New Software from IIS Improves Document Workflow

by Alex Woodie

Billing department are the intended users of two new modules that Image Integration Systems announced last month. One of the new modules, called Pass-Through-Billing, helps users to turn vendor invoices around so they can bill their customers more quickly, while another, called AutoVoucher, eliminates the manual entry of vendor information in batch invoice runs. Both of the new modules plug into the company's Windows-based DocuSphere content management and workflow software, which is used at hundreds of OS/400 shops.

You may not have heard about Image Integration Systems, based in Perrysburg, Ohio, but that doesn't mean it's new. IIS has been around since 1993, when it was founded by a group of workers from Software Alternatives, which had developed an imaging and content management product for J.D. Edwards World software.

For years IIS sold an OS/400-resident content management and workflow product called Image Management. The company is no longer actively selling that product, having introduced the functionally superior DocuSphere suite a few years ago. But many of IIS's 400-odd customers (nearly 80 percent of which are OS/400 shops) still rely on the old Image Management product, and IIS plans to support it as long as customers need it.

But the future for IIS is DocuSphere, which includes two core components: DocuSphere Content Manager and DocuSphere Workflow. These Windows-based applications, when combined with a scanner, and maybe even character recognition software, help customers wring more control out of their paper-based documents, functionality which ERP vendors, by and large, have failed to deliver with their products.

"ERP has made a lot of promises that have not been fulfilled," says Ron Kelley, vice president of business development with IIS. "They don't do real well with information that's not already in the system. Say there's a purchase order with no customer number floating around. This is where we add value."

Not all transactions occur within the ERP system, says Brad White, president and chief executive of IIS. "You need to gather stuff from outside the ERP system," he says. "Traditionally it's more than most ERP folks have wanted to deal with. SAP has pretty extensive workflow invoicing in its system; you have to go to school for a month in order to learn how to set it up."

While we are living in the digital age, many trading partners still rely on paper to do business. Without an automated system, getting this paper-based data into an ERP system requires quite a bit of manual data entry. A study by business management experts IOMA shows that the cost of processing an invoice is increasing by five to 10 percent per year, Kelley says. "The amount of paper is increasing, not decreasing, so there's lot of opportunity for us to improve a customer business process with solutions like we have."

Pass-Through-Billing and AutoVoucher

The two new DocuSphere modules from IIS, Pass-Through-Billing and AutoVoucher, are designed to go right to the heart of inefficiency in billing department business processes.

"Nine out of 10 invoices are still sent in mail," Kelley says. "They require approval and general ledger coding before they get entered into the system. That's where DocuSphere WorkFlow comes in." Once the document has been entered into the WorkFlow system, WorkFlow would forward the document to somebody with the authority to give it the required voucher information. Or they could use AutoVoucher.

With AutoVoucher, all of the required invoice data is automatically verified with customer records in the ERP system, which reduces the volume of human interaction and, therefore, the number of data entry errors. The software, which IIS developed with help from a customer, allows for the creation of batches of invoices.

Pass-Through-Billing solves a different problem in the billing cycle. The software is designed to minimize the amount of time between when a company receives an invoice from a vendor and the creation of an invoice for the customer. IIS says the module is particularly relevant in industries such as construction and property management, in which companies are reimbursed directly for project or property costs.

"Pass-Through-Billing automatically goes out and gathers all backing documents, maybe 1,000 accounts payable invoices that customers are now putting together in aggregate and sending on to their customers," Kelley says. "You can imagine the headache on the JDE system to find the AP invoices to back them up."

Pass-Through-Billing can free up a user's cash flow. For example, if a general contractor requires its customers to pay within 30 days of receipt of goods or services, but the company isn't required to pay its supplier for 45 days, that's 15 extra days the user gets to hold onto the money. An early user of the product is saving more than $1 million a month, IIS says.

AutoVoucher and Pass-Through-Billing require both DocuSphere Content Manager and Workflow. DocuSphere Content Manager and Workflow have both been certified for SAP and PeopleSoft EnterpriseOne and World ERP systems.

Licenses for Content Manager and Workflow (often deployed together) typically start around $50,000 and range up to about $250,000. A license for Pass-Through-Billing costs $15,000. AutoVoucher costs $10,000. The software is available now. For more information, go to www.iissys.com.