CTP serves its customers across multiple industries, helping to solve their critical outsourcing challenges.

Waste Management Maintenance Services

Challenge

CTP Solutions was invited to develop a reliable and efficient process for statement printing and emailing of printed customer statements with accompanying scanned copies of signed field service work orders.

The company making the request performs maintenance on vehicles used in the waste and recycling industries from 60 service depots in the United States. The company’s customers required statements of charges to include a copy of the signed field work order as proof to receive payment.

The Old Process

2,200 field work orders were faxed daily to their central billing department. Each faxed work order was reprinted and sorted to create a statement of charges. Copies of the signed work orders were printed then attached to the invoice and all documents were manually stuffed and mailed. This billing procedure required seven employees, five to seven day business days to mail one weeks’ worth of invoices. The postage was not presorted and the system did not permit printing marketing messages on the front of the statements.

The New Process

CTP provided this solution- Company’s field service technicians using pre-print work order, when signed, documents were scanned and sent to a Central main server. Printed on each work order is a unique Work Order Number. Using OCR data extraction the CTP process retrieved the work order number and all pertinent billing information and created an invoice statement and parsed data to the Accounts Receivable system. This process produces a printed statement with copies of the signed work orders. The electronic archive can always be searched by Work Order Number or pertinent customer information. This enables reprinting, faxing or emailing of old statements and signed work orders. CTP’s solution prints the billing data containing a marketing message, copy of the original signed work orders, folds, insert and seal in a presorted postage envelope. The process has the additional capability to email the material instead of snail mail.

Benefits

The company now collects 2,200 works orders, organizes, prints statements and accompanying signed work orders, creates marketing messages, folds, inserts, mails or emails daily. The solution also provides pre-sort mailing discounts. The hard dollar cost savings has been significant reduced. The time to mail has improved which has materially enhanced the company cash flow. The reduction of staff from seven to three lowered the overhead substantially while producing fewer errors which has reduced complaints. The overall efficiency gained has allowed the company to increase business revenue while handling additional work orders daily.

Propane Industry

CTP provides a comprehensive solution that is proven in the Propane Industry. With over 25 years in business we have helped many companies in the propane industry reduce costs and provide proven solution that can quickly be implemented with the confidence that if changes are needed in the future for business process they can be made quickly.

CTP has specific functionality to help companies in the Propane Industry deal with consumers (B2C) and/or businesses (B2B). Solutions that can be implemented and provided for the Propane Industry are:

  • Print and Mail
  • Electronic Bill/Invoice Presentation and Payment (EBPP & EIPP)
  • Electronic Delivery
  • Document Archive for your Bills, Invoices & Statements
  • Collections
  • Remittance and Payment Processing
  • Green Environment Protection

Challenge

Over 500 separate locations utilizing disparate systems with multiple different billing cycles and data formats.

Solution

Designed and developed a system that maps the data to a standardized document design which is utilized company wide.

Result

Corporate wide reduction in production and postage due to the efficient daily production of multiple files as one production run. Standardizing the company’s terms and conditions to eliminate the company’s legal exposure. Creating a corporate image that is consistent throughout the marketplace.

Waste Industry

CTP provides a comprehensive solution that is proven in the Waste Industry. With over 25 years in business we have helped many companies in the waste industry to reduce costs and provide proven solutions that can quickly be implemented with the confidence that if changes are needed in the future for business process they can be made quickly.

CTP has specific functionality to help companies in the Waste Industry deal with consumers (B2C) and/or businesses (B2B). Solutions that can be implemented and provided for the Waste Industry are:

  • Print and Mail
  • Electronic Bill/Invoice Presentation and Payment (EBPP & EIPP)
  • Electronic Delivery
  • Document Archive for your Bills, Invoices & Statements
  • Collections
  • Remittance and Payment Processing
  • Green Environment Protection

Challenge

Unhappy customers who were not receiving their bills on time or getting someone else’s bill. The waste company needed a more reliable process for their printing and mailing of monthly invoices.

Solution

CTP provided a responsive and dependable partner that provides numerous solutions for print and electronic billing. The pay-by phone solution allows this waste company to accept credit card payments by telephone at any of its branch locations with no charge to the customer. The payment is then processed with real-time verification and automatically uploaded to the waste company computer system. The result is always a reduction in manual labor and human error. Cash flow will also increase because payments are being made faster. Benefits to the waste company will only increase as more of their customers discover the ease of the pay-by-phone.

Waste company customers can set up automatic electronic payments by establishing certain rules that meet their needs. These rules might be the type of credit card to charge, the maximum amount that can be paid per month and the type of correspondence (such as e-mail) used to confirm payment.

With CTP our waste clients will be able to incorporate additional services when needed. For example, credit card reversals when a customer may have made an overpayment. Another capability is that branch outlets can preview their bills before they are sent. While the competition still relies on faxed samples to approve bills, CTP has been able to cut costs and time through electronic bill preview, providing a quicker turnaround.

As a mutually beneficial partnership, CTP provides new options to enhance their e-billing capabilities to their waste industry clients.

Retail Industry

CTP provides a comprehensive solution that is proven in the Retail Industry. With over 25 years in business we have helped many companies in the retail industry to reduce costs and provide proven solutions that can quickly be implemented with the confidence that if changes are needed in the future for business process they can be made quickly.

CTP has specific functionality to help companies in the Retail Industry deal with consumers (B2C) and/or businesses (B2B). Solutions that can be implemented and provided for the Retail Industry are:

  • Print and Mail
  • Electronic Bill/Invoice Presentation and Payment (EBPP & EIPP)
  • Electronic Delivery
  • Document Archive for your Bills, Invoices & Statements
  • Collections
  • Remittance and Payment Processing
  • Green Environment Protection

Challenge

A national retail company was struggling with managing their documents and turned to CTP Solutions for assistance. After our initial meeting and assessment of the situation, we identified many areas of concern: excessive warehouse space, no standardize release format, no cost containment, many redundant forms, too much manpower spent on managing documents, many obsolete forms, no version control, no cost allocation.

Solution

The retail company signed a multi-year document management outsource agreement to gain control. We eliminated their warehouse and staff for managing documents, developed a secure custom website to order items, implemented version control and graphics standards for all documents, submitted monthly summarized invoices with detailed cost allocation. We supply 47 national retail store locations, 96 different cost centers and manage over 230 items seamlessly.

Result

Standardization and consolidation of operational forms has resulted in hard dollars savings of over 45% in the first year alone. With the implementation of the web enabled ordering program, 1 full-time employee has been eliminated. Deliveries have been cut from 3-12 working days to 1-2 days with a 99.2% on time delivery.

Pharmaceutical

CTP provides a comprehensive solution that is proven in the Pharmaceutical Industry. With over 25 years in business we have helped many companies in the pharmaceutical industry to reduce cost and provide proven solutions that can quickly be implemented with the confidence that if changes are needed in the future for business process they can be made quickly.

CTP has specific functionality to help companies in the Pharmaceutical Industry deal with consumers (B2C) and/or businesses (B2B). Solutions that can be implemented and provided for the Pharmaceutical Industry are:

  • Print and Mail
  • Electronic Bill/Invoice Presentation and Payment (EBPP & EIPP)
  • Electronic Delivery
  • Document Archive for your Bills, Invoices & Statements
  • Collections
  • Remittance and Payment Processing
  • Green Environment Protection

Challenge

Internal billing print/mail operations causing delays in producing bills (4-6 days average time required). Awkward design of documents caused confusion in reading detail accurately. Cost of 1st. Class Postage at full USPS rate – no discounts available.

Solution

Reviewed document design/layout with client and determined how key information should be displayed to make bills easily understood. Redesigned document layouts to present key information in a more logical and readable format. Added scan-able bank lockbox barcode to improve payment remittance process. Established FTP file transfer process to our production operations with no changes to client file format required. Reduced complete print/mail process to 48 hours guaranteed.

Result

Reduced USPS 1st. Class postage rate by $0.074 per mail piece saving customer nearly $6,000 monthly in postage. Overall customer savings in materials, postage and internal operations costs exceeded $150,000.00 annually. An improvement in overall cash flows has resulted due to fewer billing disputes and faster bill delivery according to the client.

Airline

CTP provides a comprehensive solution that is proven in the Airlines Industry. With over 25 years in business we have helped many companies in the airline industry to reduce costs provide proven solutions that can quickly be implemented with the confidence that if changes are needed in the future for business process they can be made quickly.

CTP has specific functionality to help companies in the Airlines Industry deal with consumers (B2C) and/or businesses (B2B). Solutions that can be implemented and provided for the Airlines Industry are:

  • Print and Mail
  • Electronic Bill/Invoice Presentation and Payment (EBPP & EIPP)
  • Electronic Delivery
  • Document Archive for your Bills, Invoices & Statements
  • Collections
  • Remittance and Payment Processing
  • Green Environment Protection

Challenge

Moving to electronic invoice presentment proved impossible due to complex invoices which EDI could not handle and which some vendors were incapable of working with.

Solution

CTP implemented InvoiceWorksR, which has reversed expenses necessary to implement and manage EDI and has allowed all vendors, large and small, to receive and pay invoices electronically. Some of the benefits of using our AP solution include manual entry or file uploads and fully automated file transfers from large vendors with SAP.

Result

Elimination of data entry and filing has resulted in the reduction of costs and has also reduced time and capital expenses required to handle vendor phone calls, dispute resolutions, matching exceptions and other manual tasks.

Grocery Chains

CTP provides comprehensive solutions that enhance Grocery chains bottom line. With over 25 years in business we have helped many companies in the Grocery industry reduce costs and provide proven solution that can quickly be implemented with the confidence that if changes are needed in the future for business process they can be made quickly.

CTP has specific functionality to help companies in the Grocery Chains deal with consumers (B2C) and/or businesses (B2B). Solutions that can be implemented and provided for the Grocery Chains are:

  • Print and Mail
  • Electronic Bill/Invoice Presentation and Payment (EBPP & EIPP)
  • Electronic Delivery
  • Document Archive for your Bills, Invoices & Statements
  • Collections
  • Remittance and Payment Processing
  • Green Environment Protection

Challenge

To handle spikes in business, each store borrows data entry individuals from other locations. They are charged for each data entry individual above and beyond their standard payroll.

Solution

InvoiceWorks® eliminated the need for additional data entry individuals.

Result

This particular store was able to save $127,000 in the first year alone. Its parent company saved an estimated $2 million per year because of InvoiceWorks®.

Rental Industry

CTP provides a comprehensive solution that is proven in the Rental Industry. With over 25 years in business we have helped many companies in the rental industry to reduce cost and provide proven solutions that can quickly be implemented with the confidence that if changes are needed in the future for business process they can be made quickly.

CTP has specific functionality to help companies in the Rental Industry deal with consumers (B2C) and/or businesses (B2B). Solutions that can be implemented and provided for the Rental Industry are:

  • Print and Mail
  • Electronic Bill/Invoice Presentation and Payment (EBPP & EIPP)
  • Electronic Delivery
  • Document Archive for your Bills, Invoices & Statements
  • Collections
  • Remittance and Payment Processing
  • Green Environment Protection

Challenge

A national rental company with over 40 different locations was having challenges managing their business cards, letterhead and envelopes. The orders were being faxed to their corporate headquarters and then placed with multiple vendors. Due to the different vendors and expertise, the company’s colors and graphics standards were not always met. The entire proofing and production process took over 10 days.

Solution

Now with our web-enabled stationery ordering program the entire process takes 48 hours or less. The stationery item order is reviewed and proofed online. The logo, color, and placement is correct on every order.

Result

Hard dollar cost savings have, been over 29%, by. Web-enabled ordering streamlined the process which reduces ordering time 50%. On-line proofing with exact repeat orders hard coded has eliminated proofing errors and unneeded reprints. Critical graphic standards are being maintained.

Pest Industry

CTP provides a comprehensive solution that is proven in the Pest Industry. With over 25 years in business we have helped many companies in the pest industry to reduce costs and provide proven solutions that can quickly be implemented with the confidence that if changes are needed in the future for business process they can be made quickly.

CTP has specific functionality to help companies in the Pest Industry deal with consumers (B2C) and/or businesses (B2B). Solutions that can be implemented and provided for the Pest Industry are:

  • Print and Mail
  • Electronic Bill/Invoice Presentation and Payment (EBPP & EIPP)
  • Electronic Delivery
  • Document Archive for your Bills, Invoices & Statements
  • Collections
  • Remittance and Payment Processing
  • Green Environment Protection

Challenge

For commercial customers statements required that a field report with customer’s signatures be attached to all statements. This is 50% of the statements being mailed monthly. This was a time consuming process to attach all field reports to the customers statements. Also customers were not receiving their invoices, collections notices and renewal notices in on a timely schedule. The company was spending too much time printing, finding field reports, making copies to attach to the statements and then sending out these critical business documents. Adding to this problem was the designing and ordering marketing product inserts took up time from valuable resources. The pest company needed a more reliable and efficient process for their printing, attaching field reports and mailing of these critical business documents.

Solution

For the field reports CTP has the pest company simply scan the field reports to a remote server and data extract tools create a PDF of the field report and names each with a the customer’s account number, date and other important information. All field reports can be viewed through a remote web portal at any time. When printing statements CTP checks customer’s information to see if field reports need to be attached and with an automated solution prints the field report PDF along with the statement and includes it in the statement envelope. All the statements along with attached field reports are then saved as a PDF for future viewing in an archive. All of this is an automated process.

For all statements CTP provides a comprehensive solution for the printing, insertion of marketing materials and mailing in 24 hours or less. Invoices, collection notices along with renewal notices are sent on schedule with no effort. The solution also provided a discount on postage using pre-sort discounts.

Result

Hard dollar cost savings have been significant with over 35% along with consistent delivery of all critical business documents. On time scheduling of collection notices and renewal notices have improved cash flow and reduced DSO.

Distributor

Company Description

Distributor of electrical equipment and supplies, with distribution outlets nationwide that generate close to a million invoices and payment transactions annually, supporting almost $700 million in sales.

Challenge

To reduce days sales outstanding and improve use of capital while achieving major cost savings through improved handling of invoicing and payment functions.

Although the company had electronic data interchange with a handful of its largest customers, 90% of the invoices and 100% of the remits were paper-based.  Under the old system, the company required a staff of 10 for billing, 15 in A/R, and 10 to handle dispute resolution and collections.

The cost of processing each invoice and payment was escalating rapidly as labor and associated costs increased and additional management oversight was required. Tired of simply throwing additional human resources at the problem, the CFO decided to take a “clean sheet of paper” approach and find a better solution.

Solution

Implementation of Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment (EIPP).

The company now has a secure, user-friendly, and highly economical online solution that enables their customers to receive and pay invoices electronically, while also providing them with full document management capability.

One of the major factors in choosing the solution was the capability to provide full online access to the documentation behind each invoice (including invoices with electronic signature capture at POS, proof of delivery, and purchase orders). The company not only achieved direct cost savings through a reduction of force in its accounting department, but was also able to re-deploy several people from its call center as customers opted to answer their own questions online, decreasing the volume of routine inquiries.

Each online payment transaction results in an electronic file that is automatically fed to the company’s existing A/R software. This file eliminates manual reconciliation and captures all the information needed to fully reconcile each payment—improving accuracy while reducing expense.

The company has opted for a tiered approach to implementation. They selected a “top tier” group of customers that represented a significant percentage of the invoice volume and mandated their transition to online presentment and payment. In exchange for this, the company provided an incentive in the form of an “online processing discount” in addition to any early payment discount a customer might be entitled to. This resulted in a very high level of acceptance. Other customers are being encouraged to participate, using customer on-boarding materials.

Benefits:

  • Reduction of 7 FTEs within the first year, projected to grow to 20 by the end of Year 3
  • Five day decrease in DSO; improved use of capital
  • Lower cost per billing/payment round-trip
  • Streamlined reconciliation
  • Reduced customer service expenses with a higher level of service—many inquiries now “self-serve”
  • Improved cash forecasting
  • Small upfront investment and no ongoing software or hardware maintenance costs
  • Very quick implementation—no need to wait on the availability of internal IT resources
  • Reduced expenses for storage by eliminating hundreds of thousands of pieces of paper annually
  • Reduced expenses for retrieval of documentation to answer customer inquiries

Financial Benefits and Cost Savings:

  • First year costs savings in excess of $300,000
  • Forecast cost savings of $1.3 million by year 3 when the majority of customers have migrated
  • CFO calculates that at a cost of capital at 12%, the five day DSO reduction that has already been accomplished brings an additional $1.1 million in working capital efficiency gains
  • Payback period was approximately three months
  • Total cost savings for years 1-3 will be approximately $2.3 million, a 350% ROI.

Analysis:

The cost of processing a transaction manually versus electronically differs by orders of magnitude. Switching to electronic presentation and remittance provides companies a rare opportunity to significantly reduce a major expense by altering and automating the process workflow.

Our partner was able to meet and exceed this company’s goals by offering a highly integrated, full-spectrum solution that encompassed electronic invoice presentment, electronic payment, and online document management. Since the solution is a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering, it gave this company an opportunity to implement immediately and thus benefit from immediate cost savings. They also benefit from having their information housed in a highly secure, fully redundant environment with provisions for disaster recovery.

Manufacturer

Company Description

National manufacturer of soft goods with more than $200 million in annual sales.

Challenge

Reduce days sales outstanding and improve use of capital, while achieving major cost savings through improved handling of the invoicing and payment functions.

Before utilization, the company required a staff of five for billing, five in A/R, and four to handle dispute resolution and collections.  Annual transactions were 125,000 invoices and 100,000 remits, and all billing and collections work was handled in-house.

Despite the robust staffing, the company found itself falling increasingly behind in billing, which led to a ballooning DSO. The CFO realized that simply increasing staff in order to reduce DSO was not going to be a viable long-term solution because it drove costs up significantly. The problem needed to be resolved, because the company was embarking on a major expansion project that promised to bring a sharp increase in the volume of invoices to be processed. The CFO recognized that a change in the entire processing paradigm was essential to the company’s long-term financial prosperity.

Solution

Implementation of Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment (EIPP). The company now has the capability to let all of its customers receive and pay their invoices electronically. Using a combination of incentives and persistent marketing, supported by customer on-boarding materials and best practice guidance from CTP Solutions, the company has achieved a high rate of initial customer conversion to fully electronic invoice presentment and payment processing.

Participating clients are notified automatically via e-mail when a new invoice is posted. A link in the e-mail takes them to a company-branded site, where they view their invoice and can opt to make an immediate or scheduled payment.

Clients have immediate access to their entire invoice and payment history, as well as to all the underlying documents supporting a given invoice. With a click, a customer can access purchase orders, proof of delivery, and the original contract. This has dramatically reduced the number of calls to the company’s call center, providing additional cost savings. It has also helped compress the billing/payment cycle, because disputes that often took days to document and resolve can now be self-serviced by the customer at the time the issue arises.

The online transaction creates an electronic record that is automatically integrated into the company’s existing A/R software, eliminating the need to manually post. This has shortened the reconciliation process by several days.

Financial Benefits & Cost Savings:

  • Five day decrease in DSO; improved use of capital
  • Year 1 cost savings over $100,000
  • Immediate reduction in billing/receivables head count of 20% within the first year; anticipated reduction of an additional 20% by the end of year 3
  • $300,000+ working capital efficiency gain
  • Very quick implementation – leading to a rapid ROI close to 400%
  • Improved cash forecasting
  • Streamlined reconciliation
  • Shorter dispute resolution cycle – many inquiries now “self-serve”
  • Hosted solution – minimal upfront investment and no ongoing software or hardware costs
  • Payback period approximately 6 months

Analysis

Through the highly integrated product suite of electronic invoice presentment, electronic payment, and online document management, the company was able to implement very quickly leading to almost immediate cost savings. They also benefit from having the information housed in a highly secure, fully redundant environment with provisions for disaster recovery.

Implementation of EIPP has not only provided the desired DSO reduction, but has positioned the company to be more competitive and achieve its growth targets without being limited by scalability of the invoicing and A/R capabilities.

Franchisor

Company Description

National Fast Food Franchisor with more than 800 franchisees nationwide

Challenge

Move from a paper-based system of sales reporting and paying franchise fees to a secure, electronic solution.

With more than 800 franchisees nationwide, and projections of twice that number within a year, it was becoming increasingly difficult and expensive for this national fast food franchisor to deal with the paperwork generated as each franchisee reported sales information and paid sales-based franchise fees. There were more than 100,000 annual transactions, representing more than $15 million in sales. Each transaction was being manually processed, and the associated costs were increasing rapidly.

Prior to deploying the solution, franchisees were remitting only once a month, by check, and the company often had in excess of $500,000 in outstanding fees.

Solution

Implementation of an online payment calculator and remittance system.

Our partner provides a fully electronic solution that permits each franchisee to quickly and easily compute and remit fees due on a weekly basis. The franchisee goes to a secure website, enters sales information, and immediately sees a computation of amounts due to the franchisor. A funds transfer is then initiated immediately, with a single click.

Corporate receives an electronic payment record that interfaces seamlessly with their existing accounting system, eliminating the need for paper processing and speeding the posting process, thus further reducing expenses.

The franchisee has an electronic receipt and on-line access to his/her full payment history. Franchisees also receive all payments due them for marketing or other corporate support as electronic transactions, putting money in their hands more quickly as well.

Benefits:

  • Significant cost reductions through the elimination of paperwork, helping make the franchisor more competitive in the marketplace
  • Greatly enhanced cash flow – 75% reduction in receivables cycle
  • Elimination of errors due to reports being lost in the mail, misplaced in processing, or keyed incorrectly
  • Franchisees benefit from reduced paperwork and quicker outbound payments when owed money for corporate support such as marketing
  • Highly secure transactions with full audit trail history to satisfy both internal and external accounting controls

Analysis & Financial Benefit

The transition from a paper-based system to an electronic system of information and payment transfer is one of the most certain high-ROI efforts a company can make. The cost of processing a transaction manually, versus doing it electronically, differs by orders of magnitude. Switching to electronic remittance provides companies a rare opportunity to significantly reduce a major cost.

For this franchisor, the impact was substantial. The solution allowed them to put over $500,000 of cash to work for them each month rather than having it caught up in the receivables cycle.  Creating an electronic reporting link to and from their franchisees has also enabled them to move forward with a plan of growth that would otherwise have been hampered by the increasing difficulty associated with collecting and reconciling franchise fees.