis Marketplace and Invoice Capture. The rapid improvements in efficiency have seen the University achieve tangible benefits from the automation of the AP process. The costs to process the invoices have reduced drastically, resulting in very high levels of process efficiency.

At the same time, working with electronic images has ensured greater control and increased transparency. The purchase invoices can now be viewed at the click of a button from within Proactis.

Invoice Capture as a managed services is an extension of the University’s AP team. This not only helps with workload and managing resources, but frees up staff to concentrate on more value add tasks. The whole process is much leaner and the seamless payment of supplier invoices means improved supplier relationships.
Increased visibility of spend and improved PO compliance.
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