Background
SMS UK PLC (previously Utility Partnership Limited – UPL) is one of the energy industry’s most innovative companies, developing and delivered utility and energy services to energy industry and corporate clients saving millions of pounds in costs as well as valuable time.
It is the only UK service provider of utility infrastructure, smart metering and energy services offering a complete and fully integrated management solution. With its headquarters in Cardiff, the company’s aim is to help customers make sense of the complicated utility environment. It provides a broad range of services covering the entire utilities connections process, from feasibility to energy management, using its experience and knowledge of the utility and energy markets to deliver the right solution for their clients.
The Problem and Requirements
UPL receives thousands of utility invoices from its clients every week for analysis. All the information on these invoices needs to be imported into their management system for analysis. The amount of data that has to be captured from each invoice is considerable, over 30 pieces of data in many cases, which created a bottleneck in the process because data had to be manually keyed into their system.
As part of our business audit and consultation to supply Canon MFP’s for UPL’s printing and document handling requirements, it was also clear that we could help the business save time and money using cutting-edge data capture and software which would:
• Automatically extract data from these invoices
• Upload it to their systems for analysis
• Create electronic copies in PDF format that could be stored safely on their server for retrieval if needed
• Make the process easier, error-free and save valuable working hours
The Solution
UPL chose the data capture software called PSI:Capture intelligent document and data capture solution which provided all the capability the company needed to rapidly extract data, both summary and line item detail, from a variety of client utility invoices and other utility documents.
“We previously had to mobilise a substantial work force to input this data manually into our analysis database but now the software has resulted in tangible productivity gains, and a return on investment within three months.”
— Martyn Atack, utility portfolio manager, Utility Partnership Ltd.
Solution Components in Summary
Capture Software: PSI:Capture with Advanced Data Extraction
Output Formats: Text-searchable PDF and CSV data file
Content Repository: Network folders
Business Systems: In-house analysis database
Scanner: Canon Multi-function Printer
Installation: Data is exported into Excel format and imported into a Bill Analysis Database. Scanned documents are converted to PDF.
PSI: Capture classifies the invoice type, applies the appropriate template and extracts all the data from each invoice.
