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Converga recently took its B2B capacity to new levels, developing and implementing new software that gives clients on different technology platforms real time access to end-to-end automated procurement and accounts payable services.
A multi-national company that manually and automatically processes mail on behalf of clients, Converga offers additional services around print and reprographic processing, accounts payable, scanning, imaging and database management. Clients have traditionally been large, including one that annually processes six million invoices.
The challenge
Converga sought an automated, customisable procurement and accounts payable processing service that would also deliver value to all customer segments, integrate with all major ERP suites, and be an end-to-end, ‘closed loop’ B2B service for clients that wanted it.
Ken Black, commercial relationship manager for Converga, says the company had found it difficult to deliver accountability against the purchase order process and lacked control over individual purchase orders.
“We had people in big organisations ordering any product at any time and the existing technology solution we had only dealt with these orders after the invoice had been received. Many procurement solutions are very structured and require you to change your business rules to conform to the way the software works,” says Black.
What they needed was a procurement platform with highly customised, scalable and flexible procure-to-pay capabilities, configurable for each customer. They also needed the ability to support a large number of enterprise clients without having to throw additional resource at each engagement.
The OrderWare solution
Converga now offers a flagship e-procurement and paperless accounts payable (PAP) service developed in partnership with OrderWare.
Black says Converga looked at four online procurement solutions before selecting Javelin for its superior functionality and ability to match the existing Converga catalogue of services. This was a significant benefit because it avoided the need to inform clients of a change to Converga business processes.
Utilising Javelin technology, Converga found it could mould the software to fit the needs of the business. Now, its customers can set business rules at the front end that limit the amount any one person can buy.
Javelin uses real time metrics to constantly calculate internal KPIs on behalf of Converga so the organisation knows how well it is performing against negotiated service targets.
While basic e-procurement and other B2B tools are embedded in many ERP suites, these don’t easily support multi-party relationships and distributed business processes. Javelin’s key point of difference is the fact it is a multi-tenant system that can support multiple trading networks. This allows Converga to offer a highly tailored package of service offerings.
Thanks to Javelin, Converga can now ensure task execution, monitor customer satisfaction and facilitate e-procurement – all business processes that have a direct effect on the accounts payable process. (Converga needs to know when a task is completed so it can start billing, know it has met service commitments and minimise disputes.)
Javelin incorporates a web application development front end for portal creation, plus a rules engine that lets users develop and re-use business rules according to their B2B customers and partners. Its interface includes drag and drop and graphically modeled business process tools that are easy to use.
The application also provides for real time event management that has lead to a quantum improvement in the timeliness of information. Black says this is important because Converga’s ability to adapt and offer end-to-end, tailor-made, on-site or off-site paper-based or fully automated solutions remains its strength.