Member Article

Thames Valley PCA aims to save with V1

Thames Valley Primary Care Agency (PCA) aims to save £30,000 per year and reduce paper consumption by up to 50 per cent by rolling out V1?s document management and imaging solutions across the agency?s 12 departments. The PCA has been using V1?s solutions in the finance department since November 2011 and plans to roll them out across the PCA from April 2013.

Thames Valley PCA provides back office support services to five primary care trusts (PCTS) across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes and Oxfordshire. The PCA is jointly funded by the PCTs across these four counties and is hosted by the Berkshire West Primary Care Trust.

V1?s automated document delivery, electronic document storage and automated authorisation solutions have been in use by the PCA for processing the invoices of one of its PCT customers, since November 2011. These solutions, which are integrated into the PCA?s existing Infor SunAccounts finance system, have replaced time?consuming paper-based invoice processes.

Stuart Ireland, Thames Valley PCA?s Head of Financial Services said, ?Our invoice processes used to be manually-intensive, involving invoices being sent to up to 20 authorisers for their approval and the paper copies of invoices being kept in lever arch files. We didn?t have a holistic view of where invoices were in the approval chain and we were at risk of losing track of which invoices received into the finance department were duplicates.?

Since using V1?s solutions for the automated processing of invoices for one of its PCT clients, the PCA has significantly improved invoice processing efficiency. Invoices received into the finance department are now imaged using V1?s archiving solution and the authorisers are automatically emailed with invoices for their approval.

Stuart Ireland says, ?Since using V1 solutions, we have probably saved half a day per week by reducing administration time and we now have much greater transparency over the invoice authorisation process.

We?re also paying suppliers in a timelier manner and we?re beginning to free-up costly offsite storage space which is currently being used to store up to seven years? worth of paper documents.?

Following the success of V1?s solutions, Thames Valley PCA plans to extend their use to its other four clients and to other areas of the PCA organisation.

Once the roll-out is complete, Thames Valley PCA will be processing approximately 3500 supplier invoices per year using the V1 software. The PCA will also be electronically storing a range of non-financial documents across 12 departments including contracts, applications, correspondence and possibly up to 50,000 monthly ophthalmic claims.

Stuart Ireland adds, ?Once the V1 software has been rolled-out across the agency, we hope that we will be able to cut paper use by 50 per cent in the first year alone. We will also hopefully be able to significantly reduce costly offsite document storage space by approximately £30,000 per year.?

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by V1 .