October 13, 2015 – Manual processes for expense reporting can be a hassle both for employees who file reports and the managers that need to review them. Research from Quocirca found, 65 percent of expense claimants and 43 percent of processors that do not use an automated system say their current expense reporting systems are too time-consuming. TGI Office Automation turned to mobile data capture software from Nuance to streamline expense reporting and free up time for their mobile workforce.
TGI Office Automation is a comprehensive office technology provider that offers scalable solutions ranging from copiers and supplies to document and mailroom management. One of the first stops for any new solution that TGI is considering adding to its product portfolio is Brian Sampietro, the company’s CIO.
“Our company always tests products that we plan to offer our customers to see how we can utilize them to improve our business processes internally and be sure we can’t break them. Only then do we feel confident presenting them to our customers. Nuance software consistently passes our rigorous internal processes,” said Sampietro.
“In particular, we find Nuance software is easy to customize to address specific document capture requirements. And the products deliver a similar scanning experience from a number of pathways – multifunction printer (MFP), desktop, web and mobile,” continued Sampietro.
Nuance NSi Mobile is a productivity app that runs on iOS and Android operating systems and extends business processes to mobile workforces. The software extends the powerful capabilities that are included in mobile devices with intuitive mobile data capture capabilities that are built into the Nuance AutoStore platform.
When looking at Nuance NSi Mobile software, Sampietro saw an opportunity to improve how TGI processes expense reports for its mobile workforce for sales and service technicians. Every two weeks, the sales and service team of about 200 people needs to submit their expenses, such as parking and gas charges related to business travel, for processing.
Expense reports at TGI had been addressed in a cumbersome process that was a mix of paper documents and electronic forms. Each mobile worker submitted about ten pages of receipts to managers for review every pay period – generating about 2000 pages of expense documentation that needed to be manually checked by busy managers. Manual review of heavy document volumes led to mistakes and the paper process made it time-consuming for managers to route receipts back to employees to ask for clarification when needed.
Sampietro customized Nuance NSi Mobile to allow TGI remote workers to capture expense receipts on the go. With the software, TGI sales and service professionals simply take a photo on their mobile devices of expense receipts and securely send the information directly into TGI’s expense process. The customized app provides a web-based expense form where employees enter the type of expense and the dollar amount.
According to Sampietro, the flexibility of the Nuance software enabled TGI to develop and rollout incremental changes in their application. The ability to deliver the application in an iterative way made it easier to introduce process change to the mobile workforce and Sampietro believes ultimately lead to faster development and adoption time.
“Nuance NSi Mobile allows our mobile workforce to capture expense receipts with their smartphones and then get rid of the paper. They take a picture of each receipt and the images are directly available with expense reports that can be immediately reviewed by managers. Nuance helped make this business process simple for employees and managers,” said Sampietro.
“Previously, technicians needed to come into the office and provide their paper-based receipts to managers who had to scan them. Now, expenses are captured as they are incurred, speeding up the process,” added Sampietro.
With the new expense system, TGI has found accuracy to have improved greatly with one receipt scanned at a time in the mobile process. Also, managers can easily jump to the specific receipts they want to view right away, providing the ability to review documentation quickly. Additionally, when an item needs to be corrected, managers have the ability to reject an individual receipt – a dramatic improvement of the old process where an entire batch of receipts needed to be returned to fix just one receipt.
The Nuance-powered expense reporting system has an added benefit of helping TGI improve customer service. Service technicians no longer need to come into the office and devote time to the administrative function of expense reporting. According to Sampietro, “This means we are not pulling people out of the field to address expenses and the result is we can provide 260 additional service calls a month – helping us deliver the dedicated, high-quality support that our customers expect.”
