Case study: ALSTOM's expense-cycle time improves by 400%

Latest news from Incharge Group

06-Sep-2007

Identifying the inefficiencies that were costing ALSTOM dearly

The Business Improvement Project Team set about measuring and analysing the company’s expense management process. Expense reporting was a manual, labour intensive cycle. On average, it took 75 days from when the American Express corporate card statement was issued to employees to data entry into the financial ledger, and this was unacceptably slow.

Prior to deploying Incharge ALSTOM’s employees were using a spreadsheet to enter expense reports, including coding details and calculation of totals. They would attach receipts and hand the paperwork to their line manager for approval. The paperwork was then passed to the accounts department for a final review before manual keying of the information into the financial ledger. Invariably the accounts department would have to manually correct report errors.

The Project Team also discovered that the manual system was not fully FBT compliant and did not maximise GST recovery. Excessive non-value-add operations existed, including delays, rework loops, transportation, expediting, inspections and signatures.

To remove these process constraints and bottlenecks, a fundamental redesign of the existing system was required to give quantum leap improvement – process automation.

Why did ALSTOM choose Incharge Expense Management?

At this stage, the Project Team decided it was time to explore expense automation solutions. After a comprehensive review of available products from a number of providers, ALSTOM identified Incharge as the best solution to truly automate its desired expense process. The ability and willingness of Incharge to customise its core product to precisely match the ALSTOM business requirements was the key differentiator in the selection process.

Peter Bounsall, Executive General Manager Business Improvement for ALSTOM Power Service became aware of Incharge Group during his team’s analysis of the old system. “From our first meeting, Incharge have been truly flexible in their approach. They understood our business requirements immediately and the level of technical support and response time we’ve received has met our expectations, he says.”

Incharge now automates the entire expense management process, saving time and money for efficiency

Employees now submit expense reports electronically through the Incharge user-friendly web enabled application available both online and offline. Automated daily import of American Express credit card expense items allows employees to record expenses as they occur, accelerating the expense process cycle by enabling them to submit completed expense reports as soon as they establish a network connection. The native workflow capability and approval mechanisms within Incharge have significantly reduced the time it takes to receive approval and move on for reimbursement. The whole process is now truly automatic and there is a seamless interface with the financial ledger.

Full tax compliance and e-mail alerts allows employees to get on with their jobs

Expense information is now consistent and accurate, and with the automated tax calculator, the process is GST and FBT compliant. ALSTOM’s employees also like the fact that Incharge provides them with email alerts so they know when their reports have received manager and accounts approval.

Expense cycle time improved by 400% leading to better management information and cash flow

Ian Lisle, Business Improvement Specialist for ALSTOM has been responsible for as the Business Improvement Specialist responsible for liaising with Incharge throughout the implementation process and he has already done the figures. “We have seen the expense cycle time improve by a staggering 400%, leading to better management information and cash flow. Our business model suggested Incharge would pay for itself in one year and indications are this will be significantly improved.”

Incharge is confirmed as an ALSTOM ‘business best practice’, with huge benefits for remote employees

Bounsall and Lisle have identified Incharge as a ‘business best practice’ and, with the success at North Ryde they are now in the process of implementing Incharge throughout Australia and New Zealand. The implementation will be aided by the fact that there is no application to be installed on users’ machines; instead, they will only need internet access. This will be a huge benefit for ALSTOM’s remote site workers.

More information

David Hancock
Managing Director
Incharge Group
Tel: (02) 8214 6522

OR

Peter Bounsall
Executive General Manager - Business Improvement
ALSTOM Power Service
Tel: (02) 8870 6000