The Overview
ETCO – The Electrical Training Company is NZ’s leading provider of Electrical Apprenticeships, training and employment. ETCO operates from 7 locations across NZ, some of which are regional offices catering to standard trainings and apprenticeships and night classes in 30 cities across NZ. The various locations are managed by Regional Managers responsible for all operational activities within their region.
The Challenge
The nature of the training business requires consistent purchase of materials, tools and equipment from the various locations. Since the administration is centralized, the purchase requisitions from the various department managers was sent to the Auckland office through a legacy system, which then had to be printed out and then approved by the appropriate authority before a formal purchase order could be sent out to the suppliers.
The invoices would then arrive to the central office in Auckland via email or regular snail mail. The administrative staff would then have to manually match the invoice to a corresponding purchase order and then phone the department managers to check if the goods or services were in fact delivered as per the purchase order. Once confirmed, the invoices had to be manually entered into the financial system. This awaited another approval process before the invoices could be paid.
The entire process commencing from the release of a purchase order to the payment of an invoice was time consuming, laborious and prone to errors.
The Approach
With DX2, the Managers are now able to create purchase requisitions easily which instantly is visible to the approver via an automated workflow. The approver is now able to approve the purchase requisitions either on their mobile devices or email or a browser, which instantly sends out a formal purchase order to the supplier.
The Department Managers are then able to easily receipt goods or services, confirming receipt to the administrative staff, eliminating the need for a phone call. DX2 matches the invoices to the correct Purchase Orders, allowing the administrative staff to easily push it through for approvals. Once approved, the invoices are automatically recorded into the financial system as a payables invoice which can be cleared as a payment to the supplier, eliminating the need for manual entries and therefore minimizing the possibility of errors.
The Future
DX2 is a digital document exchange platform and has several other features such as facilitating integration between disparate systems. ETCO is embracing the digitization features of DX2 and integrating payroll transactions from their payroll solution into their financial system; Dynamics Business Central. In addition, ETCO has an online web portal which allows for students, apprentices and corporate entities to register and pay for courses online. The registration details along with customer information and course information is recorded in a CRM system. ETCO will be using DX2 to integrate information from the web portal into their CRM system and at the same time, register the online financial transaction into their finance system, Dynamics Business Central whilst sending out the registration confirmation to the customer, all in an instant.
ETCO is also ready for future e-Invoicing and with DX2’s EDI capabilities, ETCO is now ready to trade with other large suppliers who insist on EDI.
The Conclusion
DX2 has transformed the way ETCO conducts business
- ETCO now has better visibility of spend as and when it happens
- Staff are empowered by a more connected workspace and better utilized time. Various regional offices can now work together like one large office in one location with transparency and visibility.
- With DX2’s mobile capability, ETCO escapes the constraints of time and location by providing a digital platform that is available 24/7
- ETCO now drives engagement and collaboration seamlessly to build networks and partnerships