Admiral digitises supplier payments

Insurance specialist Admiral Group has implemented an £80,000 document management system from Version One to automate its purchase-to-pay processes.

The system digitises suppliers' invoices once they have been sent through to the finance department and allows them to be distributed to managers within the group - which operates insurance services through the Admiral, Bell, Confused.com, Diamond, elephant.co.uk and Gladiator brands - for sign-off.

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Admiral Group financial controller Coralie Poumel said the system has been bought in conjunction with switching to an automated payments system over IP, so suppliers can have their accounts credited electronically.

She told silicon.com: "The system makes us more efficient. We can pay our suppliers quicker and keep as little paper in the office as possible."

Poumel expects to see a 75 per cent reduction in cheque printing and processing costs, plus a dividend on fewer penalties paid to suppliers due to mislaid or poorly processed invoices.

She said: "Instead of straining at the seams, we are able to free up half a person to do other things and we don't need to recruit."

It's understood the system will cost around £80,000, with little hope of a return on investment. The investment was made after a change in Admiral Group management in an effort to modernise processes.

Poumel said: "It was something I feel we had to do to make us more efficient. We are a FTSE 350 company and we were still sending out written cheques to our suppliers."