Past Projects: eInvoice

In our "Past Projects" section, we revisit some old projects that were decommissioned for various reasons.

eInvoice was way ahead of its time and filled a key role with high acclaim for more than 5 years at NSLIJ. We stopped it because the technology ran its course, and we did not want to become an invoicing vendor.

Below is the description of the technology:

eInvoice facilitates the way AEC Industry companies manage invoices with a focus on operations collaboration. It is a community aware, enterprise capable, project focused electronic invoicing system which is made possible by treating the process as the hub vs. the participants.

The invoice approval and payment process in the AEC Industry requires many participants. Beginning at the job site, based on a contract, invoices make their way through an approval cycle and then move on to the finance department for enterprise accounting capture and payment.  The process flow below shows the overall cycle. The problem is when this is done manually, there are many opportunities for error, location based restrictions, and general lack of transparency.

Other applications that facilitate the invoicing process are generally built from a Standalone or Finance perspective.  The Standalone focus is generally approached with an application that emulates the project invoicing process and then integrates with other Line of Business (LOB) applications like project management & accounting.  This usually involves lengthy implementation cycles in order to match up the standalone application with the way your existing applications function.  The Finance focus is generally approached with an application that emulates the accounting process.  While we clearly understand accounting must be involved, we think that approach is backwards, starting in the middle of the process and/or forcing operations staff to become financial software users.

The process flows below show the standalone and accounting focused methods. We think this is starting in the wrong place, leaving out the operations team and their core software. Additionally the integrations are often being handled by the invoice tool, which is counterintuitive to a typical integration middleware strategy.

Background

eInvoice was born out of a need to simplify the invoice management process for vendors, architects, project managers, business services staff, executives, and financial professionals. The project was co-developed by North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System and The Cram Group. At the time it was revolutionary initially garnering the most aversion to change and ultimately becoming their favorite application. The two limitations at the time were old methods of integration preventing efficient cross domain usage and lack of Line of Business application vendor support for community driven processes.

Subsequent versions made attempts at overcoming these technology hurdles to no avail due to costs of integration. As The concept of Cloud was better defined by NIST and software vendors started to get enabled, we were empowered to think about our business and the business of invoicing in completely new ways.

Today we have taken the same real world principles and applied better technology from the ground up. We are just scratching the surface of where these types of applications can go.

Features

Cloud Ready: When we say Cloud ready, we don't mean some marketing term.  It also does not mean we have to host it.  eInvoice was built from the ground up based on the NIST cloud definition.  As we work toward the definition of Cloud (we are close, but also purists), eInvoice users will realize benefits that change the way invoicing is done in the AEC Industry.  Visit our Cloud page for more information on our mindset and the NIST cloud definition.

Prolog Ready: eInvoice is the first natively integrated 3rd party application for the Prolog Application Suite.  We don't mean it sort of integrates, we mean it has a native building block that bolts on, rock solid.  We started here due to the large community of users interacting with the Prolog Suite but more importantly due to the extensive Prolog Connect web services platform made available to all customers of Prolog Converge.

Community Aware: eInvoice understands the construction ecosystem goes beyond an owner or general contractor's desires and brings different value to all participants.  Approvers can focus on the programs & projects under their control while submitters can focus on projects from multiple programs, projects and controlling entities.  This results in a community of users with one place to process their invoices.

Enterprise Capable: eInvoice goes beyond the single database or project and allows connections across all projects so participants can get everything done from one familiar place.  There are existing ball in court queries for participants but since the contract sources are bound, external reporting tools can also be used for alternative business intelligence presentations.

Project Focused: We understand project management and the field.   That's where the work gets done and the invoice starts.  eInvoice is fully aware of project level contracts and business rules, vs. the accounting requirements.  If your Project management and accounting software are in line, eInvoice will fit like a glove.

Role Based: Contracts flow two directions and as a result Invoices have submitters and approvers.  As a result, it shouldn't matter which company the contract is with or which database the project is in.  eInvoice enables dynamic user assignments across any database or project breaking down traditional clumsiness associated with database or project specific processes.

Plug & Play: eInvoice integration requires no business consulting or custom programming to configure.  It's tightly integrated with the Project Management Line of Business (LOB) Application version that is licensed.

Where most providers create core applications with options to integrate with old technologies, we took a different approach creating a modern, cloud driven platform with out of the box snap in capabilities for LOB applications.  This plug and play approach eliminates IT hassles.

We have no plans to go backwards and create generalized middleware so as AEC Technology Space Vendors build cloud capable products with openly programmable web services we will bring the benefits of the eInvoice platform to other LOB applications.

Configuration: eInvoice has administrative tools to configure companies, administrators, approvers, and submitters with minimal data entry or synchronizing with the LOB Application.  The workflow can be defined with as many steps as desired while honoring the LOB Application business rules.

Licensing: We know there are business people that want a simple turnkey solution, we also know there are many smart people out there managing existing IT solutions that eInvoice can be a part of.  We can host it or you can host it wherever you want.  But it's not just about hosting.  If we host it our software + services approach allows options for single tenant or multi-tenant deployments enabling options to bill the approver company or the submitter company or both.  Have it your way or any way in between.

Notes: *Cross Domain and Community based features are forthcoming.

 Why use eInvoice?

Since our leadership is from the operations side of construction and the cloud mindset of technology, that's the approach we took to invoicing. Rather than trying to own the entire invoicing process, we stepped back and looked at what part of the automation was missing. As a result, eInvoice is focused on the collaborative job site operations approval process. eInvoice is built for this purpose only and leaves the accounting and payment integration in the hands of other Line of Business (LOB) and integration applications. This keeps our focus clear, the cost down, and allows other applications to be maximized. The process flow below shows where eInvoice fits into the Project Invoicing cycle rather than trying to own it.

Who Uses eInvoice?

eInvoice has successfully facilitated 1,000's of monthly transactions for more than 5 years.  Below is a list of some customers that have benefit from eInvoice:

Array Architects PCAKF Group Albanese Development Corp. Anson environmental Ltd. A.S.C. Contracting Corp. Axis Construction Corp Baldassano Architecture, LLP Barr & Barr, Inc Bovis Lend Lease LMB, Inc. Botto Mechanical Corp. Carrier Commercial Services Cannon Design Cameron Engineering & Assoc., LLP Consulting Associates of NY Inc. Cauldwell Wingate Company, LLC Consumer Markouts Consulting and Testing Services Dattner Architects Davis Langdon Desman Associates Diam-N-Blu Mechanical Corp. Empire Genral Contracting Ewing Cole Fiber Control Flack and Kurtz Floors Unlimited Francis Cauffman Inc The Fulcrum Group Gotham Construction Company LLC Gordon L Seaman Gorden, Sibell & Iannone, PLLC Hammes Company Hensel Phelps Construction Co. Horizon Engineering Associates H&T Contracting Inc. Jato Building Contractors, Inc. Jefferson Wells Jones Lang LaSalle Americas, Inc JRB Construction Corp. JRS Architect PC JSK Construction Corp. Langan Engineering & Environmental Lilker Associates Lizardos Engineering Assoc, P.C. Matrix Mechanical Corp. Materials Testing Lab Inc. Maarv Waterproofing Inc.

McLaurin & McLaurin, IncMcGuire Group Architects Michael Anthony Contracting Morris/Switzer & Associates Multivista Construction Documentat Nouveau Elevator Industries Inc. Pam Chow Architects Paul Jacob Hill Architec & Design Par Environmental Corp. Perkins Eastman Architects PC P.W. Grosser Consulting RA Consultants LLC Racanelli Constructions Rockwell Architecture Planning Reilly & Associates RGBK Inc D/B/A Romano Gatland RJ Lee Group inc. Roux Associates, Inc Rolands Electric Inc. Romano Paving and Contracting Corp Salans LLP Starcom Communications Services Scale Plumbing SDM Representatives, Inc. Shulman Industries Inc Sidney B. Bowne & Son LLP Sierra Group Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, LLP Skanska Spectrum Signs Inc. Stantec Consulting Services, Inc. Swanke Hayden Connell Architects Turner Tectonic Engineering Testing Mechanics Corp Turner FMS Thornton Tomasetti Inc. Total Safety Consulting, LLC TPG Architecture, LLP Tremco/WTI Upright Expediters, Inc VHB Engineering, Surveying & Lansc Vincon Electric Co. Inc VTS Medical System LLC Wiss, Janney, Elsnter Associates WSP Cantor Seinuk S. Engineering, PC

Quick Tour

Invoice Submission: Staff from Vendors, Subcontractors and other company types submit invoices against an existing contract.  This is made simple by showing the submitter the information specific to their company based on active agreements.  Submitters see real time contract, change order and historical data & attachments in one screen, making all relevant information available each step of the way. eInvoice complies with all of the business rules in the Project Management Line of Business Application (Prolog in this case) to ensure there are no variances.

 Invoice Approval

Staff from Owners, General Contractors, and other company types approve invoices from a cue based on submissions.  With relevant information available in one screen,  approvers can focus on quickly making informed decisions and speeding up the entire invoice management process.  Upon final approval, the Project Management Line of Business Application is updated, notifications are distrbuted, and information can be routed to ERP & Accounting systems for payment.

Configuration

All of the options are completely configurable by the Project Management Line of Business Application owner.  Company participants, workflow steps and other settings are 100% browser native.