1

Canadian Blood Services

AP Automation

Canadian Blood Services

Canadian Blood Services is a national, not-for-profit charitable organization that manages the blood supply in all provinces and territories outside of Quebec and oversees the country's OneMatch Stem Cell and Marrow Network.

We operate 42 permanent collection sites, 11 bone marrow centres, organize and hold in excess of 21,400 donor clinics annually, across Canada.

What Canadian Blood Services Does

The Year in Close Up (2013/14)

• Over 979,000 equivalent units of blood donated• 80% of our donors are repeat donors and 20% were new donors• 42,500 new donors registered with OneMatch Stem Cell & Marrow Network• 57 kidney transplants facilitated by the Living Donor Paired Exchange• 51% - Canadians who have formally agreed to make organ/tissue donations• 4,700 Canadian Blood Services employees who expertly operate one of the

world’s safest blood systems• 225,000 hours generously contributed by volunteers to Canadian Blood

Services

P2P lead to Invoice Automation

• Invoice approval required manual signatures

• Invoice signatures required validation

• Invoices were physically handed over to buyers for discrepancy investigation and resolution

• 600-700 invoices were ‘parked’ in SAP awaiting action by a user outside of AP

• Extremely intensive accrual process for AP

Why AP Automation?

• Manual signatures evolved into email approvals

• Unassigned vendors were processed when time was available or urgently

• Payment terms were often missed waiting for documents to be returned to AP

• Current invoice liability for CBS on any given day was unknown

• The AP Administrator count to process 80,000 invoices was at a high of 8

The Road to Automated Invoice Processing

Industry leader in AP Automation

Proven installations world-wide

Certified SAP product Project Management Defined Roadmap Support System User Conference

Why ReadSoft?

Current AIP process

8

• Mail is opened, sorted scanned within 24 hrs using the ReadSoft INVOICES SCAN program

• Email invoices are automatically detached, 24-7, using ReadSoft COLLECTOR

• A background job INTERPRETS data from each invoice

• All AP administrators perform the VERIFY function and review each electronic image of the invoice

• A number of vendors are currently set to ‘auto-approve’ and do not require review by an AP Admin. These invoices automatically TRANSFER into ReadSoft PROCESS DIRECTOR in SAP.

Invoices-Verify Module

9

PROCESS DIRECTOR by ReadSoft (in SAP)

AP Staff were comfortable with the new product as ReadSoft has the same feel as SAP.

PROCESS DIRECTOR Selections

• Selection Criteria allows for Corporate Accounting to have control and transparency of all documents, for example:

By total $ unposted

By specific vendor

By currency

By FI doc vs MM doc

By specific workflow type

By end user who is approving a document

At CBS everything is scanned, verified and visible within 24 hrs of being received.

Selection Criteria

Control in PROCESS DIRECTOR Overview

PROCESS DIRECTOR Detail

Control & Transparency Gains from Implementing ReadSoft

• The current AP liability is known at ANY time

• Consistent business rules!

• No off-site storage fees

• Reduction in the number of AP Administrators

• All invoices are assigned to an AP Admin and are immediately visible and traceable in PROCESS DIRECTOR

• Invoices that are free of errors can be system posted and do not require human touch points

• Automatic reminders and escalations

Control and Transparency Gains

• Monthly accruals are completed quickly and easily

• End users are all comfortable using the web based approval tool

• Custom tables allow for approval control, auto posting and auto workflows

• Audit logs document the entire invoice life cycle allowing for transparency

• On average, 80% of Invoices are posted to SAP within 4 days of being scanned & 93% within 11 days - allowing for improved pricing or discount negotiation opportunities

• On average, 48% of all invoices posted to SAP the same day as being scanned

Custom Control Tables

% Documents Posted the Same Day as Scanned

FY 2010 FY 2011 FY 2012 FY 20130.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

24.0%

39.6% 38.1%

48.3%

% of Documents Posted within 4 days of being Scanned

FY 2010 FY 2011 FY 2012 FY 20130.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

90.0%

with 4 days0 days

Automated reminder is sent out on day 3

% of Documents Posted within 11 days of being scanned

FY 2010 FY 2011 FY 2012 FY 20130.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

90.0%

100.0%

within 11with 4 days0 days

Automated escalation occurs after 10 days

Compliance to Payment Terms

Lessons Learned

• Never under-estimate the change management process within your organization.

• ReadSoft provides a great amount of training documentation, and it continues to be a focus for them as it improves year after year.

Lessons Learned

• Complete end-to-end testing. Involve stakeholders, i.e. purchasing and end users if possible.

• Complete any work prior to go-live to make it easier

• Consider a slow or staggered approach for initial go-live.

– CBS went live allowing the system to post approved invoices and within a short period of time turned it off. It was turned back on after both AP & Purchasing staff were comfortable in the actual use of the system.

What’s Next for Canadian Blood Services

• ReadSoft App for Approvals using Mobile Devices

• Vendor portal for payment inquiries, invoice creation, vendor master updates and dynamic discounting

What’s Next for Canadian Blood Services

• Additional functions which are offered in PROCESS DIRECTOR that were out of scope for the upgrade project• Reversal/Cancellation of documents

• Line item approvals

• General ledger approval and posting

• Work Cycle (Online) Cheque Requisition Request

• Payment Proposal (F110) viewing of invoices

In Summary

25

• For Canadian Blood Services increasing productivity means finding even more effective ways to maintain our uncompromising standards.

• Cost-efficiency is not about getting by with less; it’s a matter of maximizing the value of limited health-care dollars and gaining the ability to achieve even more.

In Summary

• As trusted stewards of Canada’s blood system, we have a responsibility to be a nimble and productive organization, and to help our employees work more effectively.

• The partnership that Canadian Blood Services has formed with ReadSoft is a very important piece that allows our employees to work more effectively and achieve even more toward this increased productivity goal at Canadian Blood Services.