Flexible and Adaptable: DocuSphere Provides Business Value well Beyond Accounts Payable Alone
Flexible – susceptible to modification
Adaptable – able to adjust oneself readily to different conditions
These are characteristics that employers look for and expect in an employee. Shouldn’t you look for and expect the same from your imaging solution? No doubt you are considering the DocuSphere product because of its standards-based interfaces with JD Edwards, Oracle EBS and SAP for Accounts Payable. However, when you purchase the DocuSphere family of products for accounts payable automation, you get access to so much more: you get a highly flexible and adaptable product.
Accounts Payable solutions have been the bread and butter of Image Integration Systems from the beginning, but our project methodology based on the “train the trainer” concept and flexible product line allow you to use the product for applications beyond AP invoice processing. Our customers have used their DocuSphere software to create index definitions for storing HR and IT documents and have built workflows to manage vacation requests, Capital Expenditure approvals and IT requisitions. In addition to these self-created workflows, DocuSphere offers add-on modules to help customers with two important processes: New vendor requests and pass-through billing.
The DocuSphere New Vendor module provides an agent to pass the vendor data to JD Edwards through the z-file interface to programmatically create the Address Book and Supplier Master records. The agent can be placed within a workflow that you design to represent your company’s business process for approving new vendor requests. The module also includes an XML parsing agent that can populate the workflow’s process relevant data (PRD) from data supplied in an XML file format. The XML file could be output from an online form like those created by Adobe LiveCycle. This module helps to automate an essential and time-consuming process that is ancillary to the Accounts Payable process therefore allowing even greater efficiencies to be realized.
Pass-Through billing is an important process for construction-based businesses and for many multi-divisional businesses to properly allocate expenses to customers – both internal and external. It is another function that involves many hours of manual research and collation. The DocuSphere module includes an agent that interfaces with either the JDE or SAP billing system to determine the AP invoice(s) from which the charges originated and then attaches the images of the invoices (from the Accounts Payable index definition) to the work item in the workflow. An additional agent merges all the backing documents into a single PDF file that can then be reviewed and approved according to your specific business process. The billing “packet” can then be electronically sent to the customer providing a significant time savings and reducing billing-to-cash cycle times.
Both of these modules provide structure and automation through the agents, but also allow for flexibility by using the functions in a customer-specific process definition. These are just two examples of the potential for the DocuSphere software beyond traditional accounts payable automation. The possibilities are really limitless and extend to many different groups and departments within your business.
We encourage you to explore the flexibility and adaptability of the DocuSphere family of products and challenge you to look beyond the realm of Accounts Payable. Not every imaging solution can make such a claim and we’re proud that we live up to our resume!
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