- Case study
Claiming success through improved expense procedures...
...and boosting revenues in the process
Atkins, a leading engineering and design consultancy with a global client base. Its projects include the Olympic Park for London’s 2012 games, the Dubai Metro for the United Arab Emirates, and comprehensive restoration of the Florida Everglades.
An automated process to simplify and accelerate how employees submitted expenses, how finance processed them, and how the company invoiced clients for them.
We introduced Genpact Cora Orchestration, which cut expense form submission time by 87%, reduced finance’s workload by 10,000 spreadsheets per month, and has saved the company $197,000 per year since 2010, adding up to savings in excess of $1.5 million.
A streamlined expense claims process, resulting in more satisfied clients, happier employees, substantially lower annual administration costs, and consistent cash flow.
Challenge
Atkins has a key operating principle: Do the utmost for clients. To make good on that commitment, the company established an enterprise-wide service delivery process (SDP) that integrates leading providers’ technologies and capabilities, including those from Genpact, Microsoft, and Oracle. The goal was to get the most out of its service delivery and to delight customers in every way possible.
That called for a real change to its expense claims process—one of the first functions Atkins transformed through its SDP. Submitting expenses for reimbursement was a convoluted, highly time-consuming, multi-step manual challenge for the company’s consultants. Because each submission took as long as 15 minutes, people often stockpiled expenses until the amount the company owed them was worth the effort.
The complex and laborious procedure was just as painful for the firm’s finance team, which had to handle 300 spreadsheet-based expense submissions each day. The sheer volume of paper made it difficult to prove the legitimacy of the claims to clients. What’s more, bottlenecks in both submission and processing slowed down the company’s revenue stream, because it couldn’t send invoices to clients on a timely basis.
To keep customers and employees happy — and its revenue and profitability on a steady course — Atkins needed to intelligently automate its expense claims process.
Solution
Atkins introduced a web-based platform, Genpact Cora Orchestration, that smoothly integrated with the existing ERP/finance system.
Employees now manage claims online through their own personal pages on the company’s intranet. Drop-down lists make it easy for both submitters and processors to access the information they need for accurate reimbursements. And they can immediately access previously submitted claims through the intranet.
Now it’s also a snap for managers to authorize claims through their unique intranet pages. With a few clicks of a mouse, they can see any expenses that need approval, and a history of those already processed. They receive e-mail notifications when someone makes an expense claim, minimizing delays in the approval process. Another plus: the newly streamlined process means Atkins can send accurate and complete invoices to its clients on a regular, timely cycle. And this solution was so simple to implement, it went to work and was fully operational in a matter of months.
Impact
By managing its expenses electronically with our digital workflow solution, Atkins has: