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CLEAR COST MODEL ALLOWS EASY ROI CALCULATIONS
Business today is desperately trying to engineer cost out of the business...
Return on Investment (ROI) is at the heart of every significant business decision. In the simplest of terms it is
a measure of what you get for what you give. Research by Ohio State University found that 4 out of 5 buyers
seek “value” before price. In other words, most people will give more to get more.
“Value” includes Quality, Flexibility of the offering and Availability all as a function of Price. “Quality” means
the product delivers what is required (or wanted) and does what is promised. Economists call this the “Law
of Marginal Utility.” For the rest of us, it means what blows your hair back won’t necessarily interest the next
guy. When we talk about ROI, we have to keep it in the context of what is important to the buyer.
What are businesses requiring today? First, they want more customers and more sales. That is pretty well
true no matter what the economic conditions are. Beyond that, however, is that business today is desperately seeking ways to engineer cost out of the business. Most of the improved earnings reports are the
result of cost reductions. And while cost reduction began as a way to respond to the recession, evidence
suggests that it is quickly becoming a permanent part of business culture.
With a paper-based invoice processing system the company incurs a significant “cost” in handling paper,
but it is difficult to quantify the short-run cash savings. Creating a long-run “saving” by installing imaging,
for example, doesn’t add value if I still have the floor space, the employees and all my other out-of-pocket
expenses. The value may be intrinsic, but few businesses are investing today based upon intangible value.
The CFO will say “Show me the money!”
Anacomp’s Valise Business Process Management (BPM) system offers a rare opportunity to eliminate work
at a value-based price. A major task in the AP department is entering data from paper invoices into the Accounting System. Typical information entered is a vendor name, purchase order number, invoice number,
payment due date and general ledger account code (s) and total due. Because this information is normally
put into the accounting system after all processing and approvals, other logging and data entry of the invoice typically takes place before the invoice is ready for entry to the accounting system.
people | process | technology
Anacomp, Inc.
www.anacomp.com
(703) 234-3910
With Valise all of this changes. Invoices are scanned immediately upon arrival. The needed information is
electronically picked up off the invoice and captured eliminating data entry and reducing other manual
tasks to a fraction of the time normally required. Routing and review of invoices is all handled electronically,
eliminating hand routing and handling of the invoices. Finally, the scanned information is automatically
imported into the general ledger accounting system and invoices can be paid without further data entry.
Best of all, not only is the work more efficient, much of the original work (key entering data) is gone forever. This provides the opportunity to either repurpose staff to cash-producing work (such as AR collections
and sales proposal follow-ups) or eliminate head count. Either way, the business gets cash returns for the
investment.
Added benefits include improved accuracy and reduced mailing expense. Errors in data entry create extra
work and cost. With Valise, that problem is gone forever because the information is picked up electronically
from the invoice. Invoices received at field offices are now scanned eliminating mailing or courier expense.
High value for a low price with Valise – an easy ROI!
people | process | technology
Anacomp, Inc.
www.anacomp.com
(703) 234-3910