paper behind the paper: How Feith Systems automated accounts payable at the San Francisco newspaper agency, The

Today, Jun 2000 by Hoke, Gordon E J

Linking an accounts payable system cleanly to Oracle was stop-the-presses newsworthy for San Francisco News Agency. Feith system reduces need for clerks to work weekends.

"The problem was paper," exclaims David Jew, Controller at the San Franisco Newspaper Agency (SFNA). Our Accounts Payable (A/P) process quires approval at multiple locaions: moving invoices around took too long, and I was losing things. The office mail was just not getting the job done for us."

SFNA is a unique, joint venture of two journalistic rivals: The Chronicle Publishing Corp. and the Hearst Corp., publishers of The Examiner. SFNA's 2300 employees do everything for both papers except write the stories: They sell advertising, run the presses, and do distribution and collection along with many other functions. Under a 40-year agreement that expires in 2005, profits are split 50/50.

The paper-based A/P process was a logjam. Clerks logged invoices, matched them to purchase orders in the database, and routed them to the appropriate offices for approval. An invoice could go to as many as four levels. Questionable invoices could go back and forth between offices, building a train of scrawled and sometimes cryptic notations as workers appended comments, referrals, questions, approval or rejection.

When vendors called to ask about payment, SFNA workers tracked a specific invoice-in-process by searching through stacks on people's desks in multiple locations. A/P staff worked significant overtime to try to get checks out on time.

Jew knew there had to be a better way. "We had heard about imaging, so when we changed our database to Oracle, we asked Oracle about it. They responded with the names of three or four business partners who did document imaging. We requested a scripted demo and then asked each imaging vendor to:

Show the quality of the scanned image.

Show the text capabilities.

Show the workflow or routing capabilities.

Show the storage and retrieval capabilities.

"The only company to show us a working demo with a clean interface to Oracle was Feith Systems and Software (www.feith.com) of Fort Washington, Penn.," Jew continues. "That made our choice clear. I had to sell it to our executive committee and the owners, but based on our homework, it was easy. There were obvious resource savings, time savings and intangible benefits."

Why did Feith have a jump on the competition? "We are constantly developing our products, meeting customer desires," opines Don Feith, president of the firm. "We try to think ahead of the customers too. Our 10 developers work constantly on new features."

"We were very clear on what we wanted," Jew states. "and Feith had done it before. We spent a couple of days identifying the workflow destinations. In all, it was less than a month between signing and installation. It was relatively painless."

Don Feith agrees. "They got their users to go through their process with us, and we took advantage of their knowledge in terms of the workflow. The people who do the work there were part of the planning. We tailored our system to their needs, showing them how to configure it. We set up the workflow bins [queues], and now the operators route invoices as they see fit."

SFNA bought a site license for 25 concurrent users. Workers took a one-hour training course and were ready to use the system. The entire staff uses PCs running under Windows 95, 98, and NT. Jew notes that the only new hardware he had to buy for the imaging software was a scanner.

"This is one of our first Unix applications," Jew notes, "but Feith is intuitive. If the clients know how to click a mouse, they are OK."

System volume is currently about 5000 pages per month. Images of scanned invoices are stored on the Sun server in caches that deliver images in a few seconds. Jew sees no need for an additional storage medium at this time.

SFNA Purchasing Manager Moya Valdez says the Feith system has made a major difference in customer service, both internal and external. For example, if a vendor phones, refusing to ship because of an outstanding invoice, a purchasing clerk can retrieve the document in question during the conversation. Valdez calculates a 40 percent time savings. "There is no copying, faxing, etc. If you include everybody's time and copying, the Feith system has streamlined the entire process significantly."

Valdez reports a major change in the lives of the invoice clerks. Under the paper system, they alternated working on Saturdays, when there were no interruptions and the mainframe system was more responsive. Under the Feith system, they no longer have to work weekends. "Mainly, we are able to keep on top of it," Valdez smiles. "It is such an enormous file, but now it is very manageable."

In its first 10 months of operation, the imaging system has proven remarkably reliable. "Because they are on Unix, it is very easy for us to support the system remotely," posits Feith. "Sun is very easy, and the operating system is really stable. They are up all the time."

Jew sees multiple uses for document imaging in the future. "We just kicked off a new project team to look at other applications for imaging. There are eight members, one from each department. We see the value of imaging and see many areas where it could be helpful."