To compete, managers at all levels are acutely aware that they must make smarter decisions and quickly take action. However, many lack the insight they need to make key decisions and are depending on hope that they have made the right ones. But as we know, hope is not a strategy. The statistics below were taken from a recent survey conducted by Accenture:

• 42% of managers use wrong information at least once a week
• 59% of managers miss information they should have used
• 47% of users don’t have confidence in their information

It’s not that they lack the data, but rather they lack the means to derive meaningful information when it’s needed—the right information at the right time in the right place. All areas of business are affected. There is also a need to further analyze this information to uncover new opportunities to grow revenue and reduce costs. Solutions are available to provide this information both for the business process itself and from business intelligence (BI) solutions with vast reporting capabilities, but implementing these solutions alone is only part of the answer.  To quickly take action on opportunities, these solutions must provide real-time information at-a-glance—easily and quickly.

What’s risk? Wikipedia defines risk as ‘the expected value of one or more results of one or more future events’. Technically, the value of those results may be positive or negative; general usage tends to focus only on potential harm that may arise from a future event, which may accrue either from incurring a cost or by failing to attain some benefit.

One of the 5 Key risks identified in 2009 by the Institue of Internal auditors Research Foundation was cost/expense reduction and containment risks. Identified in this area are the presence of weaker controls, lack of control oversight and lack of segration of duty controls. Specifics include not having real-time visibility to information upon which decisions are made. This is especially true when it comes to financial process such as accounts payable and accounts receivable, order management, and the supply chain. ERP solutons such as SAP  help to mitigate this risk. Add on solutions that enhance and provide visibility into processes go even farther in removing risk factors.

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 white paper.

Dolphin and Brainware Deliver SAP® Invoice Automation Solution
to Global Manufacturer

Accounts Payable Solution Allows Users to Capture, Process, View and Analyze Invoice Information

WEST CHESTER, Pa and ASHBURN, Va. (February 25, 2010) — Dolphin, a top provider of business process optimization and information lifecycle management for customers using SAP solutions, and Brainware, Inc., a leading provider of intelligent data capture and enterprise search solutions, have announced a collaboration on an accounts payable automation solution for an international manufacturing company running SAP.  The solution will automate the processing of several hundred thousand invoices per year for the customer’s European Operations.  Dolphin will provide the customer with its unique SAP-certified invoice ingestion and process tracking platform along with implementation and ongoing support services.   

The customer, who has worked with Dolphin on other solutions, partnered with Dolphin and Brainware to implement imaging, invoice processing, workflow and analytics for its shared service centers. The data capture solution from Brainware will be a critical part of the project. The customer expects data entry automation to allow them to process invoices faster and more accurately and to generate a quick return on investment by enabling its shared service centers to become more profitable.

Dolphin will seamlessly integrate Brainware Distiller with its SAP-certified Process Tracking System for Accounts Payable (PTS-AP), which resides within the SAP application. Under a multi-year agreement, the customer will leverage Brainware’s intelligent data capture solution to automatically extract and validate complex header and line-item data from invoices, which complements Dolphin’s PTS-AP and the customer’s workflow process.

“Dolphin began this partnership with Brainware because of the natural synergies between the two organizations,” said Art Smithson, Director of Imaging Applications at Dolphin. “Our respective solutions allow organizations to quickly recognize the benefits of business process automation, and in this case, invoice processing. This end-to-end solution from Dolphin and Brainware will help organizations increase profitability by reducing costs and uncovering cash that was hidden in accounts payable.”

The Order-to-Cash process is at the heart of your business. And yet, it is often surprisingly inefficient and difficult to track. Even the smallest error can make the process inefficient, quickly draining available capital and resources. Automating O2C processes and linking documents improves cash availability by decreasing the number of touch points at each step of the cycle.

This is the kind of thing Dolphin does best—find smart solutions to take the time and cost out of critical processes like order to cash, accounts payable and ILM for SAP customers. We’ve put together a recorded webinar that highlights opportunities to increase cash flow, reduce costs and gain control over the Order-to-Cash process.

Download our Order to Cash solution summary here.

What does this mean….  we give you our solution, your way?  Business processes are inherent in any business and each business has adapted what they do to their own needs and their internal culture. Because of that, it is often difficult to find third party out of the box software solutions that ‘drop in’ actually do what they advertise. Nothing really mirrors your environment exactly. So what about customization? A tweak here and there and you’re good to go.

This can be good and or not so good depending on what needs to be done and how it is implemented.  And, what is a minor tweak to one may be a major ‘back to the drawing boards’ to another. The majority of the time, technology solutions integrate to other technology solutions so there are many other areas to consider as well. This is particularly true when adding enhancements to ERP systems. How easy is the integration? What is the impact of upgrades, decommissionings or merely ordinary changes on one solution when administered to another? How well does the solution provider know the other software?

Integrating solutions to meet complex customer needs characterizes our customized approach to delivering effective solutions to our customers who are running SAP applications. Dolphin has long realized that every common business process or function is slightly different depending on the organization.  For that reason, our solutions are ‘smart’ – modular in concept and flexible enough to adapt to any environment.  Our delivery approach is the same – and it’s a team effort with our customer.  The more facets of complexity, the better, so bring it on.