About Xodus
Xodus is a global energy consultancy providing engineering, advisory, environmental and sector-development expertise to help their clients develop, operate and transition energy projects responsibly.
Problem
- The process to approve Employee expenses and Supplier invoices was highly manual involving emails between Finance, Project Managers and Employees
- This caused delays recharging reimbursable items to clients
- Manual data entry and re-keying data into multiple systems also caused delays and was susceptible to manual errors
- Project KPIs were not up to date
Original process
- Employee expenses entered into the internal Project Management system then emailed to the relevant Manager for approval
- Supplier invoices sent to Finance who emailed the relevant Project Manager for approval, and then once approved manually entered into the internal Project Mangement system.
- Project Administrators were then able to recharge expenses and supplier invoices to Xodus clients
Improved process
- Employee expenses and Supplier invoices are now entered into Sicon - a Sage 200 add-on product
- The expense or supplier invoice is then automatically routed for approval to the relevant team member(s)
- Once approved, expenses and supplier invoices are picked up by a daily integration process and re-created in the internal Project Management system.
- Project Administrators can then recharge expenses and supplier invoices to Xodus clients
Outcomes achieved
- Significant reduction in manual processing of expenses and supplier invoices
- Fewer errors from manual rekeying of data
- Faster time to recharge expenses and invoices to clients
The Technical Landscape
- Xodus use the Boomi integration platform to transfer data between systems
- The Xodus Finance system is Sage 200
- The Xodus Project Management system is an in-house developed suite of software
- Both Sage 200 and the internal Project Management systems use on-premise SQL Server databases
How we delivered the solution
- Rephrase carried out an initial scoping and discovery exercise
- This was followed by an extensive analysis and design phase to fully define the solution requirements
- During this phase, we worked closely with the Xodus Boomi developer, Xodus SQL Server developers, Finance subject matter experts and Project Administrators
- The full suite of integrations included creating the following daily processes:
- Syncronising customer data between systems
- Syncronising project data between systems
- Syncronising expense data between systems
- Syncronising supplier expense data between systems
- Boomi queries the Finance system database tables to retrieve the information it needs
- Boomi then prepares this data in the necessary format required by the internal Project Management systemand sends it across to a SQL Server stored procedures
- The stored procedures then create the expense or invoice in the internal Project Management systems
Challenges we faced
- Sage 200 / Sicon Data schema - there was limited Sage 200 / Sicon database schema available (as they are provided by a third party) - we therefore spent time investigating the underlying database tables and how they link together to understand the data model
- Emerging requirements - during the build and testing phases, additional business rules / edge cases emerged - we worked with the Xodus technical teams to adapt the Boomi workflows and SQL Server stored procedure to accommodate these new requirements
- Customer data quality - we found that customer data records in both Sage and the internal Project Management system were not always compatible and led to errors in the integration workflows. We therefore built robust data validation and error notifications into Boomi to filter out non-compliant customer data and alert team members
Testimonial
Frazer at Rephrase, played a key role in improving Xodus’ expense and supplier invoice approval processes, helping move us away from a workflow that was highly manual and prone to error towards something far more streamlined and automated.
Rephrase were involved from the early scoping and discovery stages right through to analysis, design and delivery, and worked well with Finance stakeholders, Project Administrators and multiple technical teams along the way. Frazer showed strong problem-solving skills throughout, particularly when dealing with limited Finance system (Sage 200 and Sicon) documentation, changing requirements and data quality challenges.
A particularly important part of the solution was making sure expenses were automatically marked up in line with client contracts as part of the integration, ensuring the right values flowed through to client invoices. That removed a manual step which had previously created delays and increased the risk of lost revenue.
Overall, the solution reduced manual effort, improved data accuracy, sped up the recharging of costs to clients and gave greater confidence that revenue was being recovered fully and correctly.
Frazer was professional, collaborative and reliable throughout, and I would gladly recommend Rephrase to other organisations looking to improve its finance processes or systems integration capability.
Ross Anderson
XBOS Product Owner