| KMI Plus is part of United Utilities AMP4 Capital Program delivery team. |
In taking a forward-thinking approach to financial information management, KMI Plus is now able to process hundreds of invoices in minutes rather than days, and the company is also able to archive historical accounting information electronically rather than having to take up valuable storage space in the office. KMI Plus' suppliers also benefit from a reduction in their paper, printing and postage costs, and they are guaranteed to be paid on time.
Company background
KMI brings together the combined strengths of Kier Group PLC, The Murphy Group and Interserve Project Services Ltd., creating a partnership to meet the current and future demands of the UK Water Industry Asset Management Programme. KMI also operates alongside Mouchel as KMI Plus providing detailed design and construction services as part of United Utilities' £400million AMP4 Capital Programme delivery team. The Parent Companies of KMI have a combined annual turnover in excess of £4 billion, giving the organisation the financial strength, skills, and resources necessary to execute water projects of any size throughout the UK.
Paperless invoicing
As a forward-thinking construction company, KMI Plus was keen to take advantage of the opportunities for electronic information management across its supply chain and create time, cost and productivity savings.
Peter Hellewell, Cost & Administration Manager, at KMI Plus, explains, "We wanted to reduce the volume of paper within the finance department, reduce the admin burden on finance staff and improve transparency across the supply chain."
In order to meet these goals, the company selected Enterprise Content Management (ECM) specialist, The Content Group, to implement a new e-billing platform. "The Content Group's experience with other contractors with similar business issues and processes gave us confidence in their ability to meet our expectations, and we liked the professionalism and technical knowledge of their consultants," Hellewell said.
KMI Plus has a hugely complex supply chain and over a 12-month period the company receives in the region of 80,000 invoices. With this in mind, KMI Plus was keen to automate the delivery of invoices from its suppliers. To achieve this objective, The Content Group recommended the Formscape document process automation system, and the Invu document archiving system. Both systems were integrated with the company's COINS financial software, enabling the creation of a paperless invoicing strategy across the entire organisation.
Over time, the majority of KMI Plus' suppliers have embraced the new e-billing business model and have started to submit electronic invoices. Currently, over 60% of invoices are submitted electronically and the company has set a goal of increasing this to 80% by April 2010.
More Water & WasteWater International Current Issue Articles
More Water & WasteWater International Archives Issue Articles
