Success Stories
Manufacturer obtains key business intelligence data from distribution network.
Challenge
Over 40% of client's volume was sold through distributors. Client's ability to forecast, develop strategic
nationwide customer accounts, monitor new product introductions, and manage consolidated billing was
hampered by the lack of data from distributors.
Solution
- Forte Financial worked with client's functional and technical personnel to design data requirements and adapt internal processes and business intelligence tools to incorporate distributor data.
- Forte Financial analyzed distributors in order to prioritize efforts and focused on top 70 distributors that made 95% of centrally-billed deliveries and managed 95% of equipment.
- Data exchange eliminated manual keying of distributor invoices in order to provide centralized bill to key national accounts regardless of whether product was delivered by client or sub-distributor.
- New process tightened reporting and controls on client-owned equipment under distributor management.
Forte Financial Services
Forte Financial project managers and implementation experts continue to work alongside client personnel to implement data exchange with key distributors. Thus far, Forte Financial personnel have traveled to meet over 50 distributors nationwide to promote the data exchange initiative. Forte Financial project managers coordinate efforts of a project team comprised of client employees and communicate project progress throughout the client organization.
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Distribution company saves $5 million by replacing cash and check collection with EZPay.
Challenge
A nationwide direct-store-delivery food manufacturer had drivers collect checks and cash from COD customers at the time of delivery. Due to expansion beyond its traditional grocery customer base into small format retailers, 14% of the company's customers were COD yet they generated 50% of the incoming receipts and only 3% of total revenue.
Aside from the inherent risk of handling cash, the surrounding business processes were inefficient. Drivers often had to wait to receive payment and needed extra time at the end of their day to batch payments. Payment batches were re-tallied and batched again in local offices and then deposited in local bank accounts once or twice a week. Funds were swept to a concentration account, and cash and check batch paperwork was submitted via mail for reconciliation by corporate cash management.
Solution
- The client eliminated COD all together. Smaller customers now pay via credit cards, debit cards, or ACH direct debit in lieu of cash and checks. This change was accomplished by integrating the company's existing ordering and invoice generation system with a new payment processing engine.
- The company leveraged its existing ERP receivables functionality to automatically generate receipts, obtain authorization of credit card transactions, capture payment, and reconcile settlement.
- Acceptance of electronic payment achieved in excess of $5 million annual savings.
Forte Financial Services
Forte Financial led the design effort to develop the payment solution and partnered with the client's internal technology team to evaluate software solutions. Forte Financial provided project management services throughout the development and installation of the new payment solution.
In addition, Forte Financial provided implementation project leadership as the new payment process was piloted and rolled out nationwide. Profit Centers were initially skeptical and feared that client could alienate smaller customers by mandating electronic payment. Forte Financial's change management experts facilitated acceptance of the change and ensured that 95% of COD customers were satisfactorily migrated to electronic payment, had applied for credit terms, or were transferred to a sub-distributor.
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Image lockbox saves $1.3 million annually by eliminating manual processing of 72% of targeted payments.
Challenge
Client pursued an aggressive growth strategy, and payment volume was increasing steadily. Company received payments at four different lockbox banks inherited through acquisitions. All payments were applied manually by headquarters-based accounting staff which keyed remittance information into ERP receivables module.
Solution
- Forte Financial worked with client's receivables and cash management personnel to conduct a nationwide RFP to determine new image lockbox bank and merged four existing lockboxes with one full-service provider.
- Client now utilizes standard EDI interfaces into its ERP to load payment and remittance data from the bank's image lockbox. Forte Financial collaborated with client's in-house technical team to develop custom pre-processing to validate and augment data before upload into the ERP receivables module.
- Auto Lockbox achieved $1.3 million annual savings net and enabled automatic application of payments to invoices, eliminating manual processing of 72% of the payment volume and increasing transaction volume without increasing headcount.
- The company now processes nearly double the number of payments with less staff. Moreover, aging reports are more reliable because funds are posted to customer accounts more quickly.
Forte Financial Services
Forte Financial led the RFP effort to identify a new lockbox provider. Forte Financial also provided project management services throughout the development and installation of the new receivables solution.
In addition, Forte Financial provided implementation support as the new process was piloted and rolled out nationwide. Forte Financial developed a phased implementation plan and designed customized training materials for the clients' receivables team. Forte Financial personnel led effort to train bank's lockbox personnel on clients' complicated remittances and led weekly meetings with bank personnel until all processing challenges had been overcome.
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Outsourcing accounts payable check printing improves security.
Challenge
Client printed all accounts payable checks on site at corporate headquarters and perceived that fraud risk was too high.
Solution
- Significantly enhance security by outsourcing check printing, thereby removing check printer and check stock from corporate office and implementing Positive Pay.
- Extract payment data from ERP payables module and transmit to bank using standard EDI file format. Bank prints checks, transmits wires, and initiates ACH payments per instructions embedded in the file.
- Enabled restructuring of Accounts Payables team, allowing employees to focus on customer service for vendors and various profit centers.
Forte Financial Services
Forte Financial provided project management services throughout the development and implementation of the new payables process. Forte Financial led the RFP effort to identify outsourced check printing provider and arranged for key members of accounts payable staff to visit vendor site and observe operations. As a result, employees became comfortable with both the new process and the enhanced security.
Profit centers were initially resistant to the change as it impacted their ability to hand-deliver payments to key vendors and bonus checks to key employees. Forte Financial provided change management support as the new process was introduced and developed a comprehensive communication plan to address concerns.
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Purchase card program nets $900,000 in annual savings.
Challenge
Decentralized client organization maintained petty cash accounts at profit center locations for small dollar purchases. Purchases were difficult to monitor and many one-time vendors were set up in the ERP payments module.
Solution
- Established a company-wide purchase card program, providing significant time savings at profit centers, manufacturing plants, and corporate headquarters.
- Reduced labor-intensive manual entry and approval of small dollar purchases.
- Enabled automatic mapping of expenses to the appropriate GL accounts.
- Purchase card program achieved $900,000 annual savings net and eliminated manual processing of 67% of target payment volume.
Forte Financial Services
Forte Financial led the RFP effort to identify purchase card vendor and provided project management expertise throughout the implementation.
Profit centers were initially resistant to the change as they perceived purchase cards as a loss of local control. Forte Financial provided change management support to increase buy-in as the new process was introduced and developed a comprehensive training program to address profit center concerns.
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Electronic statements improve cash flow and increase customer satisfaction.
Challenge
Client organization resisted providing monthly statements to customers because statement process was inefficient. Paper invoices were printed and mailed each month, requiring significant administrative support.
Solution
- Enabled delivery of customer statements via fax and email, eliminating costly outsourced printed and mailed statements.
- As many large customers paid by statement rather than by invoice, faster delivery of statements prompted payment at minimum one week earlier, improving cash flow.
- Simplified statement delivery enabled client to provide statements to more customers, improving customer satisfaction.
Forte Financial Services
Forte Financial provided project management services throughout the development and implementation of the new statements process.
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