How Honeywell integrated a single global automated AP process

Industry
Manufacturing
Revenue
$36.71 billion
Headquarters
Charlotte, NC, USA
Honeywell International, a Fortune 100 diversified technology and manufacturing leader, was looking to improve its efficiency with an automated AP solution that could be used across its six global business groups. Everyone, everywhere should be able to use the same process and the same solution, so the company could more accurately track and report on invoice status. The global and diversified nature of the business required a solution that was also flexible enough to allow the company to extend its common core process to accommodate local business needs and regulations where necessary.
The company initially rolled out Serrala’s FS² AccountsPayable solution to provide a centralized view of scanned invoices received from across the company. Gradually, over time the company expanded the functionality of the solution in phases to include capabilities such as:
- Increased electronic invoice capture, including OCR (paper, fax, or email) and EDI (large vendors or inter-company transactions)
- Automated processing and coding of non-PO vendor invoices (i.e., Utilities, Rent)
- Configurable business rules to increase ability to auto-post invoices
- Tight integration with SAP OM to support billing documentation requirements
- Flexible document search and batch output to support internal and external inquiries and local document storage requirements
Now that the company is using one common process and one solution for Accounts Payable Automation, it has achieved many benefits including:
- 40% auto-posting of invoices
- Real-time view of invoices across all six business units
- Ability to increase volume without increasing headcount
- Fewer keystrokes required for invoice entry and validation
- Faster processing of Non-PO invoices, such as utility invoices
- Ability to support international documentation requirements quickly and easily
- Compliant with EU payment directive and other regulations Multiple shared service centers running on the same IT infrastructure
Business Need
Honeywell International, a Fortune 100 diversified technology and manufacturing leader, was looking to improve its efficiency with an automated AP solution that could be used across its six global business groups. Everyone, everywhere should be able to use the same process and the same solution, so the company could more accurately track and report on invoice status. The global and diversified nature of the business required a solution that was also flexible enough to allow the company to extend its common core process to accommodate local business needs and regulations where necessary.
Solution Implemented
The company initially rolled out Serrala’s FS² AccountsPayable solution to provide a centralized view of scanned invoices received from across the company. Gradually, over time the company expanded the functionality of the solution in phases to include capabilities such as:
- Increased electronic invoice capture, including OCR (paper, fax, or email) and EDI (large vendors or inter-company transactions)
- Automated processing and coding of non-PO vendor invoices (i.e., Utilities, Rent)
- Configurable business rules to increase ability to auto-post invoices
- Tight integration with SAP OM to support billing documentation requirements
- Flexible document search and batch output to support internal and external inquiries and local document storage requirements
Results Achieved
Now that the company is using one common process and one solution for Accounts Payable Automation, it has achieved many benefits including:
- 40% auto-posting of invoices
- Real-time view of invoices across all six business units
- Ability to increase volume without increasing headcount
- Fewer keystrokes required for invoice entry and validation
- Faster processing of Non-PO invoices, such as utility invoices
- Ability to support international documentation requirements quickly and easily
- Compliant with EU payment directive and other regulations Multiple shared service centers running on the same IT infrastructure