by Jim Mandt, VP of Tech. Services, Metafile Info. Systems
The ultimate success of any manufacturing organization’s accounting department is rooted in its ability to make timely payments for what’s needed to run the business, while also receiving timely payments for its goods and services.
While the premise of success in accounting is simple, thousands of transactions taking place locally, nationally and globally can make that success seem harder to reach. Technology can help bring order to a sometimes chaotic accounting environment, but only when it’s applied to accounts receivable (AR) and accounts payable (AP) processes that are efficient and promote visibility – and even integrate with the organization’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.
Beyond evaluating accounting processes, manufacturers must ask the important questions of AP and AR technology providers. Rather than focusing on features and functionality in each solution, it’s up to decision makers to determine technology providers’ capacity and willingness to move beyond simply selling a solution to becoming a trusted advisor as your organization – and its ecosystem of customers, suppliers and partners – evolves and grows.
Effectively evaluating an AP and AR technology provider means much more than taking a look at the provider’s solutions. Your vendor must do more than take the paper out of the process, and work to adapt its solutions to fit the unique aspects of your operating environment, suppliers and customers. It’s also crucial to independently weigh your provider’s commitment to service after the sale and making sure the provider’s solutions grow as your manufacturing organization grows.
Having implemented AP and AR document management and workflow technology for more than 20 years, I’ve seen far too many manufacturing organizations fall victim to bells and whistles of individual technology solutions and miss opportunities to ask the “big picture” questions – like how well a product integrates with the organization’s ERP solution – that help manufacturers extract maximum long-term value from their AP and AR technology investments.
Here are five simple yet critical questions every manufacturing organization should ask prospective AP and AR technology providers:
- PROCESS: How in-depth will your evaluation of my organization’s accounting process be before implementation of AP and AR document management technology? Your accounting process must be evaluated to uncover and address process issues before technology is implemented. The outcome of the evaluation process should help ensure your organization is equipped to extract maximum value from your AP and AR technology investment.
- CUSTOMIZATION: How will your solution adapt to my organization’s unique operating environment and customer and supplier ecosystems? It may surprise you to learn that“intelligent”technology is available that can be customized to the format and manner in which individual suppliers prefer to receive and act upon information. A technology provider’s ability to customize its solution not only supports lasting efficiency, but also keeps stakeholders happy and willing to engage in an automated AP and AR environment.
- WORKFLOW CAPABILITIES: How will your solution move my organization beyond eliminating paper to addressing the workflow behind it? Eliminating paper is only one piece of a larger puzzle that, when put together, can unlock true AP/AR technology value. Your technology partner should offer solutions that address the workflow behind the paper, and offer insight into how efficient your AP and AR operations really are.
- ERP INTEGRATION: How will your technology integrate with my ERP solution to boost my organization’s return on investment? The technology partner you select should be equipped to empower the organization’s AP and AR departments to become ERP heroes to decision-makers in the executive suite. For example, technology can enable full-text search and sharing of AP and AR information throughout both the AP/AR and ERP solution. Simply put, information that is keyed in only once creates great potential for savings.
- SERVICE AND SUPPORT: How will you ensure your solution continues to deliver value long after the sale? Will your technology provider only satisfy today’s problems or scale to meet tomorrow’s challenges as well? It’s no surprise that the latter leads to greater long term AP/AR technology value.
AP and AR document management technology investment is no small matter. All manufacturers owe it to themselves and their suppliers to ask these and other tough questions to make sure their choice reflects an overarching commitment to true automation across the accounting spectrum to ensure lasting organizational growth and value.
Jim Mandt is vice president of technical services with Metafile Information Systems, a leading provider of paperless accounts payable and accounts receivable document management technology. For more, visit www.metaviewer.com or call (800) 638-2445.
