Best practice in the eyes of Mark Davies, General Manager Corporate Services at Darebin City Council, dovetails nicely with Council’s ‘Online Vision’ – “to improve the quality, efficiency and responsiveness of services and information provided by Darebin City Council to the staff, residents and other community members using the enabling power of Internet technologies”. Over the past two years, Council has identified a number of key areas that would benefit from utilising browser based technology to automate and improve business processes.
One such area identified was the accounts payable function, where significant productivity gains were to be had through automation.
Darebin recently implemented a system to provide self-service capabilities across the accounts payable function, both internally to their staff and externally to select suppliers. This gives vendors the ability to electronically retrieve payment information, view invoices received, check the status of invoices, and verify receipt of goods information.
The system, TransAXS Vendor from AXS-One, was driven by the need to streamline and reduce the considerable amount of time spent by Council Finance personnel on answering queries in relation to supplier invoices and payments.
The easy to use browser based system has already provided significant productivity gains and will assist Council in developing strategic vendor relationships.
Another recent initiative was to decentralise the purchase order entry process as well as the goods receipting function to provide a paperless approval and online requisitioning system. The software, Expense Cycle Management from AXS-One, gives Darebin control over the entire payment cycle.
The system integrates workflow and imaging technologies to streamline the invoice processing and approval process so that every stage of the payment cycle, from invoice receipt through to payment and beyond, is completely managed.
Council has made a commitment to Resource Management through enhancements in information technology and the Internet. Both TransAXS Vendor and Expense Cycle Management will aid in establishing this commitment, and in the long term will also provide significant productivity gains within Council’s accounts payable function.
For further information contact Gilly Hen-Boisen at AXS-One on 1300 887 663 or email contactus@axsone.com.au
* Copy supplied by AXS-One Pty Ltd
