Case study: AMSA goes from a fragmented finance operation to a connected, digital end-to-end workflow

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) is an organisation that can’t afford to slow down. It’s the national agency responsible for promoting safety on Australian waterways, combatting ship-sourced pollution, and leading search and rescue efforts for vessels in distress.

While this respected authority was known for carrying out its missions with lockstep efficiency, its internal expense and invoice management operations were anything but smooth sailing.

Decades-old legacy systems offered little opportunity for automation, so processes - from expense creation, to invoice reconciliation, to tracking down approvals - were all highly manual. There was no integration with the finance management system or human resources systems, so there was no end-to-end workflow.

The process was clunky and time consuming, for users and back office alike

“Employees had to collect receipts for each and every purchase they made on their corporate cards. At the end of the month, they had to stand by the copy machine and scan them, one by one, and upload them into Technology One, our finance system,” explained Shima Shamloo, Senior Advisor for Treasury and Automation, Corporate Finance, at the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. “Because of the nature of what they do, a lot of our people like our port marine surveyors have to travel to remote locations to do their jobs. So, this Stone Age process was particularly inconvenient for them.”

The invoice process was equally challenging. Employees had to physically match invoices with purchase orders, then track down approvals. There was no visibility over the invoice workflow and Finance had to check where the invoices are at and who had approved them. Not only did this drain productivity, but, because so much of the process was manual, there was no visibility into current spend. That made meeting Australia’s rigorous compliance and reporting standards for public-sector entities challenging, at best.

“We needed an efficient, digital workflow that gave us more traceability and control,” Shamloo said. “The solution had to bring better governance and a better user experience.”

A project of this scope required secure, global technology that was flexible enough to be customised to the organisation’s unique needs. As well as a delivery partner that could orchestrate a transformation that maximised the benefits of the change.

After looking at the options and going through an extensive tendering process, AMSA chose SAP Concur solutions for its expense and invoice software, and Xaana.Ai as its implementation and transformation partner.

Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) case study

“We were able to move from fragmented, Stone Age processes to a modern, connected, digitised workflow that gives us more control, more efficiency, enterprise class security, and makes life easier for our users” [...] “It’s a huge achievement, and one that our entire team is extremely proud of.” - Shima Shamloo, Senior Advisor for Treasury and Automation, Corporate Finance, at the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

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Crafting the Transformation

The Xaana team approached the project holistically, embedding on site, to get a clear understanding of the needs, current processes, and the environment itself.

“AMSA had so many fragmented technologies and processes that were built around specific systems, or simply built on trust. We had to work together to standardise and streamline those, to correct the problems before building them into the system,” explained Dan Saldi, Founder of Xaana.Ai, a certified SAP Concur partner who provides implementation and AI services.. “They also required a lot of customisations and unique workflows, which made the project extremely complex.”

For example, AMSA has a very complex corporate authorisation table that details the delegation every officer has, including the maximum dollar amount that person can approve on an invoice or on a contract. This had to be linked to what was an intricate approval workflow.

The Xaana team also had to find a way to streamline many disparate procedures, and configure the solution to reconcile a backlog of invoices to ensure that the system reflected the accurate amount left on each purchase order.

“SAP Concur solutions are like a blank canvas. It is one of the few cloud applications that offers the security and capabilities to support global customers, while simplifying the user experience with mobility and automation,” Saldi said. “From our perspective, it offers us the flexibility to think creatively and innovate, and deliver more effective, connected solutions that bring more benefits to our customers.”

“A good partner is like a Sherpa, guiding clients to the summit of their transformative journeys. In AMSA's complex transition, we played that role by unveiling the limitless possibilities of SAP Concur. We helped them restructure their spend management, simplify user experiences, and uphold the stringent compliance measures AMSA required.” Dan Saldi Founder Xaana.Ai and Turium.Ai

Executing the Implementation

The Xaana team executed the SAP Concur solutions implementation in phases, beginning with Concur Expense, then following with Concur Invoice eighteen months later, concluding in April of 2022.

Phase one involved connecting Concur Expense, ExpenseIT and Concur Request with the TechnologyOne FMIS, Aurion HR system and Payment Gateway for Westpac, using Xaana's proprietary software, Turium AI.

Although the implementation needed some late-stage changes, took place in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, required comprehensive user acceptance testing, support and remote end-user training; Xaana delivered in six months—ahead of schedule.

Phase two involved integrating Concur Invoice with TechnologyOne, for a smooth flow of vendor, contract, purchase order details, and payment information. As well as invoice postings and contract value and accruals, between the two systems.

“We worked with AMSA to standardise outdated processes and configure new contract profiles to simplify the use of the contract management module,” Saldi said. “We also re-engineered the Procure-to-Pay configuration and master data workflow to build out a more seamless integration.”

On go-live, AMSA employees were able to switch, overnight, to a secure, shared system in the cloud, with paperless invoicing using Concur Invoice, although they were working remotely. This smooth transition safeguarded supply chain continuity, so AMSA could continue business as usual, without interruption.

Managing the Change

From the onset, Shamloo and team knew that a transformation of this magnitude could not happen in a vacuum. Everyone impacted by the change, and every leader in the organisation, had to be actively engaged from day one.

“We have offices that each run their own kind of business across five or six divisions,” Shamloo explained. “We travelled to these sites, spent time listening to their pain points, and then, put together a group of key stakeholders from every site to be involved in the project, from requirement gathering and design through testing, implementation and go-live.”

These stakeholders became advocates for change, helping others get ready for what was to come, then acting as go-to resources when the system went live.

“From the onset, our CFO was driving the change, so we had strong executive leadership. We sent out newsletters, emails, and a constant stream of communications to keep our stakeholders involved with every aspect of the project,” Shamloo said. “These factors, and having Xaana beside us through the whole process, were key to the success of our (SAP) Concur implementation.”

“After we went live, we launched a road show, travelling to our regional offices and getting user input, which we’re using to tweak the system to make it more user friendly,” Shamloo said. “That post-implementation review is critical and so valuable in maximising the return on investment and satisfaction.”

“These factors, and having Xaana beside us through the whole process, were key to the success of our (SAP) Concur implementation.” Shima Shamloo Senior Advisor- Treasury and Automation, Corporate Finance AMSA

Seeing the Benefits of a Transformed Environment

Of course, a well-executed implementation is only part of the equation. It’s the benefits that change brings that made the AMSA transformation nothing short of a monumental success.

Faster Reimbursements

“We’ve seen a definite improvement in terms of timing and turnaround for expenses and credit card acquittals,” Shamloo said. “For example, if an employee spends $200 today out of pocket , that person can be reimbursed in about two days. It used to take a week or two.”

Traceability

“In the old process, there was a lack of traceability. We didn’t know who submitted what or where the invoice was in the process,” Shamloo said. “Now, with Concur Invoice, we have a digital workflow, and the visibility we need to better manage our spend and our operation. I can see where any invoice is, at any time in the process, and a 360- degree view of any employee reimbursement.”

Control

Before implementing SAP Concur solutions, Shamloo and team lacked the capacity to audit each invoice for compliance, or to ensure the approval came from a delegate with the authority to approve that type of expenditure and amount. “We built that delegation into the system. So, now, the invoices are not only presented to the correct officers for approval, but if someone tries to approve something beyond what they’re allowed to approve, the system will block that from happening,” Shamloo said. Audit rules are also built into the workflow, ensuring increased compliance.

Increased Efficiency

Instead of having valuable employees rekey invoices and expense data into the TechnologyOne ERP, everything is digitised and flows from system to system. “I would say at least 80 percent of the data is captured through OCR (optical character recognition), so, instead of spending hours rekeying, my team is double checking to make sure everything is coded properly and flowing through,” Shamloo said.

Better User Experience

Now, instead of collecting paper receipts and standing by a copier at month end, scanning everything in, AMSA users can capture receipt images and submit reimbursement requests digitally, wherever they are, using nothing more than an app on their mobile phone. AMSA employees—particularly those who travel as part of their jobs—save hours, so they have more time to focus on the agency’s mission.

Analytic Insights

With everything in one system, Shamloo and team have the analytic insights they need at their fingertips. If they want to see trends, compare division spend patterns, assess the types of spend, number of transactions, or make sure that all divisions are on top of their credit card acquittal submissions, all they have to do is pull a report in the SAP Concur system for accurate, current information.

“We were able to move from fragmented, Stone Age processes to a modern, connected, digitised workflow that gives us more control, more efficiency, enterprise class security, and makes life easier for our users” Shamloo said. “It’s a huge achievement, and one that our entire team is extremely proud of.”

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