Verbella CMG

BACKGROUND

Can you please provide a brief description of your company?

We’re a large construction company. We do work within the United States and internationally. We have over $12 billion in revenue. We do power, roads, buildings, all different types of construction.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I am the accounts payable, invoice processing manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What were your company’s business goals for the project with Verbella CMG?

I have been a part of two different projects with Verbella. We have a company that we acquired not long ago, and they were looking for a friendly user-interface for their ERP systems. We interviewed several vendors and chose Verbella CMG.

I assisted that company in doing a design workshop. About two years later, my company decided to also use Verbella CMG as our front interface for accounts payable.

Kofax is the scanning software and the OCR interface and Apay is the Accounts Payable interface.

SOLUTION

What were the main traits you were looking for when you selected Verbella CMG?

My company wanted an excellent OCR software and we were actually using the same OCR software in our legacy systems as the acquired company I mentioned before. That synergy was a big plus. We also wanted a friendly user interface for the front-end and Apay offered multiple solutions that we were looking for.

Can you please describe the scope of the project?

Verbella CMG can handle both Kofax and Apay. Kofax goes hand in hand with our Apay solution. We built four or five different workflows. We have automated workflows for our non-PO invoice processing, automated workflow for our PO invoice processing, and then we also have a workflow for recurring invoices and contract invoicing for subcontracts and material contracts.

Whenever we want to build an automated workflow, we used Kofax on the front-end to bring in the proper data into Apay. For Apay, we have the ability to raise exceptions, forward work items to the field if necessary, code or raise an exception about something missing on the purchase order.

Verbella offered the best functionality that matched our multiple process flows. This system allows our team to communicate better and fix purchase orders in the field.

Can you give us a sense of the initiative in dollar terms or personnel hours?

We process over 130,000 invoices a year. Within a six-month time frame, we were able to roll out an excellent product. I cannot give a dollar amount.

When was the project completed?

We went live on July 1st 2012.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any stats or metrics to track improvement post-implementation?

Last week, we decided to have another design workshop to enhance the software based on what we’ve learned on how the field uses it. We really didn’t have that many enhancements to add because Verbella CMG designed the system so well. The system is running well and we won’t need to add much automation.

How did Verbella CMG perform?

They provided excellent advice during the initial design phase. Their technical expertise for the ERP system was very valuable. Verbella told us what could be done and what couldn’t be done. And if there was any gray area, they worked hard to meet our requirements.

When working with Verbella CMG, was anything unique or special about them compared to other companies that you have worked with?

I have worked with a lot of software companies. The one thing that really stands out was their immediate attention whenever we had questions, needs or needed to test. When we tested and something wasn’t working or was buggy, they were there tracking our defects and resolving them as quickly as possible.

Looking back on the project, is there any area that you think Verbella CMG could improve upon or maybe you would do differently?

There isn’t anything I would do differently. The fact that we have a successful product emphasizes that.

BACKGROUND

Can you please provide a brief description of your company?

We are a floor covering manufacturer with corporate headquarters in Salem, New Jersey. We have locations in Georgia, North Carolina and Alabama. Four years ago, our company bought a company from San Jose that also has locations in Florida. That company is also primarily flooring but they also do some custom process stuff with rubber so that merger helped us enter a new market.

Last year, we purchased another flooring company from the UK opening us up more to the international market.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m the Corporate Director of credit, collections and payments. I oversee the credit and AP departments.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What were your company’s business goals for the IT project with Verbella CMG?

With AP being centralized here in New Jersey and having offsite locations, we wanted to have the content management system on site. My team wanted the archival part as well as the electronic imaging capabilities.

Before, we had to scan copies of invoices requiring us to keep paper copies in filing cabinets in the office. The outdated process took a lot of space and time. We realized that our invoice system would work much better electronically.

SOLUTION

How was Kofax selected by your company?

IBM was one of the players who wanted to do the system for us. We had a lot of different bids come in but Kofax was the best.

One of our employees ran into John Walls [owner of Verbella CMG] and they talked about Kofax and what Verbella could for our organization. John[owner of Verbella CMG]  provided the best references and proved to us that he could handle this project with lower costs than competitors.

IBM said they needed six employees to work two weeks and it would cost six figures. John[owner of Verbella CMG]  worked by himself and had the system up and running in two days. Verbella has been great when it comes to support. You feel like you’ve got your own personal person as opposed to trying to deal with a big company.

Can you tell me about the scope of the project?

Basically, John[owner of Verbella CMG]  set up the server as a system purely for archiving the invoices and attaching them within SAP.  The system uses Kofax and attaches the invoices to our SAP ECM system as well so every employee can easily find and organize invoices electronically.

Were any other technologies used besides Kofax and SAP?

Just a small Fujitsu scanner that Verbella CMG recommended that works great for us.

Can you give us a sense of the initiative in either dollar terms or personnel hours?

On a given day, we’re scanning about 400 to 500 invoices. It is a major system that handles a lot of work but it was only a five figure project.

When was the project completed?

I believe in 2008.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any stats or metrics to track improvement after the system was implemented?

I don’t have any stats but it’s saved a lot of time since we don’t have to scan and photocopy as much anymore.  We had a whole row of cabinets saving the paper copies. Those are all gone. We have one cabinet now. We used to have ten. We used to have multiple years of boxes in the back. We used to have to hire a temp every year around Christmas for two weeks to file everything. And we used to pay overtime for other employees just to file.

The accounting people love it because they can find everything quickly and easily. They don’t need to walk to the cabinets constantly and find old invoices. We have been able to minimize staff in the AP department. We have saved money directly and indirectly and the efficiency improvements are substantial.

How did Verbella CMG perform during the project?

Verbella’s work is great because their team has such a good knowledge of SAP and things like that. John[owner of Verbella CMG] came in and was able to see some of the things our people were doing, and he was able to recommend small improvements. Their group is honest with high integrity. They know their business and gave great recommendations for scanners.

When working with Verbella CMG, was there anything unique or special compared to some other vendors that you have worked with?

It was nice to have somebody who knew some of the behind the scene things with SAP, even though he was not an SAP programmer. Verbella has helped our IT person tremendously. John[owner of Verbella CMG] is often available by phone and everything has run smoothly for four years. Verbella hasn’t had to come in and fix the system at all since implementation.

Looking back on that project, is there any area that you think Verbella CMG could improve upon or maybe you would do differently?

No, because John[owner of Verbella CMG] delivered on exactly what he promised us and did it very quickly.