Customized Vendor Portal Boosted Productivity 107 Percent
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – ICG Innovations, a business process solutions leader in streamlining vendor and customer transactions and interactions through the development of full-featured and highly configurable business process automation tools, is pleased to announce its back-office processes work with client Dot Foods. ICG’s implementation of a comprehensive customer and vendor portal resulted in Dot Foods winning the prestigious HUNTINGTON BANK INNOVATION AWARD.
ICG developed and implemented a customized, 24/7 portal that helped increase productivity in the Dot Foods AR department by 107% over the past three years.
“We’re extremely honored to have been able to work with Dot Foods to provide such an innovative solution,” said Jim O’Rourke, Director of Business Development for ICG Innovations. “This brings Dot well-deserved recognition as a leader and an innovator. They focused on improving the processes and systems to achieve maximum efficiency and profitability. It’s an honor to associate with such a forward-thinking business.”
Lynn Larry, ICG’s Director of Business Operations and the project’s Executive Sponsor, added, “Working with the Dot Foods team was very rewarding. They always stayed laser-focused on the goal. That made ICG’s job much easier because we had such great support from the AR folks, IT, and Executive Management at Dot.”
The Project Process
Dot Foods, the world’s largest food re-distributor, came to ICG with a unique business model with some inherent inefficiencies. Buying large quantities of products from manufacturers and selling smaller quantities to distributors presents some twists in the financial back-office dispute process, as customer short pays can span multiple products, reasons, and manufacturers. Each short pay must be sorted through, organized, tracked, and processed. This ensures all parties are made whole despite the millions of transactions that traverse the channel.
Sometimes, the customer incorrectly short-pays the invoice, resulting in a customer bill-back. In most cases, the customer’s short pay leads to a supplier deduction. Once deducted, suppliers need ample backup for their internal processes. Ensuring the right person received the massive volume of paperwork was a big challenge for Dot Foods.
ICG’s project goal was to streamline the process and allow suppliers and customers to actively participate and collaborate. Further, the goal included making sure Dot had the information available to prioritize work, deductions, and disputes handled promptly.
The productivity increase attests to the dramatic results accordingly.
Presented by the Institute of Financial Operations (IFO) at the annual Fusion Conference in Orlando, the prestigious Huntington Bank Innovation Award recognizes the creative use of advanced technologies, tools, and processes in accounts payable and accounts receivable. Members of The Institute represent some of the most forward-thinking and dynamic individuals and companies in financial operations.
About ICG Innovations
ICG Innovations, headquartered in Scottsdale, AZ, is a business process solutions provider that assists companies with a myriad of services. ICG’s goal is to streamline vendor and customer transactions and interactions through full-featured and highly configurable business process automation tools. These include Vendor Portals, AP Automation, Vendor Onboarding, Workflow Management, and Data Capture tools. ICG’s primary function is automating and simplifying vendor communications, transactions, and information flow through. The goal? Making business easier, while at the same time, showing clients a significant, measurable ROI.