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Network Services Selects Esker Document Process Automation Solutions

By Shamila Janakiraman
TMCnet Contributor

Esker (News - Alert), a company specializing in document process automation solutions, announced that it has been picked by Network Services to automate outbound mailing and faxing of purchase orders, invoices and accounts receivable statements.

Network Services’ newly adopted SAP (News - Alert) system has been integrated with the Esker solution which streamlined the processing of 3,000+ documents per month to over 100 suppliers, customers and member-distributors. Network Services is an international, member-owned distribution network.

Before integrating with SAP and using the Esker solution, Network Services was using systems comprising of three different fax systems and a mail house across three ERP systems which hindered fast progress.

In a release Paul Roche, CIO of Network Services, said, “Each of our operating companies had its own faxing system that went with its ERP system, and when we acquired a new company in 2009, we inherited another ERP system, along with all the quirks that came with it.”

“It made for a terribly inefficient process -- month end mailing processes typically took 7-10 days to reach the end customer, and the processes placed strain on our IT personnel to check and manage multiple servers each day. Plus, we were supporting a large hardware, software and maintenance costs for faxing,” Roche added.

Network Services has successfully leveraged Esker solution to advance from the legacy fax systems and fully integrate outbound faxing and mailing of purchase orders, invoices and AR statements from SAP, said officials.

This has enabled incoming copies of all documents to automatically go back from Esker into the SAP system. This makes available images instantly from the interface and visible from within SAP to all appropriate parties.

Commenting on the benefits of supporting one platform Roche remarked, “From an IT standpoint, and even company-wide, we’ve made major strides in simplification, visibility and efficiency. It’s quite remarkable where several IT people used to have to manage and monitor multiple systems, now everything is in one place, managed by a single person. The mailing process used to take one week or more, and now files sent to Esker to be mailed go out the next day.”

In case of purchase order if suppliers had a doubt a single click accessibility will let them open the PDF directly from within the transaction in SAP. As the same image will be viewed by all parties there is no need to search the fax system and reprint. Users can be set up easily and new users can be given access also easily. The advantages experienced with outbound PO’s and AR documents have instigated the company to go for inbound accounts payable in the future.