MOL Casestudie

Implementing the Invoice module for eye-share Workflow at London based MOL Tankship Management Ltd has been a success. Information Technology Manager, Mark Adkins, lists several reasons why.

“Basically we are able to track where invoices are at any time of the approval process. Previously invoices were registered, printed onto paper and delivered to the approver’s desk. The chances of the invoice being approved and returned to the Accounts group, within the stipulated payment window without getting lost were low. The Accounts group would spend a proportion of each day, answering call from suppliers chasing invoices. They would then waste more time trying to locate the missing invoice and payment approval,” Mark remembers.

Easy accessible
With eye-share Workflow Invoice as a common tool in the company, Mark says that all staff members are now able to, easily and immediately, access invoices and confirm the status via the eye-share Workflow Invoice solution.

– Staff members who purchase equipment for our ships for instance, are able to use the system to query old invoices for reference. Previously this would have meant the retrieval of an archive box from an off-site storage facility. Now all invoices are retained in the system for ten years, he says.

– The implementation of eye-Share Workflow Invoice means that 96% of all the invoices are now paid on time. The consequences being a reduction in supplier queries, which has led to the Accounts group becoming more efficient. They no longer waste time running around looking for invoices or status of invoices. Adkins continues.

Major international company
MOL Tankship Management Ltd. is part of the major Japanese shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines. It is a highly international company, with operations worldwide. The office in London has a staff of 55, operating 30 chemical- and oil tankers. The office deals with about 18,000 incoming invoices per year. With eye-share Workflow Invoice implemented, the flow of invoices does not demand a lot of human resources.

– We now have only one staff member dealing with incoming invoices. I would guess that it takes this employee two to three hours a day working with these invoices, Mark says.

Automatic recognition
One of the main reasons for the efficiency of the eye-share Workflow Invoice system is that invoices are recognized automatically.

–Once an invoice is registered, the system will check if all the details are correct, and then automatically decide the workflow it should take for approval. This has saved considerable time for all staff, especially in Purchasing and accounting groups. Human input is only necessary when the system detects incorrect numbers that needs to be checked, says Mark.

Eye-share in sister companies
According to the IT manager, new systems are not always well received among staff members. However, this was definitely not the case for eye-share Invoice.

– Staff members really like this system because it simply saves them so much time. So the system was very well received, Mark remembers.

The company implemented eye-share Workflow Invoice three years ago, and are now in a process of also implementing it in sister companies.

– We have purchased one more eye-share Invoice system for the company MOL LNG, and we are in a process of maybe purchasing a third system for our new China office, Mark says.