E-Billing Software Allows KMI Plus to Create Paperless Finance Department

Water industry contractor, KMI Plus, has been able to transform its finance function following the implementation of e-billing software from ECM specialist, The Content Group. The Formscape Business Editions software enables the company to receive and manage invoices.

In taking a forward-thinking approach to financial information management, KMI Plus is now able to process hundreds of invoices in minutes rather than days, and the company is also able to archive historical accounting information electronically rather than having to take up valuable storage space in the office. KMI Plus’ suppliers also benefit from a reduction in their paper, printing and postage costs, and they are guaranteed to be paid on time.

Company background

KMI brings together the combined strengths of Kier Group PLC, The Murphy Group and Interserve Project Services Ltd., creating a formidable partnership to meet the current and future demands of the UK Water Industry Asset Management Programme. KMI also operates alongside Mouchel as KMI Plus providing detailed design and construction services as part of United Utilities’ £400million AMP4 Capital Programme delivery team. The Parent Companies of KMI have a combined annual turnover in excess of £4 billion, giving the organisation the financial strength, skills, and resources necessary to execute water projects of any size throughout the UK.

Paperless invoicing

As a forward-thinking construction company, KMI Plus was keen to take advantage of the opportunities for electronic information management across its supply chain and create time, cost and productivity savings. Peter Hellewell, Cost & Administration Manager, at KMI Plus, explains, “We wanted to reduce the volume of paper within the finance department, reduce the admin burden on finance staff and improve transparency across the supply chain.” In order to meet these goals, the company selected Enterprise Content Management (ECM) specialist, The Content Group, to implement a new e-billing platform. “The Content Group’s experience with other contractors with similar business issues and processes gave us confidence in their ability to meet our expectations, and we liked the professionalism and technical knowledge of their consultants”, explains Hellewell.

KMI Plus has a hugely complex supply chain and over a 12-month period the company receives in the region of 80,000 invoices. With this in mind, KMI Plus was keen to automate the delivery of invoices from its suppliers. To achieve this objective, The Content Group recommended the Formscape document process automation system, and the Invu document archiving system. Both systems were integrated with the company’s COINS financial software, enabling the creation of a paperless invoicing strategy across the entire organisation.

Over time, the majority of KMI Plus’ suppliers have embraced the new e-billing business model and have started to submit electronic invoices. Currently, over 60% of invoices are submitted electronically and the company has set a goal of increasing this to 80% by April 2010.

Benefits

Since moving to an e-billing model, KMI Plus has realised a number of benefits. The volume of paperwork within the finance department has been reduced significantly, meaning finance staff have more time to focus on other aspects of their role rather than getting bogged down in manual administration. In addition, there is no longer a requirement to store physical copies of invoices for seven years within filing cabinets in order to meet accounting regulations, as this information is now archived electronically.

Hellewell explains, “We have been able to reduce the volume of paperwork in the finance department, reduce the number of filing cabinets needed to store accounting information, and generally make life a bit easier for our finance team. In addition, our suppliers also benefit from this approach as they can cut down on paper, printing and postage costs by submitting invoices to us electronically. And they get paid more quickly. It really is a win-win scenario.”

Partner support

Commenting on the working relationship with The Content Group, Hellewell says, “The whole implementation was handled seamlessly by The Content Group. We were live on time and within budget, and we continue to have a very good relationship with them. The system is so reliable that we rarely need to speak to The Content Group but if we do have a support requirement then they have remote access to the system which means that any queries we have are resolved very quickly.”

Hellewell concludes, “The decision to partner with The Content Group to implement an e-billing solution was an excellent one. Hundreds of invoices can now be processed in minutes rather than days meaning that we really do have a 21st century paperless accounting function.”