Javelin Solution hits the mark for mail specialist Converga

OrderWare’s Javelin procurement solution met mailroom outsourcing specialist Converga’s requirements for scalability and flexibility...

Mailroom, document and record management outsource specialist Converga recently took its B2B capacity to a new level, developing and implementing new software that gives clients with different technology platforms access to end-to-end automated procurement and accounts payable services – in real time.

Converga manually and automatically processes mail on behalf of its clients, offering additional services around print and reprographic processing, accounts payable, scanning, imaging and database management. Clients have traditionally been large, including one that annually processes six million invoices. Included in Converga’s client list is the Rio Tinto Group, whose total global business processing is in the hands of Converga’s Melbourne Technology Centre. Despite this success Converga commercial relationship manager Ken Black, says Converga is always looking to enhance its customer service, and recently went looking for an automated, customisable procurement and accounts payable processing service.

The brief was concise. The service would deliver value to all customer segments, integrate with all major ERP suites, and be an end-to-end, closed loop B2B service for clients that wanted it. “Our history has been in mailroom management for Blue Chip and Government customers,” says Black, “now we know the content of the mailroom, we can add value electronically and bring innovation to the mailroom.”

In addition to manual and fax-based mail and record management processing Converga now offers two flagship e-procurement and paperless accounts payable (PAP) services. The former has been delivered in partnership with New Zealand based software developer OrderWare Solutions which counts Blue Star Print, Fonterra, Datamail and Wickcliffe amongst its customers, and has worked with Converga to implement Javelin, a business process management engine which uses prebuilt templates to support online procurement and customer management. “Converga were looking for a procurement platform with highly customised, scalable and flexible procure-to-pay capabilities, configurable for each customer,” says OrderWare chief executive Mike Hendry. “They also needed the ability to support a large number of enterprise clients – for example one client processes 25,000 invoices per day – without having to throw additional resource at each engagement.”

KPI’s in real-time
Hendry says Javelin uses real time metrics to constantly calculate internal KPI’s on behalf of Converga so the organisation knows how well it's performing against negotiated service targets. Black says before using Javelin, Converga found it difficult to deliver accountability against the purchase order process and lacked control over individual purchase orders. “We had people in big organisations ordering any product at any time and the existing technology solution we had only dealt with these orders after the invoice had been received. Many procurement solutions are very structured and require you to change your business rules to conform to the way the software works. With OrderWare, we found we could mould the software to fit the needs of the business.

Now, our customers can set business rules at the front end which limit the amount any one person can buy.” He says Converga looked at four online procurement solutions before selecting OrderWare’s Javelin for its “superior functionality” and ability to match the existing Converga catalogue of services. This was a significant benefit because it avoided the need to inform clients of a change to Converga business processes. OrderWare’s Hendry says while basic e-procurement and other B2B tools are embedded in many ERP suites, often these do not easily support multi-party relationships and distributed business processes. “Javelin’s key point of difference is that it is a multi-tenant system that can support multiple trading networks,” he says. “This allows Converga to offer a highly tailored package of service offerings.”

Easy does it
Black says Converga needs to know when a task has been completed so billing can occur, service commitments are met and disputes are minimised. He says Javelin is used to ensure task execution and monitor customer satisfaction as well as facilitate e-procurement, and notes that these business processes have a direct effect on the accounts payable process.

The system is also easily configurable – Javelin incorporates a web application development front end for portal creation, and a rules engine which lets users develop and re-use business rules according to their B2B customers and partners. The interface includes easy to use drag and drop and graphically modeled business process tools. “We’ve made traditional B2B tools easier to use,” says Hendry, “and they can be maintained and configured by the client if that’s what they want.

The application is also a real-time event management environment – this gives a quantum improvement in the timeliness of information.” Black says this is important because Converga’s ability to adapt and offer end-to-end, tailor-made, on-site or off-site paper-based or fully automated solutions remains its strength. “We receive invoices in any format – fax, email and paper and put them through a workflow process that uses second generation IDR (Intelligent Document Recognition) technology.

That then gets uploaded into the ERP systems of the customer – what Javelin gives us is the ability to deliver a flexible front end ordering, invoicing and payment solution through the same web portal.” He says Javelin complements other smart software Converga has adopted, including Dispatcher, intelligent document recognition software developed in the US. Dispatcher scans invoices, automatically recognises key elements like price and date and uploads these to the ERP system without the need to key data in – saving on both time and people resource.

Hendry says Converga were a “dream organisation” to work with and both organisations continue to develop the service. Black says Converga’s biggest challenge was not technical, but in attempting to change the way its customers and staff use the technology – around 30 per cent of customers currently use the new e-procurement and paperless accounts payable services, with the remainder preferring traditional paper-based, manual processing. This is something Converga would like to see change, says Black, because the benefits of automated B2B processing are significant and valuable to customers.

“One of the key things when you go to the market is how quickly you can get the client into the environment and instill confidence in electronic procurement and payment systems,” he says. Hendry agrees saying user acceptance is “vital” and the strength of Converga’s approach is its rigorous testing and roll-out regime. “Our challenge is also to be responsive to Converga’s new business process; they have short windows to turn complex bids around. It has been exciting working with them,” says Hendry. Black says a business looking to new e-procurement and other B2B models needs to first understand its own business processes thoroughly. He also recommends a staged software implementation rather than a ‘big bang’ to reduce customer and staff impact and other software implementation risks.

For more information
OrderWare Solutions
www.orderware.net

(09) 916 5010
enquiries@orderware.net

7/10/19_ex_h_nl

View Solution Provider