All I Want for Christmas is ROI

Are you dreaming of substantial ROI from your AP automation solution this holiday season? We can’t put a bow on it, but we can show you some areas where your organization will see some serious savings when you implement MetaViewer Paperless Automation, whether you’re on Santa’s nice list or naughty list.

Here are the categories where our clients see the biggest cost savings:

Labor Costs: Independent research from organizations such as The Aberdeen Group, IOMA, and PayStream Advisors has shown productivity gains as much as 82% in companies that automate with document management and workflow. Many of our customers experience these types of productivity gains. Significant cost savings can be realized by centralizing functions currently spread across multiple sites, employing economies of scale and process improvements. To avoid losing valuable staff, most companies offset the cost of a technology investment through natural attrition and by postponing the hiring of new staff. The bottom line is that you will be able to accomplish more with fewer people, giving you the opportunity to redeploy your people to other areas of the business.

Improved Payment Times: Process efficiency gains from a good document management system translate to more than just headcount reductions. Processing faster gives you the flexibility to pay on your terms when you are ready. In a study by the Aberdeen group, respondents with workflow systems averaged 4.4 days to process an invoice compared to the average of 14.4 days and the bottom tier companies at 34.4 days. ROI from process efficiencies comes from capturing early-payment discounts, eliminating late payment fees, and better cash management to optimize working capital. Many times, inefficient processing leads to paying invoices too early. If people scramble to process invoices, they are in the habit of just paying the invoice to “get it out of the way.” A good workflow system can process the documents in 4 days, schedule the optimum pay date, and remind you on the day it needs to be paid.

Reduced Errors: Workflow efficiency and automated checking can reduce errors associated with duplicate invoices, duplicate payments, and incorrect amounts. The more people feel rushed, the more likely for an error to occur. Workflow audit trails and procedures reduce the errors associated with fraud.

Improved Vendor Payment Terms: In a busy environment, we are so focused on keeping our heads above water that we don’t have the time to proactively manage to improve our position. MetaViewer generates reports that allow you to audit vendor performance. This helps buyers transfer purchases to those vendors with better terms or fewer billing errors. It can also help them negotiate with vendors to improve terms.

Reduction in Storage Costs: Not only is shuffling and accessing paper documents time consuming, it is also costly. A study by Prism International shows that 2-7% of documents are misfiled at an average cost of $120 per document. Executives spend 150 hours per year looking for misplaced documents. Even storing documents themselves is costly. A typical four-drawer filing cabinet consumes six square feet of office space for the cabinet itself and the space to open it.

Reduction in Operating Costs: Paper-based processing leads to high costs associated with postage, shipping, phone, fax, copying and printing of documents to be distributed to all participants in the process. While these costs vary widely from customer to customer, copying and printing costs 2-5 cents per page. Considering the average worker consumes 10,000 sheets of paper per year, this can add up to a sizeable savings.

We can’t wrap ROI in a neat little package, but we can give you the tools to make it happen. Wishing you a happy and prosperous holiday season!