In 2019, Colombia joined a host of other countries in mandating e-invoicing — an electronic billing approach that requires the digitization of purchase orders, payment terms and credit notes. E-invoicing requirements are becoming more and more common across the globe, with the goal of providing governments a more efficient means of auditing and tax and customs enforcement.

In order to accommodate the coming requirement, the agroindustrial company Monómeros sought a new document management system (DMS) with business process management (BPM) capabilities. “We saw that the versatility and capacity that Laserfiche had as a BPM tool would allow us to keep control of our documents, plus there was traceability that would comply with Colombia’s laws and archival standards,” said Esteban Echeverria, IT superintendent at Monómeros. “Laserfiche is not only a tool that will allow us to keep control of documents, maintain traceability and comply with the rules and archival standards of Colombia, but it also provides a platform that will allow us to automate business processes across the company.”

Monómeros is a large agroindustrial company with an important role in supplying the necessary fertilizers for some of Colombia’s most important crops, including potato, coffee and palm. With a history dating back to 1967, the company has undergone a number of modernization initiatives for a more efficient, agile enterprise.

Accounts Payable (AP) is one area where the organization has seen tremendous impact. With thousands of invoices needing to be processed per month, manual tasks — such as data entry, inventory management, and data verification — can delay critical operations at any organization, causing missed deadlines and challenges in vendor and customer relations.

At Monómeros, the invoicing process relied on manual tasks and mailing invoices between staff and geographic locations.

On top of this, the Monómeros team needed to consider the e-invoicing requirements that would become compulsory for businesses in 2020. This perfect storm led them to Laserfiche, which was implemented with support from Colombia-based Laserfiche solution provider Gestech.

“Laserfiche offered a balance between all of our considerations, including cost, functionality, business process management (BPM) capabilities, a good user experience and local support with Gestech,” said Echeverria.

The goal was to digitize and optimize the process to increase efficiency and reduce costs; improve visibility and control; and strengthen business relationships.

To tackle the challenge, the Monómeros and Gestech teams created a Laserfiche workflow designed with four stages and integrations with the company’s SAP ERP software.

The process not only applies to external invoices, but also to internal ones having to do with reimbursing employees.

“In the case of employee reimbursement, they file their request through a Laserfiche form and attach all necessary documents, and that generates a digital filing through Laserfiche in a matter of seconds,” said Machado.

With this solution, Monómeros has been able to reduce the average cycle time from 72 hours down to 10 minutes. With an average of 1,500 invoices per month, Monómeros has seen a huge impact on overall time and cost savings. As added benefits, Monómeros has improved traceability and compliance, inventory management and sustainability.

“We are now working on an integration between Laserfiche and our vendor bill reception process. Every business process that needs to be automated or integrated with our content we see as in the scope of Laserfiche’s capabilities. This makes us excited for all of the future possibilities.”