Using workflow technology to automate invoice processing at GAC World Logistics

GAC (www.gacworld.com) is one or the world’s leading providers of shipping, logistics and marine services. Established in the 1956 in Kuwait and has been growing ever since, expanding its geographical coverage to serve customers around the world.

GAC headquarters are located in Dubai Jebel Ali Free Zone with regional offices in Houston, Cairo and Singapore. GAC is represented in around 1,000 locations worldwide and employs around 8,000 persons.

Business situation

GAC finance department faces an overwhelming daily workload of incoming shipping invoices to be routed in a complex, multiple-stage registration and approval process involving many teams.

Approval matrices and delegation rules depend on invoice amount, type and number of entries.
Although invoice data ends up in Dolphin, the GAC custom-built accounting software, the approval process is 100% manual and paper-based, as such, inevitable human errors cause mishandled or lost documents, processing delays and dissatisfied customers.

Furthermore, the invoices and their supporting documents end up in indexed storage boxes that need an exponentially increasing storage space and introduce unavoidable retrieval delays.

Solution

After considering the alternatives, the first decision was made to use a workflow engine rather than a custom designed client-server application to automate the approval process for the following reasons:

•    As approval rules keep changing, the solution has to provide an easy method of changing its core business intelligence with a minimum or preferably zero amount of hard coding. The graphical workflow process design tool provided an ideal solution.
•    Building a system from the grounds-up requires many redundant functionalities: user security and privilege management, auditing and reporting which will add to the project's total cost.

The second decision was to use a document management system (DMS) to digitize paper invoices and supporting documents. Scanning and storing the document on the server enables instant document delivery during the approval process as well as near instant retrieval time in later searches. And using a DMS instead of just dumping the image files on a shared folder ensures proper security settings and precise access control.

The third decision was between web or Windows application front end for user’s workstations, the choice was the Windows application for following reasons:

•    Users need to scan, print and image-enhance documents, so an ActiveX or similar technology browser add-on installation was required on the clients’ machines anyway.
•    Users need to enter invoice data in an MS Excel-like grid control with very sophisticated and elaborate data validation against business rules defined in look-up tables and text files. As typing speed was a key factor in overall performance, we felt that the AJAX-based validation was too slow for fast operators, let alone page refreshing when necessary.

After these key decisions were made, the following project components were built:

•    A server-side service to watch for incoming invoice images and XML formatted data from Dolphin accounting system operators where invoices were initially registered and given unique identifiers. The service validates invoice data and filter corrupted ones for re-entry.
•    The afore-mentioned client front-end Windows application, where data entry, validation and supporting documents scan take place. The validation rules are totally parameterized and subject to change at any time by administrators as business rules change.
For ease of upgrade, the client is equipped with a version check functionality against the server, whenever a new version is placed on the server, all client machines are updated automatically without human intervention.
•    The approval process business logic was designed in the graphical process design tool, complete with integration scripts and agents, alerts, timers and proper approval authority delegation rules.
•    A custom designed database to log detailed entry and approval transactions, the database is used to provide the infrastructure for very detailed productivity and business monitoring reports covering individuals, sections and departments.

Then the entire system was deployed, which comprises the above mentioned components, plus, of course, the workflow engine and the document management server.

Major challenges:

•    Building data validation routines based on administrator-modifiable text files and tables, the rules are very complicated and require deep understanding of the business logic.
•    Imbedding the sophisticated delegation of authority rules that are based on multiple factors and parameters into the process logic.

Benefits

When the system went on line after the initial testing phase, the entire approval process was computerized from A to Z, business managers were able to:

•    Locate any particular invoice instantly.
•    Monitor individual as well as group productivity.
•    Interfere and change the invoice route at any time if necessary.
•    Add and remove users to various approval groups.
•    Change validation rules on the fly.
•    Change routing rules when necessary.

While all system operators enjoyed the following advantages:

•    Instant invoice routing with no sneaker net delays.
•    Heads-up, paperless operation, everything they need is right there on their computer screens.
•    Fair workload management, as the workflow engine handled work distribution automatically.
•    Instant retrieval of archived invoices when needed.

Products and services used

1.    NVSSoft’s ArcMate Enterprise Document Management System.
2.    NVSSoft’s ArcMate EZIFlow Workflow system.
3.    Microsoft Windows Server 2003.
4.    Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

Conclusions and wrap-up

When applied properly, workflow engines provide many advantages over traditional, hard-coded business intelligence systems, the flexibility and easy modifiability available in an advanced workflow engine provides excellent ROI over the system’s life span.