BRP Initiative Defintions
BRP Initiative Defintions
Name / Description / Capital CostAuto-Ordering / Auto ordering is a process whereby the system suggests the amount of stock to be ordered for each product line based on parameters such as historical usage, stock on hand and orders pending. The current functionality in the eFinancials system does not support a dynamic re-order level (ROL) nor does it produce a dynamic re-order quantity (ROQ). The proposed enhanced functionality will ensure the ROL is updated daily to reflect the most recent usage. / £5,000
Emailing with Attachments / The FPL solution supports the emailing of transactional documents to customers. However, it does not facilitate the emailing of associated back up in the form of attachments. Inter-HSCNI billing requires evidence to be attached to invoices and therefore, resource is required to print invoices, attachments and post to the AP SSC. They then have to scan the invoices, attachments, perform coding and route to the relevant approver. To minimise resource requirements for both the AR and AP SSCs emailing of attachments should be enabled on the AR side removing the physical printing and postage requirement. / £30,000
IDT (AR) / Inter-HSCNI invoicing makes up a significant proportion of the AR SSC transaction processing and is also reliant on subsequent processing by the AP SSC. In essence, there are eight stages end-to-end:
1. Request created and sent by Trust A to AR SSC, to invoice Trust B;
2. AR SSC create invoice and issue to Trust B (with supporting documentation);
3. AP SSC receive, scan, code and route to Trust B approver;
4. AP SSC chase Trust B approver to approve invoice;
5. AR SSC credit controllers chase outstanding debt with AP SSC;
6. AP SSC make payment to AR SSC;
7. AR SSC receipt; and
8. Inter-indebtedness managed between AR and AP SSCs and Trust representatives.
IDT would eliminate the AP SSC involvement and reduce the transactional input required by AR SSC, thereby enabling them to focus their attention on chasing outstanding debt, transferring of funds and inter-indebtedness management. / £5,000
FPM (AR) / FPM was introduced to each HSC organisation as part of the implementation of the FPL solution. From an AR perspective the introduction was primarily limited to request for sales invoices and customer creation. There were, however, twenty six forms designed as part of the solution. In relation to AR there are an additional two forms which are not in use. In order to introduce these forms authorisation frameworks and escalation processes need to be setup. In addition changes to the forms themselves are now required as the perceived requirements for the forms has changed with the knowledge of the system post Go Live. / £5,340
Extended use of eReturns / Non-debtor income received by Trust Facilities is recorded on a combination of Kalamazoo and Excel Uploader sheets which are submitted to AR SSC. eReturns is functionality within the FPL solution which allows staff in Trust Facilities to record non-debtor income and the associated lodgements. Therefore, removing the need for Kalamazoo or Excel Uploader sheets. eReturns has been deployed in a limited number of facilities but feedback from users is that enhancements are required in terms of the forms and receipts before it could be deployed further. / £8,000
Extended use of DDs / The ability to record and process Direct Debits is included within the functionality of the FPL solution. To date it has been deployed within one Trust on a pilot basis. It is believed that deployment within the other Trusts would benefit the AR function as well as offer an increased number of payment methods to patients. In order facilitate further deployments changes are required for each Trust to invoice layouts, which are required to disclose DD collect and terms, and instalment plan documentation. / £10,780
Self-billing / Self billing is a payment method whereby a supplier is paid on the basis of Goods Receipted (GRN) rather than upon the presentation of an invoice. It has the advantage of decreasing the amount of invoices submitted for payment and increases the 3 way match success by virtue of creating an invoice to match the GRN. In order for Self billing to operate successfully a supplier must sign up to the process and staff receipting goods must do so on a timely basis. It has the disadvantage that where a query arises it is either because goods have not been receipted; requiring end user intervention or a proof of delivery (POD), or the order prices are incorrect. These could take longer to resolve than standard invoice queries. / £21,560
Cloud Invoicing with Auto Coding / Cloud invoicing is a service which receives emailed copies of invoices and converts them to entries on the invoice register. It differs from the scanning solution which is currently being operated because instead of interpreting the image of an invoice using optical character recognition (OCR) it reads the contents of the emailed invoice from its source data. OCR requires templates to inform the system where to find data on the face of the invoice image. Cloud invoicing looks for key words within source data so it is less dependent on templates. Cloud invoicing is not as limited in the amount of information it can receive from an invoice. This information can be used to apply logic and, therefore, code transactions prior to entry in the register. This in turn facilitates automatic routing to an approver. / £153,938
Extended use of FPM (AP) / FPM was introduced to each HSC organisation as part of the implementation of the FPL solution. The introduction was primarily limited to the approval of invoices. There were, however, twenty six forms designed as part of the solution. In relation to AP there are an additional two forms which are not in extensive use. In order to introduce these forms authorisation frameworks and escalation processes need to be setup. In addition changes to the forms themselves are now required as the perceived requirements for the forms has changed with the knowledge of the system post Go Live. / £10,780
Supplier Portal / Analysis of the telephone records of the AP office in Ballymena has shown that a considerable proportion of staff time is used answering queries from suppliers in relation to outstanding invoices, queries etc. The FPL solution offers a supplier portal whereby a supplier could connect to the system and track progress on orders approval and verify when a payment is to be or has been made. In order to make this functionality available to suppliers two steps need to be followed. The first is a penetration test of the portal by a specialist company to ensure that the portal is secure and no unauthorised system access can be gained. The second is a housekeeping exercise to remove any outstanding orders which have been confirmed in the system but not marked as completed. While this exercise would have to be performed by HSC staff the anticipated volume of these deletions is such that ABS assist will be required. / £10,390
Supplier Punch Out / The current method for making contracted items available to end users in eProc requires PaLS staff to upload contract information. This has worked well but has a few draw backs. The first is the application of price changes. The system does not allow for price changes to be set in advance. This means that PaLS staff must update contracts in eProc on the day a price changes. A failure to do so will result in an invoice match failure later in the payment process. The second is that the continued maintenance of the contracts and prices in eProc means that a decision has had to be made on how many can be maintained, this in turn has limited how many are available to end users.
The system allows for integration with marketplaces. Marketplaces are portals where suppliers offer their products. The products offered are tailored to the agreed contracts. The product information, including prices, is maintained by the supplier. However, no changes can be applied without the customer, in this case HSC, approval.
The use of a marketplace would also bring the ability to communicate electronically with suppliers through the use of XML orders and XML invoices. / £174,828
IDT (AP) / Inter-HSCNI invoicing makes up a significant proportion of the AR SSC transaction processing and is also reliant on subsequent processing by the AP SSC. In essence, there are eight stages end-to-end:
1. Request created and sent by Trust A to AR SSC, to invoice Trust B;
2. AR SSC create invoice and issue to Trust B (with supporting documentation);
3. AP SSC receive, scan, code and route to Trust B approver;
4. AP SSC chase Trust B approver to approve invoice;
5. AR SSC credit controllers chase outstanding debt with AP SSC;
6. AP SSC make payment to AR SSC;
7. AR SSC receipt; and
8. Inter-indebtedness managed between AR and AP SSCs and Trust representatives.
IDT would eliminate the AP SSC involvement and reduce the transactional input required by AR SSC, thereby enabling them to focus their attention on chasing outstanding debt, transferring of funds and inter-indebtedness management.