OTC Industrial Technologies

A leading industrial distributor and service provider utilizes DataServ’s Digital Mailroom and OCR capture services, automated non-PO workflows, and AutoVouch 3-way match with exception routing.

Client

Ohio Transmission Corporation, now known as OTC Industrial Technologies, was established in 1963 as a small industrial distributor of mechanical power transmission equipment and pumps. They now have many locations across the Midwest, South, and Northeast, along with numerous service shops with the following two major operating divisions: OTP Industrial Solutions and Air Technologies.

Challenge

OTC’s process was paper-centric, cumbersome, and inefficient.  

  1. Invoices were received via fax and traditional mail, and email.  
  2. After printing their emails, all invoices were placed in a stack to scan into their template-based OCR processing system, resulting in a mere 60% data accuracy rate and leaving the remaining 40% for the staff to manually key.  
  3. The system would create EDI 810 data to put into the ERP system to attempt a three-way match, but they achieved extremely poor match rates.  
  4. Exceptions were manually tracked via paper files.  
  5. Non-PO documents were also manually routed for approvals and coding.

The Solution

SaaS OCR Data Capture – Invoices are sent to DataServ from any source, in any format, and then the document processing machine captures data fields and the invoice image. Data is ready for processing within 24 hours.  

Automated Workflow Processing – All non-PO invoices are routed to the appropriate stakeholders for coding automatically through an approval matrix. 

Automated 2 and 3-way Matching (AutoVouch™) – Documents with problems/issues are assigned an exception status and automatically routed based on your specifications for resolution.  

Unparalleled Direct Ship Capabilities – When direct ship invoices are received, DataServ sends a flag to OTC’s receipts module, indicating the goods were received by manufacturer, and signals the system to automatically generate invoices out to customers.  

Document Retention and Storage Management – Once processing is complete, DataServ retains document images and links to OTC’s ERP for easy reference.

The Results

DataServ eliminated OTC’s manual tasks with their document capture, exception, and retention workflow process. Their solution was tailored with a direct ship automation integration and executed this plan as part of the project rollout, making ‘going paperless’ The SaaS-based data capture provided them with 99% pre-ERP data accuracy as opposed to the 60% provided by their previous system.

“When we approached DataServ, our process was disjointed, and we had a three-week document processing backlog. We would have considered it a win to reduce our backlog to just one week. Today our backlog has been reduced, and we don’t consider that a win… we consider that a slam dunk!”

Randy Cummiskey, Controller Tweet

Let’s Start a Conversation

Regardless of where you are at in your AP automation journey, DataServ will meet you there and help you evolve.

Schedule a Consultation