Imaging Solutions, Inc. Enables Northeast Utilities To Improve Its Accounts Payable Processing

Sponsored by Cranel Imaging

Northeast Utilities (NU) is the parent company of the Northeast Utilities system. It is among the 20 largest electric utility systems in the country and the largest in New England with over 7,000 employees serving customers in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Western Massachusetts. NU's operating subsidiaries include the Connecticut Light and Power Company, Western Massachusetts Electric Company, Yankee Gas and Public Service Company of New Hampshire, furnishing electric and gas service to more than 1.7 million customers.

Northeast Utilities receives an average of 750 paper invoices per day and couldn't process this volume in a timely fashion. They were seeking to eliminate the data entry component of their current invoice and authorization for payment (AFP) process through the use of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. NU's intent was to integrate the OCR capabilities with both their accounts payable system "INDUS Passport" and their document management system "Spescom EB".

Due to the work backlog, it was taking an average of 22 days from time of invoice arrival to scan. NU's standard payment terms are 30 days, but since no one could view the status of the invoice for the first 3 weeks, the process was frustrating to both NU personnel and their vendors. NU's accounts payable department had 10 people handling this process, along with other duties, and was feeling additional pressure to make this team available to handle other tasks.