Universiteit Gent
UGent: a VIM customer case you can learn from
The Belgian University of Ghent was looking to streamline their manual vendor invoicing process and to automate into the 21st century. Take a look at how we initially implemented and improved VIM for them over the past years.
Our VIM customer case: University of Ghent
As a top international university with 50,000 students and 15,000 employees, Ghent University’s top priority was to migrate from a decentralized system to a more centralized one. So, in 2010 the university was looking for a long-term partner to upgrade their mainly manual invoicing process to an automated process. Enter SQLI, who had just completed the first successful Vendor Invoice Management (VIM) implementation in Europe at that time.
The challenges of a VIM integration for a university
Invoice management for a university comes with its own unique set of challenges.
Ever wanted to know how many vendor invoices a large Belgian university handles on a regular basis? Well, in the case of UGent, it’s 160,000 processed documents per year.
This amount of documents is generated by eleven faculties, containing about 250 different departments which are authorized to make their own purchases. Every one of the 15,000 employees can launch a purchase order in their SAP system. This not only includes academic staff, but also the administrative and catering staff.
Next to the sheer volume of invoices every year, the invoice handling process was very much a decentralized, manual one. Let's illustrate this with an example.
A professor in literature wants to purchase some books for the faculty library. They would submit a purchase order into the system and await the delivery of their books. When the books are delivered, they would sign for delivery and also receive the invoice from the book vendor. This invoice would be sent to the central accountancy department by internal post where it would be scanned and booked.
As you can see, a lot of manual steps and no centralized, controlled way of handling this invoice flow.
And in addition to a voluminous, decentralized, mainly manual process there are also different types of documents, each with their own handling process.
We already gave you an example of the purchase process, but at UGent there are also processes to refund the cost of external employees – like guest lecturers, or to handle the expense notes of employees.
How did we integrate and optimize OpenText’s VIM for UGent?
In the first phase of the project, we automated the process as much as possible to centralize the whole vendor invoice operation. UGent was already using SAP for their finance processes, for vendor invoices they would be switching from a late archiving process to an early archiving process.
- On arrival, an invoice is given a barcode and is scanned.
- The digital invoice is archived on a certified content repository.
- We introduced the Invoice Capture Center (ICC) as an OCR solution to capture the main invoice information.
- The VIM process then ensures automated invoice processing with consistent rules.
Over the years we implemented several changes to make the system faster, more efficient, and also introduced a central monitoring report.
In 2017 there was an internal switch to an even more paperless process, introducing Mail PDF and EDI as additional input channels. Furthermore, new processes – like refunds and expense notes – were added to the VIM system. These evolutions had several positive consequences for the further automation and extension of the vendor invoice management of UGent:
- A permanent switch from decentralized to centralized, with the introduction of a central email address which is used internally, and by suppliers.
- A new mail solution – Octobox – to support the validation process.
- A new interface making the user experience more intuitive.
Over the last few years, they saw a substantial increase of EDI invoices, and we followed suit with new integrations, built for the future and new legal requirements, like PEPPOL.
When we check the evolution of the project in numbers; they are formidable. Over the course of 7 years the use of the centralized workflow has increased with almost 70% - from 5.35% to 73.55% - and the number of paper invoices decreased by 94%.
In 2023 SQLI assisted with the upgrade to S4/HANA and implemented a new OCR and IES integration. Now UGent is all set to enjoy the benefits of their VIM system, and the automation possibilities it brings.
What are the benefits of a VIM integration?
For UGent there were numerous benefits, which is why they opted for this solution in the first place:
- Scalability: with 22,000 different suppliers (and counting) and more than 1,000 users who are using the system simultaneously, it is important the system is capable of handling all those requests.
- Centralization: by centralizing the invoicing process, it frees up time with the UGent personnel not involved in the accountancy department. Time which can be spent on research, classes, and other activities which benefit the university.
- Automation: by centralizing and automating the whole process, the manual tasks are reduced to a minimum. Streamlining this kind of process makes the accountancy department run more efficiently and reduces the number of errors. And because there are built-in fail-safes throughout the pre-determined process, errors are caught much sooner too.
Using SAP Invoice Management by OpenText enabled us to reduce paper invoices to zero.
Look for a VIM event
In short, UGent is one of our biggest VIM fans, which is why they have been trusting us for more than 10 years to help them with the integration and evolution of the VIM tool.
Are you debating whether you should switch to a VIM solution? Dare to think about it, and should you want more information, we are ready to help you. Our experts have experience in countless industries: there is no reason your company should not benefit from a well-thought-out, proven automated process for your invoices.
Pro-tip: keep an eye on our Events page because we love to talk about this SAP/OpenText product during a webinar or a live event.