An intelligent digital document delivery software has proved a boon for Chloorkop water treatment company Sud-Chemie Water & Process Technologies, streamlining the organisation`s accounts receivable process and improving working capital and cash flow.
The software solution, called Blaster, was installed and customised to meet Sud-Chemie W&PT`s specific requirements by ADM Systems, the Pretoria-based ERP and business intelligence software solutions specialist.
Sud-Chemie provides water treatment solutions and services including a full range of treatment chemicals, softeners, flocculants, coagulants and mobile water purification plants to mines, municipalities and industry in South Africa and other African countries. It generates thousands of invoices every month.
Dean Botha, global business unit controller for Sud-Chemie at Chloorkop, said many of the mines in Africa that the company supplies have head offices in Australia or America and the telefaxing of invoices was often problematic in terms of legibility or non-arrival.
"We needed to find a better way of dealing with this and approached ADM Systems for assistance. The solution they offered was Blaster software, which ADM integrates into Macola back-office financial and accounting software. The solution is very easy to use and is highly automated, allowing us to send invoices either as an e-mail or an Internet fax in just seconds," said Botha.
"For some customers, who still want hard copies, the invoices can be printed and posted or hand-delivered. A modification to the software allows these options to be pre-determined for each customer."
Blaster fully integrates with Microsoft Word and Outlook. Users print to its printer driver, which operates just like any other Windows printer. It determines the recipient and, depending on how the particular customer is set up, it will automatically retrieve the fax number or e-mail address from the linked accounting system and deliver the document in seconds without any action required from the user. Users are automatically advised of successful or unsuccessful delivery.
The software supports Accounts Receivable documentation such as invoices, credit memos, customer statements as well as various order entries, purchase orders and remittance advices. No hardware needs to be installed and dedicated telephone lines are not required.
"The software also generates a full range of invoices for auditing purposes," Botha said. "We are getting paid more quickly and our debtors days are reducing. There are considerably fewer queries and problems and we are seeing the benefits in improved working capital and cash flow. With some organisations the payment cycle has been reduced to 14 days from date of invoice."
Botha added that Blaster was not an expensive solution and that a return on investment is possible within five months based on savings in franking, postage and delivery, labour/time and telephone costs.
ADM Systems managing director Anton Carstens said the Blaster software made digital delivery of important accounting documents as easy as printing to a regular printer.
"Another advantage is that since the software does not share any code base with the linked accounting system, it is an ideal solution for the many companies that have heavily modified accounting systems or those that have elected not to upgrade to the most current version of their accounting software."
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