Centura Health

Challenge

Centura’s accounts payable (AP) department processes between 30,000 and 40,000 invoices each month. Sending hard copies between locations by courier consumed employees’ time and delayed approval processes, particularly when providing duplicate copies of misplaced documents was needed. Centura decided to find an integrated document management, imaging and workflow solution that would speed its centralized AP procedures by eliminating paper inefficiencies. Perceptive Content was selected to meet this requirement.

“Lexmark Healthcare’s Infor Lawson partner status appealed to us,” says Linda Schwarztkopf, director of AP and payroll. “Perceptive Content is more versatile and easier to use and maintain than other products we evaluated.”

Solution

Seamless Infor Lawson integration

Unlike many products that can obstruct host application operations, Perceptive Content complements Centura’s existing core systems. Using patented LearnMode™ technology, it tightly integrated with Centura’s Infor Lawson Financials suite as part of a timely implementation that delivered rapid return on investment.

“Having an implementation consultant who’s experienced with Lawson deployments was helpful,” says Brian Aoyagi, AP and payroll systems analyst.

“With Lexmark Healthcare, there are no hidden setup costs, so the up-front price is accurate.”

Attending a Perceptive Content training class gave administrators at Centura the chance to hone their new skills in realistic environments. This practical experience primed Centura to manage Perceptive Content independently and facilitated an early knowledge transfer to the organization’s entire user base. “Training helped us understand Perceptive Content as a complete system,” Schwartzkopf says. “It prepared us to run in-house training sessions for managers.”

Anywhere, anytime content access

When relying on paper processes, Centura employees spent hours archiving, searching for, printing and mailing hard copies. Perceptive Content has eradicated these time-consuming diversions and the cost of using a courier service to transport documents. Authorized users retrieve content with a single click, and WebNow, the browser- based complement to Perceptive Content, extends instant access to employees in remote locations.

“WebNow users can retrieve documents from anywhere,” Aoyagi says. “It allows us to find information immediately when vendors call and to quickly approve invoices from any of our facilities.”

Results

Expediting invoice approval with automated workflow

Perceptive Content’s workflow features helped Centura standardize its business processes. A user-friendly design tool makes it easy for Centura to reassign workflow responsibilities if an employee is absent or if the organization’s business procedures alter.

“Perceptive Workflow is easy to manage, so we can make changes without calling for help,” Aoyagi says. A list of workflow guidelines, such as sending invoices valued at $10,000 or more to a higher level of management for final approval, give employees step-bystep instructions for processing documents efficiently. Reporting functionality allows Centura to track the movement of documents through defined channels.

“With Perceptive Workflow, it’s easy to see who has documents and how long they’ve had them,” Schwartzkopf says. “It gives us a document trail, without the paper.”

Before Perceptive implementation, AP associates manually sorted incoming invoices and sent them by courier to managers at other Centura locations. After approval, invoices were sent by courier back to the AP department where employees entered invoice details into Infor Lawson Financials. The whole process took up to three weeks.

Perceptive Content reduced the timeframe to 3-5 days. Documents are scanned into Perceptive Content and routed to approval workflow queues, and an e-mail notification is sent to alert the appropriate manager that new invoices have arrived. The approver accesses the queue and signs off on the documents. He or she then clicks Send, and the invoices go back to the person who sent them.

“Perceptive Workflow ensures documents go back and forth quickly between the right people,” Schwartzkopf says. “It also eliminates the chance of documents being misplaced.”

Eliminating redundant effort

Another benefit workflow provides is the elimination of process redundancies. Instead of calling the AP department to check on the progress of an invoice or requesting a hard copy, managers at Centura facilities quickly locate documents in Perceptive Content. The product also removes the need for Centura to clear out files from previous years to make room for new incoming documents. Perceptive Content reporting functionality ensures that only one copy of each invoice is scanned into workflow, reducing the incidence of payment duplication.

“Perceptive Content is a huge time-saver,” Aoyagi says. “It also cuts down the cost of transporting documents between offices.”

As part of a farsighted IT plan, Centura will increase the number of Perceptive Content users to 500 and extend advantages such as instant document access and simplified workflow to four other hospitals. The organization also is exploring the possibility of using Perceptive Content to process documents in the payroll department. As Centura’s document management needs diversify, Perceptive Content will continue to support the provision of high-quality, compassionate healthcare services to the residents of Colorado.