Playground design firm slides into increased efficiency with RPA

Founded in 1971, Landscape Structures is a playground design firm based in Minnesota and specializing in designing, manufacturing and installing innovative, creative, accessible and safe playground equipment. With the catchphrase #ShapedByPlay, Landscape Structures has made it their mission to support childhood development with inventive playground equipment. However, in order to deliver the fun stuff, Landscape Structures needed to make sure that their accounts payable processes were efficient, modern and up-to-date. A legacy document management solution and inefficient, manual AP processes were holding them back. Users of Microsoft Dynamics AX, the Landscape Structures team was looking for a solution that would tightly integrate with AX as well as help them:

• Increase efficiency
• Reduce printing and paper costs associated with AP processing
• Implement a better and more up-to-date document management system to replace their legacy system
• Provide automated routing and tracking for approval of non-PO invoices
• Retain existing Microsoft Dynamics AX functionality and PO/receipt/invoice matching

What did they get? The short answer: All of the above, and more.

Landscape Structures integrated a paperless automation solution with their Microsoft Dynamics AX system and experienced a 30 percent increase in overall efficiency. And because of the extensive functionality that MetaViewer offers, Landscape Structures plans to expand and leverage the technology to improve processes in other parts of the enterprise and expect to see at least an additional 20 percent increase in savings. Additionally, they no longer print, scan and copy invoices or worry about invoices getting lost on approvers’ desks. The team has become more confident that invoices are not falling through the cracks and that processes are faster, more accurate and paperless. They now have greater visibility as to where invoices are sitting in queue and no longer having to wonder what is sitting on managers desks or in their mailboxes waiting for approval. The integration also had very little interference on their existing Microsoft Dynamics AX infrastructure.

Another place that Landscape Structures has seen ROI is in staffing. Despite their growing volume of invoices and overall business, they are able to maintain staffing levels because their automated solution and AX have picked up the slack and made the work more manageable for their current staff.

No matter the industry - whether it's playground equipment or healthcare - a solid document management system and integration plan can help companies operate more efficiently and increase ROI across the entire enterprise.