Metrus

Key criteria

Metrus had previously looked at the Agilico solution following an introduction from their photocopying partner, Karlson. At the time Metrus were not in a position to move forward with the solution so continued with their current paper based process.

When Martyn Veness, Head of Accounts, joined the business he took the decision to revisit the solution, predominantly due to the continued expansion of the business. Two solutions were reviewed, one of which being the Agilico solution. The remaining solution provider was disregarded due to the nature of the system, which required hard copies of invoices to be sent to a PO Box number, which were then physically scanned and sent back to Metrus via a workflow. Martyn explains, “It was horribly expensive and a solution that simply wouldn’t work for us.”

Before the adoption of the Agilico solution, Metrus encountered issues with the handling and processing of invoices entering the business. The current process of pulling invoices out ready for a BACS run to then manually file them away, or having to manually search for end of the year invoices which needed to be collated was both a tiring and disjointed process. Metrus also found that invoices would go astray even though the company was based in a single building, “You’d put them in someone’s intray and a week later they would tell you that they’d never seen them.”

Metrus instantly liked the Agilico solution they had previously seen, so when the decision was made to revisit the project they only required a brief update on the solution’s functionality, “The ease of use made it a winner!” says Martyn.

An uphill struggle

Prior to the implementation of the Agilico Accounts Payable solution, Martyn, who has worked at Metrus for over 16 years, would have to take paper copy invoices home with him on the back of his push bike, “Part of my commute was on a push bike and every evening I would take the invoices home to be sorted and then bring them back each morning.”

With over 18,000 invoices a year, Martyn was taking a substantial number of invoices home each day for around 5 years. “You can imagine our level of delight and joy when we no longer needed that method of transport to get invoices around!” The whole process prior to Agilico was extremely labour intensive, the invoices that would be brought back in the morning needed to be manually filed into cabinets. Additionally, with most of the commercial properties that Metrus manage having a service charge, the invoices would need to be found and pulled out at the end of the year. “It’s one thing paying the invoices, but at the end of the year we needed to pull them all back out to reconcile back to a year end service charge transaction list.”

Implementation

Martyn was very hands on during the implementation of the solution, working with Agilico’s professional services team who, based on Metrus’ current process, designed a workflow scheduled to go live within 3-6 months.

From a training point of view Martyn became the “super user” who taught others on how to use the system, “With Agilico it’s very much a case of being able to self-teach yourself and within a day or two everyone was up to speed” Martyn adds.

Initially Metrus purchased Agilico’s system to help the Property Management department, a team of eleven Client Accountants, manage their invoices. Following the success of the solution the system is now being used by the Management Surveyors to send leases around Head Office via a purpose built workflow, “Quite quickly we realised we were able to use the Agilico product for other things.” Martyn adds. The solution also allows Business Surveyors to approve invoices with the assistance from the Centre Managers.

Benefits

Agilico proved its worth very quickly and the time saved meant Metrus were able to utilise the existing filing clerk within other parts of the business, “The speed in which we could file and retrieve invoices using the system made a massive time saving.”

As more and more properties were taken on by Metrus, increasing the number of invoices, it was necessary for Centre Managers at the properties to see these invoices. Prior to Agilico these would have been faxed or sent in the post, but as Martyn explains, “Agilico gave us the opportunity to use the workflow solution, so when invoices arrived they would be automatically sent onto the relevant people at a particular building for approval. That was an immediate benefit” Martyn adds, “There is a lot of peace of mind with Agilico, you know that once an invoice has gone into the system it is always going to be quickly retrievable.”

The more Metrus used the Agilico solution the more they started to realise how it could be used in other ways, “A lot of it is common sense, if paper documents always come in the same format then it’s crazy that we wouldn’t consider using Agilico’s system to deal with it.” Bank statements are now scanned and securely stored within Invu Document Management, which is included in the Accounts Payable solution, and as a result several filing cabinets, which were full of statements, have been removed giving the company back valuable space. “If it works for us then I’m sure it can work for other people in a very similar format.” Martyn states.

When Metrus first considered an Accounts Payable solution they were receiving around 18,000 invoices per annum, since implementing Agilico’s system they now deal with in excess of 30,000 invoices per annum. “The fact that we have been able to deal with that increase in invoices clearly indicates that we are now able to, with Agilico, process and authorise them quicker and more efficiently than we could have previously.”

The benefits have also been noticed by Metrus’ clients. When Martyn first joined the business client statements were sent as paper copies, which would have had an associated storage cost for the client, “Now it is very easy to pull the statement from the Agilico system and email clients a copy. There is an immediate benefit there.”

A further benefit has impacted Metrus’ yearly audits, where previously the team would have to manually collate information, “Now we can give auditor’s access to a PC and give them a 10 minute briefing on how to search and retrieve invoices. It has made dealing with auditors a whole lot easier.” Martyn explains.

Working with Agilico

The feedback that Martyn has received since implementing Agilico’s system has been extremely positive, “Centre managers who are not based at Head Office are able to process invoices. They can approve an invoice and tick it off against their budget.”

Over the years new staff members have been taken on, “We’ve not had to send them on any training, they have all picked it up very quickly” Martyn adds.

Martyn manages a team of 11 at Metrus, however there are also the same number of Management Surveyors in the business. At first it was thought that some of the management surveyors would not take to the new technology. However, Martyn explains, “Without exception they all loved it and got used to it, we didn’t have people saying we can’t use it or they didn’t know how to operate it, which was because of the solutions ease of use and functionality.”

Metrus know that if they do run into any issues the Agilico support team is only a phone call away, “The support guys are very responsive and they all know a lot about the products. Whenever we do have a problem it usually gets ironed out within the hour.” Martyn goes on to explain, “From day one the solution worked very well. The people at Agilico are very down to earth, there are a lot of people with very good knowledge.”

Conclusion

Metrus continues to take on more properties and employ more staff since the implementation of the Agilico software. To keep up with the thriving business they have purchased further licences using the solution to its full capabilities, “It feels like we have had it forever.”

“With the previous way of working it wouldn’t have been possible to take on all the new properties. We now have properties up in Derby where invoices get sent around on a workflow basis, which would have been very difficult prior to working with Agilico,” Martyn adds.

Metrus are continually thinking of new things they can do with the system and are currently looking into the possibility of using it within the HR department for holiday forms, which are currently routed around the business and signed off via paper forms. Martyn and his team would also like to see the independent service charge consultants, who they deal with, circulate their budgets via Invu Workflow.