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AP Automation out of the Box?  Yes - with Dynamics NAV and D365 for Financials!

Packed with a plethora of enhancements and new features, Microsoft Dynamics NAV2016 hit the 

market in October of 2015 to a very receptive partner and customer audience. Leveraging significant feedback from NAV customers around the world, Microsoft’s enhancements included

the delivery of an out-of-the-box solution for Accounts Payable processing.

Because Accounts Payable processing is the leading area of optimization and improvement NAV customers undertake, Microsoft chose to d

eliver all of the components necessary for customers to realize incredible savings.

 Why is Invoice Automation the leading area for Optimization within Dynamics NAV/D365? Why did Microsoft choose to build these features into Dynamics NAV and D365?

The goal of deploying an outstanding, easily integrated ERP solution is to provide a best-in-class solution for managing a company’s operational assets and processes. Dynamics NAV/D365 provides the out-of-the-box capabilities necessary for an organization to manage their core operations with customers and suppliers – while also providing a platform process innovation in the cloud that further optimizes how a company operates.  Analyst and Dynamics NAV/D365 customers agree – this is the #1 area of business focus as customers look to optimize their NAV/D365 environments.

Net/Net, Dynamics NAV/D365 Invoice Automation functions enable companies to truly achieve significant savings, obtain early payment discounts, and improve operations so they can grow their businesses rather than be held back by an inefficient accounts payable process.  In the past companies would have to purchase outside software and services that traditionally would cost many tens of thousands of dollars and many days of service to deploy – a purchase that is no longer required to enjoy the same value and benefits.

 What does this “Out-of-the-Box” AP Automation solution look like and what does it mean to the NAV/D365 customer?

Microsoft development teams recognized that certain key areas needed to be brought forward within NAV/D365 in order to provide the tools necessary for invoice automation. They included the ability to capture, extract, store, automate and search Invoice data within NAV/D365.  Since the release of NAV2016, Microsoft has continued to enhance - through an aggressive roadmap - the capabilities for AP Automation by introducing enhanced workflow, user interface features, and expansion of integration options that Partners and Customers can utilize.

 

Kofax AP Automation.png

Microsoft also had to insure that the First Mile™ of the invoice journey – from paper, through electronic means, or via e-invoicing networks, was addressed.  Through extensive research, Microsoft chose the market leader for invoice extraction – Kofax’s ReadSoft Online solution – to OEM as part of the AP Automation solution.  Referred to as Invoice Capture Service (ICS), Microsoft built the integration necessary to seamlessly utilize ICS for all types of Supplier invoices and provide the necessary user interface and other tools required for users to leverage the OCR functions.  Microsoft’s goal was to insure that a customer could be processing invoices in less than 10 minutes and realize an ROI against invoice extraction of between $5-$15 per supplier invoice – a goal that was met and has been a major selling point since the product introduction.  Furthermore, Kofax ICS provides the most robust invoice extraction capabilities – technology that not handles only simple invoice extraction (such as header, etc.), but also the most complex invoices that contained many pages and many different line item formats so customers of all industries could benefit.

 So NAV/D365 users have all they need to begin automating their Accounts Payable operation?

Absolutely!  What once could be very costly to implement and maintain (and still not achieve the promised level of savings promised) can now be done quickly within NAV/D365 in any language, country or environment supported by NAV/D365 – all leveraging features available today “out of the box”!

Kofax and Microsoft also recognized that customer’s wanted to initially test AP optimization and worked together to support a “Click, Try and Buy” approach to utilizing the extraction services – such that in less than 10 minutes, a customer can set up the system and begin processing invoices. The “freemium option” allows customers to test invoice processing with 75 free invoices per month, and then with either a “Pay as you go” or “Monthly subscription” model.  The customer can then manage usage costs while processing invoices at a fraction of what traditional, non-cloud solutions would cost on an invoice level. This approach is ground-breaking in the invoice processing industry but closely follows that of other cloud services (like Azure and Office365) that many NAV/D365 companies are now taking advantage of.

While the road to true AP Automation ROI (up to 80% Cost per invoice savings) is a journey, every CFO, controller or accounts payable manager using or contemplating NAV/D365 should immediately take the steps to leverage the immediate savings available by turning on the Invoice Extraction capabilities within NAV/D365.  The savings are immediate – and this then puts them on a roadmap of reviewing their AP Processes, automating them with the help of their Partners, and continuing to grow their ROI investment – for example, realizing faster supplier invoice processing times, securing more early payment discounts from suppliers, and the ability to reinvest the savings being generated towards other areas of the business (in some cases this is justification alone for an upgrade of their NAV/D365 system). 

A quick way to assess these savings is to a customer’s cost per invoice (something every CFO or AP Manager knows), multiply it by the number of invoices processed in a given year, and then divide by the 80 percent savings that can be realized.  This quick analysis – along with the immediate savings being generated from Invoice extraction – provides an overwhelming why a Customer should start using these features from Microsoft today.

 Where do users turn for support and help to turn on this important feature of NAV/D365?

Microsoft Dynamics partners like Innovia Consulting have the skills and capabilities to help users identify, optimize and engage the capabilities of NAV/D365 and ICS.  Customers who are interested should speak withInnovia Consulting about their AP Automation operations and how NAV/D365 AP features can be engaged on their behalf – in addition, both Microsoft and Kofax provide a complete set of enablement support tools that further support these efforts.  Turn to Innovia Consulting for your AP Automation needs and experience the “out-of-the-box” benefits and savings – Today!

 

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Partner Innovia Consulting

Kofax

Kofax

Kofax is a market leader in Intelligent Automation (IA). It seems you can't go very far today without hearing about the promise of how Intelligent Automation can improve your business performance.  Intelligent Automation components have been utilized by Microsoft to improve the performance of your Financial system within NAV/ Dynamics 365 Business Central. 

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