Time and Cost Savings With Enterprise Financial Management
Organization Profile
- Industry: K-12 Education
- Location: Irving, Texas
- Number of employees: 4,423+
- Number of students: 33,785
- A Tyler client since: 2005
- Tyler Solutions Used: Enterprise ERP, Content Manager, Versatrans
Challenges
Irving Independent School District, Texas, was searching for a better method to streamline the entry of requisitions and distribution of purchase orders from requisitions. Across the district, numerous hours were spent by campus and department secretaries obtaining quotes for requisitions. Secretaries had to enter each item as a separate line, and then attach the quote in Content Manager. Once the approval process of the requisition was completed, it was then up to the secretary to send the purchase order to the vendor.
Irving ISD employs more than 100 secretaries who are required to enter all the proper information to comply with the specific purchasing guidelines. The district was searching for a way to streamline the process so that it could save time and provide more accurate purchase orders. They trust Tyler software and regularly look within the Enterprise ERP solution to see if a module exists that would solve their problems. “As usual, we found the solution in Enterprise Financial Management just waiting to be implemented,” said the district’s purchasing supervisor, Terry Martella.
We always look within our Enterprise ERP software to see if a module or solution exists that would solve our problem. As usual, we found the solution in Enterprise Financial Management just waiting to be implemented.
Terry Martella
Purchasing Supervisor
Solution
rving ISD selected Enterprise Financial Management to work in conjunction with Enterprise Forms and Content Manager to provide a total solution for the district’s purchasing department.
Before implementation, the purchasing and technology departments collaborated to define the requirements of both Irving ISD and vendors so they could successfully deploy as the district’s new online purchasing solution.
To implement online ordering, high volume vendors were identified and selected based on their ability to work within the technology guidelines. They started with three vendors who were able to provide support and testing prior to implementation. Secretaries were brought in for hands-on training, and the implementation ran smoothly.
Results
The implementation of the online ordering system has made a huge impact on time spent by the secretaries entering requisitions, as well as purchasing staff in the conversion of requisitions to purchase orders. The approval process became faster because the requisition becomes the quote, and the purchasing department no longer had to check each individual line for accuracy because it had been imported from the vendor’s site with the district’s contracted pricing.
Since the implementation, the district hasn’t had duplications of orders, which results in fewer returns. They spend less time dealing with customer service related issues because they are not experiencing variations between purchase orders and invoice pricing. And accuracy of orders results in fewer change order requests.
he office supply vendor is an example of drastic time and cost savings. Before implementing procurement and vendor self-service from Enterprise Financial Management, 2,217 purchase orders were issued. Secretaries would have to obtain the quote, enter requisition, add attachments to Content Manager and then release the requisition. This process took a minimum of 5 minutes per order (184 total hours). With Enterprise Financial Management, the secretaries import the entire order from the vendor site and then allocate and release the requisition. With these efficiencies, the requisition entry time has been cut in half. This is a savings of 92 hours in requisition entry alone.
he purchasing approval time has also decreased giving the purchasing staff significantly more time for daily tasks. Overall, secretary satisfaction and vendor response has been positive. Vendors are eager to convert to electronic submission of point of sale and are excited to streamline their processes and free up staff time to work on other projects. “They appreciate the fact we are looking for ways to work smarter not harder,” said Martella.