Quantes has transformed in recent years from an offset printing company to a modern communications company. As a result, significant investments have been made in technology, including the administrative processes. We talk about it with Dennis Meijer, responsible for Operations within Quantes:
In the past, up to 15 order managers were busy processing customer orders and invoicing. In the frenzy of the day, properly supervising the customer’s orders and incoming telephone calls, the order managers sometimes did not even get around to invoicing the orders. And on top of that, another five to six people in the administration were busy with purchasing, accounts receivable, etc. And in the end, the numbers still didn’t add up.
The process
You have to remember that over the years the graphics industry has gone through a major transition. Our company has gone right along with it. From a traditional printing company, we have become a supplier of communication solutions who does not only print, but thinks in terms of customer-oriented solutions. The offset printing presses have made way and the digital printing office has been expanded with HP Indigo’s so that we can offer top quality to our customers. Besides print, we print basically everything. You name it. This also means that we buy a lot more than paper these days and that every order is different. The invoicing to our customers is also more complex than before. That’s because we work with large customers and receive orders from different locations that also often have special purchase order processes with specific requirements regarding invoicing. And also the invoicing to our customers is more complex than before. This is because we work with large customers and receive orders from different locations that also often have special purchase order processes with specific requirements regarding invoicing.
So it had to be different. Quantes works with MultiPress, which is specific ERP software for the graphics industry. And they use AFAS for the financial administration. Each year they receive about 15,000 purchase invoices. In 2017/2018, the process was completely overhauled.
Invoicing is no longer done by the order managers, but by one person who knows all the ins and outs about VAT and all other matters of importance. As soon as an order is signed off, it is invoiced immediately. That took some getting used to… The order managers were not used to being able to ‘let go’ of the customer’s order after it had been processed in the system. But if you order something from bol.com it is no different, as soon as you have placed the order you receive an invoice and the process starts. With us the customer gets a payment term so he/she still has all the time to report if something is not right on the invoice. So if something goes wrong, it will be corrected well and in a timely manner.
USING IMAGECAPTURE
Also for processing the purchase invoices, they changed the process at Quantes and started looking for a solution that digitizes the process. After looking at several solutions, they ended up at Scan Sys. In terms of cost, the solutions were not very different. It was an advantage that Scan Sys had already developed a link between MultiPress and ImageCapture.
When we made the choice for ImageCapture, we were assigned a project manager from Scan Sys who worked with us to create a project plan. It was all handled very professionally. We switched to ImageCapture in one go. Previously, we received the invoices for our purchase orders in all possible ways with all the associated drawbacks. It took about three to four months before we had switched all our suppliers to digital invoicing, in many cases UBL invoices. Using ImageCapture, these are now processed very efficiently by the same person who does the invoicing. Whereas in the past we sometimes lost track of things completely and purchase invoices were incorrectly entered for all sorts of reasons, this now happens very quickly and clearly. If everything is correct, the process is fully automated. And we always have a good overview. And… The person who does the invoicing and invoice processing can handle it all very well on his own.
EXPERIENCES WITH SCAN SYS
On this subject, Dennis Meijer tells us:
I am very satisfied with ImageCapture in combination with MultiPress and AFAS software. But we’re not finished yet, I see many more opportunities for digitalization and making our processes more efficient.
