7/29/2019 Ghent University EOZEN SAP - Invoice Management

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sAp Cur succ srSAP Invoice Management

Industry: public services

SAP Invoice Management pays offfor Ghent University

pRofile

Founded in 1817, Ghent University is a

relatively young university. After decades of

uninterrupted growth, it is one of the lead-

ing institutions of higher education and

research in the Low Countries, with 32,000

students and 7,100 staff members. Ghent

University markets itself as an active

partner in national and international educa-

tional, scientific and industrial cooperation.

ReQUiRements

Centralization of invoice handling Efficient and transparent invoice man-

agement

solUtion

SAP Invoice Management by OpenText,

combined with the OpenText Invoice Cap-

ture Center (VIM 5.2, support pack 6)

ReQUiRements

Streamlined invoice processing

Time and cost-effectiveness

Qualitative inputting of invoice data

Quick Facts

Bills, bills, bills: Ghent University (UGent) processes some130,000 invoices per year. They come from a wide range of

suppliers, in a multitude of sectors. It speaks for itself that this

highly critical process needs to be managed most carefully.

AP Invoice Management by OpenText enables end-to-end

automation of all UGents invoice processing. The result:

surprisingly smooth and accurate invoicing processes.

It is absolutely vital that all our invoices are

correctly processed at period-end, explained

Geert Van de Gucht, Financial Director at

UGent. If we fall short of this target, the

auditor cannot validate UGents annual

statement. However, with about 700 people

processing vendor invoices, dispersed over a

multitude of faculty departments, there was no

way to verify whether the process was

managed correctly. On top of that, we could do

better in terms of efficiency and speediness

too, Van de Gucht admitted.

UGent therefore decided to fully centralize and

automate its invoice processing. The new way

of working was to be supported by a reliable

and highly efficient software suite.

A swift implementAtion

UGent already had good experiences with SAP:

it relied on SAP ECC 6.0, among other solutions.

For this particular invoice processing challenge

too, it found that SAP offered the most powerful

solution.

EoZen implemented SAP Invoice Management

by OpenText, combined with the OpenText ICC

(Invoice Capture Center) solution. We were

impressed by the swift implementation: after

7/29/2019 Ghent University EOZEN SAP - Invoice Management

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high operational visibility. The Integrated

Invoice Cockpit offers a clear overview on the

status of all invoices in the workflow peopleinvolved, input given, etc. , thus enabling a

sound follow-up. We can swiftly take action

whenever needed.

we ARe All sAp nAtives

Moreover, theres nothing but praises on the

user side as well. Van de Gucht: SAP Invoice

Management by OpenText allows a native way

of working. The workflow guides the end-user

to the right screens and allows him to take the

right actions. It is no wonder then that our users

have accepted the new solution very fast. Plus:

they needed very little training and were able to

handle the solution almost immediately.

And there is more to come. In the short to

mid-term, the solution will allow UGent to start

processing e-invoices. In that way, the invoicing

process will be further streamlined.

Boost effiCienCy And RedUCe Costs

Van de Gucht explained how the new systemhas greatly streamlined invoicing operations:

The built-in workflow features have enhanced

communication and collaboration possibilities.

Our dedicated team of Accounts Payable (AP)

experts can now work in a highly process-

oriented and efficient way - from scanning to

posting the document in FI.

Moreover, the 700 other staff that helped in

invoice processing are now only involved on an

ad-hoc basis. They can use their time more

efficiently. As Van de Gucht emphasized, this has

yielded substantial cost savings in next to no

time.

I feel that our AP team works very critically and

accurately, Van de Gucht added. The possibil-

ity to easily forward questions and approval

requests via the workflow improves the quality

of the postings in FI. Employees also feel

empowered and more responsible for their

work, as the VIM analytics tool allows of a very

the validation of the blueprint, the solution was

up and running in barely four months, explained

Van de Gucht. The key to that success? As allour invoicing processes were tightly specified in

the blueprint, EoZen only needed to make mini-

mal modifications after unit testing. After go live

too, some minimal fine-tuning proved sufficient.

leAve it to the teAm

So how are incoming invoices handled today at

UGent? A central Accounts Payable Service

processes all of them. First, a team of

dedicated specialists scans paper invoices

using the OpenText ICC solution. ICC relies on

optical character recognition (OCR) to extract

invoice data, and virtually eliminates human

intervention at the invoice capture stage. A

built-in workflow then automates the handling

process. This allows the document processors

to refer to the appropriate UGent employees

when their input or approval is needed. In the

end, the invoice is posted in SAP FI (Financial

Accounting).

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SAP Invoice Management offers a clear overview on

the status of all invoices in the workflow. This allows us

to swiftly take action whenever needed.Geert Van de Gucht, Financial Director, UGent