IOFM Posts

The Institute of Financial Management IOFM Webinar Vendor Management Automation Survey Results

Wednesday, February 6th, 2013

IOFM Webinar Vendor Management Automation Survey Results

   IOFM Webinar:  Vendor Management Automation Survey Results

Date: February 7, 2013
Time: 10:00 AM PT   1 :00 PM ET
Duration: 1 Hour

 

Register NOW

Join us for this one hour interactive webinar to help make your AP department more successful in 2013.  The Institute of Finance & Management (IOFM) recently surveyed finance professionals, including accounts payable department managers, supervisors and controllers, to learn about the level of automation in their organization’s accounts payable department, specifically focusing on the tasks related to vendor/supplier management.

This webinar analyzes the state of vendor management in accounts payable departments today, the perceived benefits of utilizing an automation solution, and the difficulties and obstacles for an AP department that wants automation solutions implemented.

Attend this webinar to learn:

  • The state of vendor management in accounts payable departments today
  • The perceived benefits of utilizing an automation solution
  • The difficulties and obstacles for an AP department that wants automation solutions implemented

You will also get a sneak peak into the Lavante Supplier Information Management application where you will see an automated solution for managing suppliers that is within reach.

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Posted in Industry Associations, IOFM, Lavante, Procurement, Supplier Information Management, Tax ID Numbers, Vendor File Cleansing, Vendor File Management, Webinar | No Comments »

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MGM Resorts Executive Named Controller of the Year by the Institute of Finance and Management

Wednesday, November 28th, 2012

Lavante, a key provider of supplier management solutions, announced today that Rick Arpin, Senior Vice President and Corporate Controller of MGM Resorts International, has been named Controller of the Year by the Institute of Finance & Management(IOFM), a leading industry association for finance professionals. Arpin was selected for successfully leading the company’s centralized Finance Shared Service Center (FSSC) to become a model of efficiency, visibility and effectiveness, and by leveraging technology, including Lavante’s credit recovery solution.  Through these efforts, Arpin and his team were able to achieve improved financial processes and greater profitability for MGM Resorts.

 

Under Arpin’s direction, MGM Resorts’ FSSC has successfully incorporated Lean Process improvements, establishing sound financial processes, streamlining practices and reducing costs. The roll-out of a credit recovery solution from Lavante within the AP department has been a key factor in these accomplishments, enabling MGM Resorts to capture millions of dollars in missing credits from suppliers, earned through duplicate payments, lost shipments, returns or discounts.  Lavante’s Recovery+ solution has also reduced the number of invoices that require extra attention from 51,000 to 2,500 invoices per month, and enables the FSSC AP department to capture earned discounts more frequently.

 

“I’m thrilled to receive the AP Controller of the Year award from the Institute of Finance & Management,” said Arpin.  “I’ve learned first-hand the value that automation brings in driving effective processes and delivering the visibility, control and accurate reporting we need. Automation has been a key component of our success and has helped us reduce costs and improve effectiveness.”

While all the departments benefit from the reduced costs and earned credits that the AP department now realizes, Arpin continues to drive similar initiatives in other departments and has set the standard for the efficiency of Shared Services Centers.   He has built a strong relationship with the Purchasing department, thanks to process improvements in AP, and is bringing additional accounting functions into the shared service center umbrella, streamlining key finance activities.

 

“Under the expertise of Rick Arpin, MGM Resorts’ Finance Shared Service Center exemplifies innovation, quality and control in Finance, leveraging automation to not only increase profitability, but also to  streamline key processes and heighten the role of Finance enterprise-wide,” said Joe Flynn, CEO & co-founder, Lavante.  “I congratulate Rick on this well-earned and prestigious recognition from the Institute of Finance & Management.”

 

About The IOFM Awards

 

The winners of IOFM’s AP Manager of the Year and AP Controller of the Year awards were announced on October 15th in Las Vegas at the 11th Annual Accounts Payable Conference and Expo presented by the Institute of Finance & Management (IOFM).

Competition for these awards was stiff as many nominations were submitted.  The number of nominations submitted for 2012 greatly exceeded the number submitted in 2011, an indication of the increased awareness of the importance of recognizing outstanding performance in the field of Accounts Payable.

The IOFM is the leading source of information tools and resources for professionals across its focus areas. For over a quarter of a century, its newsletters, reference publications, online information services, and conferences have provided authoritative guidance to corporate managers across a wide range of disciplines. 

 

About Lavante

 

Lavante is the leader in on-demand supplier management solutions, including recovery auditand supplier information management applications.  Built with advanced, patented-pending technology, Lavante delivers to the financial arena a new standard in efficient technology-driven solutions that allow companies to quickly drive dollars to the bottom line, improve supplier communications, and assure high supplier data quality.  Lavante solutions are deployed across Fortune 1000 enterprises including the hospitality, retail, entertainment, manufacturing, and medical industries.  Headquartered in San Jose, California, Lavante is privately held and was founded in 2001.  For more information please visit www.lavante.com.

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Posted in AP Case Study, AP Industry, Controller of the Year, Industry Associations, IOFM | Comments Off

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Omnicare Executive Named AP Manager of the Year by the Institute of Finance Management

Wednesday, November 21st, 2012

Lavante, a key provider of supplier management solutions, announced today that Tina McGlasson, Director of Accounts Payable (AP) at Omnicare, a nationwide provider of pharmaceutical services and a valued customer of Lavante, has been selected as AP Manager of the Year by the IOMAs Institute of Finance & Management (IOFM), a leading industry association for finance professionals.  McGlasson was selected for her strategic approach to AP, her focus on continuous improvement and her ability to collaborate across departments to increase the value that AP delivers to the overall organization.

 

McGlasson was instrumental in automating key financial activities, which drove money to the bottom line by providing insight into spend, uncovering potential discounts and recovering credits due to Omnicare from its suppliers.  In addition to elevating the AP function to focus on more strategic processes, McGlasson has been working closely with other departments, such as Procurement, to more effectively manage the travel & expense (T&E) policy.  She has streamlined AP processes by identifying pain points and bottlenecks, and implementing best practices.

 

“It is an honor to be chosen by IOMA’s Institute of Finance & Management for this award,” said McGlasson.  “Automation has enabled us to work more efficiently and has freed up our AP professionals to focus on more strategic, value-added activities that can help our business, such as evaluating spend and identifying ways to save money.“

 

Key to McGlasson’s ability to improve the profitability of Omnicare was her implementation of Lavante’s solution,  Lavante Recovery +, which enables Omnicare to identify hidden credits it is owed from its suppliers for a variety of reasons, such as  duplicate payments, uncredited returns, or discounts.

 

“Tina McGlasson is the consummate AP pro and strategic leader,” said Joe Flynn, CEO & co-founder, Lavante.  “She has elevated the AP function in her organization to focus on more strategic processes, inspires  staff members,  and collaborates across departments and outside the organization to mobilize everyone toward process improvement.   We congratulate her on this well-deserved recognition from IOMA’s Institute of Finance & Management.”

 

About The IOFM Awards

 

The winners of IOFM’s AP Manager of the Year and AP Controller of the Year awards were announced on October 15th in Las Vegas at the 11th Annual Accounts Payable Conference and Expo presented by the Institute of Finance & Management (IOFM).

Competition for these awards was stiff as many nominations were submitted.  The number of nominations submitted for 2012 greatly exceeded the number submitted in 2011, an indication of the increased awareness of the importance of recognizing outstanding performance in the field of Accounts Payable.

 

The IOFM is the leading source of information tools and resources for professionals across its focus areas. For over a quarter of a century, its newsletters, reference publications, online information services, and conferences have provided authoritative guidance to corporate managers across a wide range of disciplines.

 

About Omnicare

 

Omnicare, Inc., a Fortune 400 company based in Cincinnati, Ohio, provides comprehensive pharmaceutical services to patients and providers across North America.  As the market leader in professional pharmacy, related consulting and data management services for skilled nursing, assisted living and other chronic care institutions, Omnicare leverages its unparalleled clinical insight into the geriatric market along with some of the industry’s most innovative technological capabilities to the benefit of its long-term care customers.  Omnicare also provides key commercialization services for the bio-pharmaceutical industry and end-of-life disease management through its Specialty Care Group.  For more information, visithttp://www.omnicare.com.

 

 

About Lavante

 

Lavante is the leader in on-demand supplier management solutions, including recovery auditand supplier information management applications.  Built with advanced, patented-pending technology, Lavante delivers to the financial arena a new standard in efficient technology-driven solutions that allow companies to quickly drive dollars to the bottom line, improve supplier communications, and assure high supplier data quality.  Lavante solutions are deployed across Fortune 1000 enterprises including the hospitality, retail, entertainment, manufacturing, and medical industries.  Headquartered in San Jose, California, Lavante is privately held and was founded in 2001.  For more information please visit www.lavante.com.

 

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Posted in AP Case Study, AP Industry, AP MAnager of the Year, AP Technology Innovation, IOFM | Comments Off

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Thoughts About the Escalating Complexities in Managing Supplier Relationships and Information

Friday, November 2nd, 2012

Managing many connections with suppliersManaging supplier information is becoming an ever-more complex and involved process for organizations of every size and across all industries.   Through our work at Lavante in automating recovery audit  and supplier management processes, we are constantly learning from our customers, prospects, and industry analysts how organizations are dealing with this critical issue.   We recently partnered with IOFM (Institute of Finance and Management) on a comprehensive market research survey where respondents answered a series of questions related to the key tasks and/or projects involved in managing supplier relationships.   After spending time at several industry conferences talking extensively with a host of AP and Shared Services practitioners, and reviewing the results of this survey, several themes or issues have emerged which I wanted to share here.

First is that the complexities and scale of tracking and managing suppliers is overwhelming for most companies.  This is in part due to the many different tasks that have to be performed – on-boarding, validating tax ID’s, gathering insurance documents, W9s, W8s, maintaining regional differences, etc. – which are often treated as disparate tasks or projects.  And although there are usually processes built around performing these functions, they are seldom combined into one seamless process that can be automated, and thus streamlined.  This means that every change requires  a lot of extra work to accomplish.  Take for example the potential change to the W9 collection process in 2010, where organizations would have been required to collect W9s for new categories of suppliers.  We talked to hundreds of companies that were under considerable stress with the prospect of:

a) gathering together W9s from their current suppliers;
 
b) identifying which vendors were missing W9s, and and then determining if they needed one to comply with the new legislation;
 
c) contacting the supplier to request the document;
 
d) finding the correct information if existing data was incorrect, and reaching out to them again.
 

If you only have a handful of suppliers, this wouldn’t be such a daunting task.  But even mid-size organizations we talked to had thousands of suppliers, with larger global enterprises looking at verifying tens of thousands of contacts.  Given these numbers, this task becomes a monumental project with the risk of heavy penalties if not conducted in a timely, accurate manner.  While this legislation was eventually overturned, it left many finance professionals with the firm belief that it can and will happen again, and that being reactive wasn’t a good way to approach the issue.

It struck me that this one project of collecting W9s was intricately related to so many other tasks involved with supplier management.  And linking these seemingly disparate tasks together into one seamless process,  powered by technology, results in a continuous, on-going process which can scale to handle an unlimited number of suppliers.  With an ability to collect, track and manage any type of required document, and allow total control over this process, it would dramatically simplify the complexities involved in the supplier management process.  An automated process would also allow finance professionals to instantly comply with new regulations and internal processes.

Next week, I’ll share some other thoughts related to this continuous process, and how simple it really can be.  As usual, please let me know your thoughts about this important topic.

 

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Posted in 1099 Reporting, AP Industry, IOFM, Lavante, Supplier Information Management, Tax ID Numbers | No Comments »

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Accounts Payable Acquisition Integration Part 2 – Managing & Integrating Multiple Vendor Master Files

Friday, September 28th, 2012

bringing different systemes togetherLast week I wrote about my past experiences with integrating the accounts payable functions of acquired companies into a service center environment, detailing the inherent difficulties and the ongoing search for solutions to help manage this complex process. In this blog, I’d like to focus on one of the major problem areas that is frequently encountered – that of managing multiple supplier lists from acquired companies.

In my current role at Lavante as a Sr. Solutions Advisor, I have been reminded of the trials of the integration process I experienced while leading the AP function at several fortune 500 companies when talking with prospective and current clients who are dealing with these same issues. One of the first inevitable difficulties they face is in combining vendor master files.  The  procurement function always began the process with the intent to “rationalize” the acquired file(s) with our own data, which meant eliminating duplicate vendors, selecting strategic suppliers to leverage spend, updating information, etc.  In reality, the pressures of just reaching a functional level meant that little of this occurred and the files were forced together in the rush to issue purchase orders and maintain production.  Many of the problems created were never addressed as we moved on to the next acquisition or other project.

Lavante’s solutions have always placed a high priority on vendor master integrity.  The Lavante Recovery application was built to maximize the use of available supplier data as part of the process and allow clients use it to identify duplicate and related vendors and maintain current data.  The Lavante SIM (Supplier Information Management) application takes that functionality to a whole new level.  By establishing a comprehensive solution, that begins with a self-service supplier portal that enables a simplified, real time approach and eliminates the need to periodically do vendor master clean-up projects, which must be repeated after the same problems build up over time.

Having a clean vendor master file with current and accurate contact information that had been refreshed by direct communication connections with suppliers, as Lavante’s solution facilitate, would have given me a tremendous advantage in my past AP roles. If both vendor masters — acquired and acquiring — had been in that “cleansed” state, it would have eliminated numerous issues that necessitated considerable resources to rationalize and then combine the files. The ability to communicate effectively with the supply base alone would have saved time and staff resources, all the while eliminating problems downstream that are the result of bad vendor data.

Next week, I’ll go into more details about how bad data impacts an organization, and then discuss how Lavante SIM helps clients and suppliers simplify the many complexities of the supplier management process.

If you have any thoughts or issues related to your experiences consolidating acquired vendor files, or supplier management in general, please comment here.

Finally, we have partnered with IOFM to conduct a comprehensive market research project on supplier information management and we invite you to provide your input by taking the survey.  Click here to add your perspectives.  All contributors will receive the market research findings report produced by the IOFM (and be entered into a contest to win an iPad).

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Posted in AP Industry, AP Technology Innovation, IOFM, Lavante, Supplier Information Management, Vendor File Cleansing | No Comments »

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Notes from the Field – AP Discussion Increases around the need for Effective Supplier Management Processes

Thursday, July 5th, 2012

AP professionals discuss industry trends at Lavante lunch & learnLast month I had the pleasure of visiting Minneapolis to participate in two separate events – a lunch & learn session co-sponsored by Lavante, Basware and the IOFM, followed by the Northern Lights IFO chapter meeting. Here, I’ll focus on discussions that took place at the first event, and I’ll return next week with some thoughts about the second presentation.

The lunch & learn which took place at a great steak house in downtown Minneapolis, The Future of AP: Five Changes Coming to AP, focused on some key challenges facing corporate AP professionals. In attendance were individuals from both small to large organizations and across a range of industries (manufacturing, retail, financial services, education, and healthcare).

As usual, the topic elicited much discussion, with considerable attention given to a challenge facing most of those in attendance–that of keeping their vendor master file accurate. While most attendees agreed that they perform an initial validation of the vendor data while setting up the vendor, there was not as high a consensus that they had an on-going system of checks and balances related to changes to existing vendors and on-boarding of new vendors. It was noted that there break-downs in this process caused many critical issues. For example, the same vendor can, and often does, get setup in the vendor master file multiple times. Or, as a result of mergers and acquisitions, related vendors are not identified. These issues can cause companies to miss purchase volume discounts as well as hinder their ability to take credits for returns. Additionally, it is impossible for the organization to calculate an accurate spend file by vendor, which can negatively impact contract negotiations. And this impacts not only finance, but procurement and in the end, the company’s bottom-line.

As we discussed at the event, there are multiple ways to handle the maintenance of data in the vendor master file, but the best practice which I adhered to during my tenure as Supervisor, AP at Rite Aid, is to:

  • • Start with a thorough cleansing of existing vendors.
  • • Incorporate an ongoing process that ensures new vendors are thoroughly analyzed, compared to the existing vendor master file, with updates made continually.

I found that the most efficient way to accomplish this was to partner with a third party company. Furthermore, that solution should have access to a vendor data network which can be leveraged to assure accuracy of the vendor master file. At the same time the use of a self-service portal application would allow vendors to update information as well as store required documents and validate TIN numbers — in real time. This type of supplier portal will increase collaboration between the buyer and supplier while providing a repeatable, ongoing process that ensures vendor information is accurate, complete and up-to-date.

Lavante has technology-enabled solutions to help deal with this and other related problems – Lavante Recovery+ and Lavante SIM (Supplier Information Management), which offer a way to automate many of these processes through our on-demand, SaaS-based software solutions. With them, users have a way to not only collaborate with suppliers via a web-based tool, but they allow complete visibility in the supplier base to identify related and duplicate vendors (all in real-time!), and to keep vendor information current. Part of this process is collecting and validating critical regulatory items – such as TIN matching and OFAC screening. And, the solutions leverage Lavante’s comprehensive supplier network, which increases vendor data accuracy and speeds up the cleansing process.

Here is one screen shot from the Lavante application showing the supplier compliance dashboard pharmaceutical company, demonstrating the number of suppliers which were updated and possible related suppliers identified through the update process.

For more information about Lavante solutions please visit www.lavante.com

I’ll have more notes on my second presentation in Minneapolis next week. In the meantime, please feel free to contact me with questions or comments.

Jeff Ulanoski, Sr. Consultant Lavante

 

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Posted in AP Industry, IFO, IOFM, Lavante, Recovery Audit, Vendor File Cleansing | No Comments »

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Future of AP Lunch & Learn Series Continues for One More Week in Three Cities

Monday, June 18th, 2012

Over the last 10 months we have crossed North America together with our partner Basware to deliver a series of lunch & learn programs focused on “The Future of AP – 5 Top Changes Coming to AP”.  We have been delighted to meet a great number of AP professionals and join in the very lively and engaging discussions at each of the cities.

So far, we have been to: Costa Mesa & Palo Alto, CA; Dallas & Houston TX, Charlotte NC; Pittsburgh & Philadelphia PA; Baltimore MD; Boston MA; Toronto, ON; Detroit, MI; Seattle WA; St. Louis MO; Atlanta GA; and NYC NY.

This week the series continues on Tuesday in Chicago  and on Wednesday in both Minneapolis and Cincinnati.  And, we are pleased to partner with the IOFM (Institute of Finance & Management) for the last 5 of these event, working together on content an the outreach process.  Here is how R.D. Whitney, CEO of IOFM, described the series:

“The Future of AP seminar series presented by Lavante and Basware continues to get rave reviews from attendees.  We are happy to support these content-rich sessions, which offer thought-provoking insights about how AP is increasing its value and relevance within the enterprise.  I recommend this seminar to any AP professional looking to improve and automate their AP environment.”

There is still space in these final seminars, so if you are in one of these cities click here to register.  Additionally, you can read the associated white paper by clicking here.

We will be taking a short break from the lunch & learn seminars over the summer, but will be returning in the fall – so watch for the upcoming schedule!  We hope to see more AP and Shared Service professionals as we roll-out the new series in September.

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Posted in AP Industry, IOFM, Lavante, Shared Services | No Comments »

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