LAST year, when Super Cheap Auto Group diversified from automotive products into boating, camping and fishing gear, its finance staff were close to breaking point because of an archaic invoicing process.
The retailer stocks more than 10,000 items and was receiving some 45,000 invoices a month, which had to be manually entered into the database.
While this was causing problems for the business, finance manager Stephen Fleming says it wasn't until the group started rolling out its boating, camping and fishing outlets in early 2006 that it decided it was time for a change.
The new stores were a catalyst. "There was a need to automate invoicing in the group, but when we got to boating, camping and fishing that really focused our minds.
"Every time we opened a new boating-camping-fishing store it wouldn't mean a bigger invoice, it would mean another 10,000 invoices.
"We had considered it for a while, but once the outdoor stores came on line we knew we really had to do something, otherwise our accounts-payable team would have just grown out of control.
So in October 2006, Super Cheap employed AXS-One and Xcellerate IT to create a combined scanning system that could quickly and accurately capture invoice information and seamlessly enter this into its SAP database.
Instead of different staff manually entering the information from the thousands of invoices that arrive at its headquarters daily, a single scanner is now used to electronically capture the information.
"The optical character recognition function means that once an item is scanned in this is automatically matched to a goods receipt. "So when everything's right, and the invoice equals what stock we have and it's at the right price, we basically don't touch it.
"It just automatically flows through the system and is ready for payment in SAP, so the invoice processing process is streamlined."
Fleming says the installation cost several hundred thousand dollars and took about a month, and that it has already paid for itself.
With invoice information now stored electronically, Super Cheap has cut down its physical storage needs.
The scanning process is just the first step for the group and Fleming expects that in future there will be no need to deal with physical documents.
"It's a good introduction to a more full-blown e-commerce system. Now, we don't need to get a hard-copy invoice. We can just get an electronic invoice and the OCR system deals with that as a file.
"We're circumventing the need for someone to stand at the scanner and put it through.
"That's the next thing we will do for liaising with our suppliers. We will tell them this is the best way to deliver invoices, and they can save on paper and postage."
THE PROBLEM
Super Cheap Auto Group was expanding its retail presence but couldn't support its growth without adding staff to its finance team.
THE PROCESS
It automated the invoicing process by using a scanner to quickly and accurately obtain the invoice information and store this electronically in its SAP database.
THE RESULT
It launched 18 boating, camping and fishing stores in 2007 without adding new finance staff, and as invoicing can now be done by one person it has freed up remaining staff to focus on more value-added jobs.
Article published in Australian IT on 16 October 2007.
Direct link to http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22590021-24169,00.html