efficiently and effectively. Managed$Pay functionality includes invoice image and data capture, workflow routing, built-in AP validation rules, interfaces to any ERP or accounting systems, process optimization tools, and reporting.
Miria Systems offers Managed$Pay as licensed software, but Hewlett Packard leverages the solution in its financial services outsourcing offering, for clients that desire a hosted solution. Managed$Pay is built on a J2EE platform with configurable business rules to validate invoice tolerances, confirm vendor data, and check for duplicate invoices; automate the approval process, including 2-way and 3- way matching; and automatically route invoices and send e-mail notifications. Managed$Pay works with multiple ERP/account systems in parallel, a valuable feature for companies that have divisions using different back end systems and want a consistent AP user experience.
Miria Systems markets its products directly through a sales team that is aligned geographically and through a partnership with IBM. Customers are cross-industry with a focus on larger companies with complex invoice processing requirements. Companies that currently have or are migrating toward Shared Service Centers are also good targets for the company. A cross-section of Miria Systems’ customer base includes Hewlett-Packard, Fifth Third Bank, Georgia Pacific, Toyota, Old Republic Title Insurance, and P.F. Chang’s China Bistros.
Managed$Pay
Invoice Receipt
Managed$Pay delivers strong functionality to automate the front-end document and data capture process. The solution is flexible to accept invoices in a number of formats including paper, fax, email, Web, and EDI. Managed$Pay also supports a range of scanners based on client needs. Depending on the business requirements of each individual organization, clients have the option to perform the scanning and indexing operations either at a central location or in a distributed manner using a Web-based interface.
Managed$Pay includes the capture and optional OCR/ICR solutions of IBM Capture, Datacap Taskmaster, Kofax Ascent Capture, or EMC Captiva as part of a standard implementation to enable key invoice information to be acquired along with the image. Production scanning includes image and index verification, document assembly, import and high-speed batch committal. Image enhancement is a key component of the capture process. The same settings can be applied to all pages in a batch, or on a per document level during the quality control process.
Document and Data Capture
The solution supports both template-based and intelligent OCR and ICR technologies to extract invoice data. Templates are created via a graphical tool and the classification process is transparent to the end user; if a template exists for
39 Solution Profile Founded: 1994 Company Size: 50 Employees Headquarters: Philadelphia, PA Customers: 25 AP Customers: 6 End Users: 3,000 Industries Served: Manufacturing, Financial Services, Energy, Transportation, Food Services, and Government Agencies
© 2008 PayStream Advisors, Inc. • [email protected] • www.paystreamadvisors.com Imaging &
Workflow Automation
a supplier, it is used, otherwise the system will rely on free-form. Accuracy rates vary with the image quality and the image enhancement processes. Typical raw recognition rates are above 90 percent and additional processes can improve this to above 99 percent.
Automatic indexing is available through OCR and the PO flip functionality.
Managed$Pay also facilitates manual entry of information by delivering a split screen interface. Once invoices have been scanned and indexed, Managed$Pay performs a series of data validations against the customer’s ERP data or financial systems data – including comparing indexed vendor data against the vendor master file, verifying tolerance levels as determined by customer requirements, checking for duplicate invoices by validating against invoice records, and performing a 2-way or 3-way match.
Vendor Portal
Managed$Pay offers a vendor portal that allows Miria Systems’ customers to extend the benefits of accounts payable automation to their suppliers. Suppliers can log into the secure, Web-based portal to submit invoices as well as gain real-time visibility into the invoicing and payment process, thereby reducing phone inquiries to AP staff and buyers. Invoices submitted in the portal are validated based on clients’ custom business rules at the time of entry. Managed$Pay leverages these business rules to verify vendor data, invoice tolerance amounts, and duplicate invoices. Suppliers can be notified of invoice exceptions and asked to correct them via automated email alerts or ad hoc emails from the system.
Content Storage and Management
Managed$Pay is fully integrated with and the only certified software package on the IBM enterprise content management platform. All invoice images and extracted data are stored in the IBM central repository for easy access from remote locations. At this time, Managed$Pay does not support integration with other content management systems. Managed$Pay offers both a quick search and an advanced search. The quick search is a standard simple search accessed from a main processing screen and based on the invoice number, PO number, or vendor ID. The advanced search allows searching by header properties, line item detail properties, or posting information. Search results are display on-screen and can be downloaded to the users’ desktops. Access to search functionality and search results can be restricted by security roles.
Workflow Management
The strength of the Managed$Pay solution lies in the built-in AP functionality for business use, workflows, validation rules and tolerance level configurations. The Managed$Pay rules engine can process invoices automatically to the ERP or accounting system for final match and payment, if no issues are found, and the workflow routes invoices with missing or erroneous data to employees that are best able to expedite exception processing. If errors cannot be resolved, the invoice is rejected, with email notifications and reasons provided back to the vendors. Accounts payable processors receive invoices needing their attention within their Managed$Pay Inbox. Other individuals responsible for verifying or approving invoices are notified via email when action is required. To view and approve invoices, a user clicks on an embedded hyperlink contained in the email to automatically gain access to the system with the proper authentication. The screens and fields displayed are completely configurable based on the customers’ back-end systems and users’ roles. Another unique feature of the system is its ability to map relationships between
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© 2008 PayStream Advisors, Inc. • [email protected] • www.paystreamadvisors.com Imaging &
Workflow Automation
the vendor information and cost center or general ledger code. This limits the cost centers and GL codes that AP processors can assign to a particular vendor invoice, thereby reducing the number of discrepancies and exceptions.
The solution also delivers strong functionality around reminder messages and
escalation procedures. Managed$Pay includes pre-configured invoice views, queries, and advanced search capabilities. A comprehensive audit trail is maintained for every document entered into the system, and the audit history can be viewed at any time with a single click on an icon on the main invoice processing screen. This audit trail shows the history of every user that accessed the invoice, the duration of their work, the stage in the invoice process, the task completed, and comments to capture the nature of changes.
Reporting and Analysis
Managed$Pay supports management work summaries both via reports and automatic summary emails. The solution provides a reporting database that can be used with any reporting tool. Managed$Pay also comes bundled with a variety of standard reports in Crystal Reports that show invoices in different stages, pending approval, past due and by vendor, average invoice processing time, work queue summaries, and individual approver profiles. Additionally, Managed$Pay comes standard with the IBM ECM process analyzer, which is used to model and optimize the workflow processes.
Implementation
Miria Systems uses an Agile Software Development and Implementation
Methodology. Implementations are typically three to seven months in duration with project timelines varying with the number and complexity of processes, business rules, source systems, and invoices to be processed. Miria Systems offers an enterprise license pricing structure for Managed$Pay with recurring maintenance and support fees based on a percentage of the license fee. Miria Systems works with customers to validate a return on investment analysis based on their data.
Outlook
Miria Systems will continue to be a key solution provider in the imaging and workflow automation landscape in the years to come. It addresses the entire invoice receipt-to- pay process and provides robust functionality at each step, which can be configured based on customer requirements. Further, forthcoming versions of the solution will include enhancements to the rules engine.
Miria Systems also helps clients expand the use of IWA and ECM across the organization for business processes like asset management, human resources, contracts, and customs brokerage automation. We believe that companies looking for an enterprise imaging and workflow automation solution should definitely investigate the merits of Managed$Pay.
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© 2008 PayStream Advisors, Inc. • [email protected] • www.paystreamadvisors.com Imaging &
Workflow Automation
Open Text is a leader in the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) space with its Livelink ECM platform and Livelink ECM solutions. Founded in 1991, Open Text is a publicly traded company that has seen significant growth in the past 15 years, organically and through acquisition. Each of the Livelink solutions feature advanced ECM functionality, and, as integrated modules or as individual stand-alone platforms, deliver imaging, document management, advanced business process management, digital asset management information retrieval, and Web content management capabilities.
Open Text delivers two applications for automating and optimizing the accounts payable process. The choice of product depends upon whether the client is utilizing SAP or Oracle as its back-end application. The Vendor Invoice Management (VIM) module leverages acquisitions of IXOS and Optura and is designed for clients running SAP® Solutions.
Livelink ECM - Accounts Payable Extensions for Oracle is a “version immune” solution for users of JD Edwards World, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, PeopleSoft Enterprise and Oracle E-Business Suite. The AP Extension product leverages Open Text’s acquisitions of leading Oracle ERP AP solution providers including Bluebird Systems and Gauss Interprise.
Both products streamline and automate all stages of the invoice receipt-to-pay cycle. As with all Livelink products, the SAP VIM and Oracle Extensions products leverage Livelink ECM basic and enhanced content services, including federated search, records management, archiving, life cycle management, meta data management and audit.