American Senior Communities
Situation
Based in Indianapolis, Indiana, American Senior Communities specializes in living facilities specifically designed to serve today’s seniors by providing a multitude of lifestyle choices with integrated services and amenities. The Accounts Payable team at American Senior Communities annually processes approximately 130,000 paper invoices and 25,000 electronic invoices. Each of their 91 geographically diverse locations places orders in one portal with multiple vendors. The invoices were then downloaded into an accounting system weekly. American Senior Communities was experiencing a lack of visibility into their financial processes. Invoices were not being turned in on time or were being lost completely. Invoices were also coded incorrectly by the facilities. American Senior Communities felt that each of the 155,000-plus invoices touched too many hands before they were stored in their document imaging system.
Solution
DataServ had the answer; the solution begins with routing invoices to DataServ through mail, email, or fax to then be scanned, imported, and hosted online. The Digital Mailroom at DataServ captures various data fields using a powerful SaaS-based OCR Invoice Processing MachineTM, providing American Senior Communities’ processors early visibility and tracking of invoices and liabilities. After the initial data capture is complete, the invoices enter an automated workflow, where they are coded and routed to the designated approver. Once approved, the documents are sent to American Senior Communities’ accounting system (Great Plains) for payment.
To meet the client’s needs, DataServ provided the following capabilities for AP processing:
- SaaS OCR data capture from AP invoices
- Automated workflow processing
- Default invoice coding
- Analytics reporting
- Management of retention and storage of AP documents
Working with American Senior Communities, DataServ created and executed a tailored plan as part of the phased project rollout. American Senior Communities began the rollout with 6 pilot facilities. After three weeks, with very few challenges, the pilot was rolled out to half of the 91 communities and, in three months, were fully up and running across all locations. American Senior Communities had planned to complete the rollout in 6 months and due to a seamless pilot and initial rollout, they completed the transition in half the original time. DataServ provided the team with comprehensive training on all P2P capabilities to support this new program. And the DataServ Client Success team assists whenever employees have issues or questions.
Value
American Senior Communities was looking for one central repository for invoices, a uniform automated workflow, and a state-of-the-art SaaS solution to reduce errors, speed up invoice processing time, and gain visibility into their AP
process so they could more efficiently manage the company’s finances.
Goals of this project were to:
- Decrease late fees
- Reduce processing errors
- Increase visibility into the payables process
- Improve financial controls
The AP team at American Senior Communities is seeing faster approval of invoices and the invoices are getting into the ERP system much quicker. They have been able to make tailoring tweaks to the new solution to improve results, as needed, with the help of their client support representatives at DataServ. The entire startup process took just three months and ASC did not experience any downtime.
Debbie Norris, Sr. Director of Accounts Payable and Payroll at American Senior Communities, is thrilled with the results of their partnership with DataServ. “I can only say how amazing the support team at DataServ has been. I have worked with a lot of software companies and it’s like pulling teeth at times to get help or get your cases resolved. Our cases are being looked at and resolved in a day or two. That is VERY important to us.”
Norris credits the DataServ team for their quick response time and personalized customer service enabling the successful rollout of the new system. “Our experience has been positive and when we run into a bump, DataServ helps resolve it quickly. They aren’t afraid to get upper management involved when needed, and the team keeps you posted where things are in terms of a resolution. You have an account manager that stays with you, this is so important. You need to build a relationship with this person because they are your partner in crime and are here to help you. I like knowing I can go to them and know I will get the Gold Star Treatment.”
Whenever Norris’ employees have a question, she knows that the solutions and customer service provided by DataServ is top notch. “They actually get to you quickly, and a majority of the time, they fix the issue and you don’t see it happen again. They always find a way to solution your challenges… you are not dealing with a solution that you have to put Band-Aids on.”
DataServ has many other client success stories in the form of additional case studies and testimonials. A short phone call or quick email is all it takes to find out more. Call us today at 877-700-DATA (3282), email us at
info@DataServ.com or visit us at www.DataServ.com to get started.
You have an account manager that stays with you, this is so important. You need to build a relationship with this person because they are your partner in crime and are here to help you. I like knowing I can go to them and know I will get the Gold Star Treatment.
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