Company Expands Lexmark Relationship for Shared Services Efficiency: “We’re finding every field and validating every field on the document.”

Lexmark’s Perceptive Software announces that Siemens, a Germany-based Fortune 60 company operating in more than 180 countries, has automated accounts payable operations in one of the technology giant’s European Shared Services Centers with Perceptive Intelligent Capture.

Within nine weeks of project kick-off, Intelligent Capture became operational within the company’s SAP system, providing hands-free invoice classification, header and line-item field data extraction, line pairing and routing for approval, thus eliminating manual data entry routines, enabling immediate visibility into the accounts payable process, boosting productivity and freeing up personnel for value-added activities within the Siemens shared services operation, which employs more than 6,000 people.

Siemens has reported an immediate improvement in productivity for affected routines, with users pursuing even greater levels of automation through process refinement.
In initial proof of concept testing, without the creation of templates or anchor text, Intelligent Capture demonstrated an ability to capture and process the majority of invoice field data sight unseen. Specifically, the technology was able to take invoices that were not being recognised by the company’s existing solution, achieve 100% vendor determination for these invoices and perform high levels of data extraction without any special customisation.
Following the implementation of the company’s global finance bundling efficiency initiative, which involved a consolidation of their financial services organisation, Intelligent Capture allowed Siemens to further automate and harmonise their processes.

Siemens is also using Intelligent Capture as a component of the company’s solution in Germany, for classifying other financial documents and vendor correspondence.

Lexmark has a long-standing relationship with Siemens for the integration of Lexmark output devices and supplies, which are customised and packaged with Siemens healthcare diagnostic equipment in the U.S. and Belgium. The combined Lexmark-Siemens offering is sold to customers in more than 130 countries through specialised resellers around the world.

Video: Customer Success: Siemens Global Shared Services.

Supporting Quotes

“Our main problem was that we had some OCR technology in place that extracted the data from the invoice, but we still had the additional step of manual checking and making sure everything was correct,” said Simeon Weibler, senior project manager, Siemens Global Shared Services. “We didn’t have that full confidence of having correct data in the system. With Perceptive’s Intelligent Capture in place, we’re finding every field and validating every field on the document, which I find very exciting; the solution makes sure things are in place, whereas only people could get them in place previously.”

“Perceptive Software was the missing link we needed, as the technology was really able to read documents the way a human being would,” said Karin Springer, process manager for incoming invoices, Siemens Global Shared Services. “The implementation saw very good cooperation between the development team and our project team, which made it possible to go live with Intelligent Capture nine weeks after implementation began.”

“One of the most pleasing aspects of working with Perceptive Software is their dedication to the customer,” said David Mottram, head of change projects, Siemens Global Shared Services. “They have been there for us every step of the way. They promised that they would implement this project within a certain time frame, and they’ve done it on time and on budget.”

“Siemens is one of the world’s largest and most well-established names in electronics and electrical engineering, with a truly global reach and the ability to invest in any technology that supports their mission of providing first-rate customer service,” said Scott Coons, president and CEO, Perceptive Software. “That they have turned to Perceptive Software is a testament to our unique ability to deliver a platform for effectively augmenting shared services strategies, without being limited by differences in languages, currencies and regulations. The Siemens story is yet another example of how the savvy combination of world-class technology and a well-tuned shared services model can enable the world’s most complex organisations to create control, accountability and optimal productivity on a global scale.”