Cloud Based Document Exchange Solution

Client Requirements

The client is a leading procurement exchange platform provider that offers full procurement exchange solutions for customers in the healthcare industry. They take the purchase orders issued by the hospitals and invoices raised by the suppliers and transform these documents through their online procurement platform. The platform allows the buyers and suppliers to transact business seamlessly.

In spite of the available electronic solutions, around 80% of all invoices, remittances and payments continue to be on paper. The client wanted a cloud-based platform that facilitates safe, seamless and end-to-end procurement exchange between hospitals & vendor.

Solution

The team developed a cloud-based solution to enhance the procurement platform using IBM Integration Bus. This tool allows business information to flow seamlessly between disparate applications, across multiple hardware and software platforms. It is easy to set and apply rules to the data flowing through the integration hub.

The procurement exchange platform handles invoices, purchase orders, purchase order acknowledgments, Advance Shipping Notifications, Price Catalog and Remittance Advice. Additionally, the system supports the following functions:

• Suppliers can submit their invoices in the respective document format that they follow
• All invoices and purchase orders are converted into a standard format for quick processing and are routed to the respective hospital or supplier
• Provision to validate invoices against the respective purchase orders. After validation, the documents are converted from the standard format to the desired format, before sending them to the hospital or the supplier
• Validation process includes checking for duplicates, invoice issue date (age of the invoice), any mismatch between purchase order and invoice
• Option for hospitals to track their purchase orders, review, approve or reject the invoices

Results

The Seamless data feed into the ERP system of customer. Now both vendors and hospitals gain total transparency on the day-to-day status of all invoices and purchase orders. It delivers all documents in a consistent format and it is easy to track payment discounts and other privileges on purchase orders.

There has been a considerable drop in the vendor calls inquiring about invoice/ payment status. There is now a procedure to handle exceptions that are specific to hospital workflows. Also, there is now an option to scan and send invoices in minimal time.