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CASE STUDY

AmeriQuest Transportation Services Grows Quickly By Maximizing E-Commerce Efficiencies

Corcentric solution eliminates need for human intervention for accounts receivable and accounts payable processes

AmeriQuest Transportation Services, Cherry Hill, N.J., has grown from a startup, to a leading provider of comprehensive fleet management services, to more than $500 million in gross revenues by maximizing efficiencies throughout the organization. The company leverages the strength in numbers of more than 700,000 vehicles to deliver savings, expertise, and menu-driven services to its private fleet, truckload carrier, and rental and leasing members to help them remain competitive in their marketplace.

When he started the business earlier in the decade, AmeriQuest founder Douglas Clark knew that the company needed a process that could manage disbursement and reconciliation for the company’s members and suppliers.

At the time, paper-based systems were still the preferred accounts payable and receivable system for most companies – a trend that continues for many even to this day. For those seeking to go digital, Electronic Data Interchange was the preferred method. But others were transitioning to a variety of Web-based applications, and some companies were using proprietary electronic systems, but few of these separate systems communicated with one another. So AmeriQuest sought out a single system that would provide one source for accounts receivable and accounts payable data transfer, regardless of the payment systems used by the buyer or seller. AmeriQuest didn’t need to look far, finding what it needed in the comprehensive accounts receivable and accounts payable solution offered by Corcentric, McLean, Va.

“We wanted it to be a truly turnkey service” added Richard Spotts, AmeriQuest Vice President of Operations and Administration. “Corcentric takes care of providing the interface between our vendors and their software, thereby freeing us up from having to invest time and effort in that process. Once completed, their web based system works seamlessly in providing us with a means to download the vendor data into our ledgers.”

Corcentric provides its customers with a comprehensive solution to electronically manage all of their accounts payable and accounts receivable transactions, eliminating human intervention from most of the process. Being web based, their solution eliminates the necessity of a user having to make a heavy investment in technology. All that’s required is a PC and access to the Internet.

“In today’s environment, you have to get away from paper,” Clark said. “The earlier you convert paper to digital information, the better. And it makes it much quicker to put that information into operating systems and reports.”

Drives Accounting Simplification

For accounts receivable, Corcentric offers electronic purchase orders, electronic invoice presentment, online invoice approval workflow, electronic purchase order and invoice matching, payments, data integration, spend management, and storage and reporting capabilities. Accounts receivable features include electronic order capture and purchase order-invoice flip, electronic invoice presentment, delivery and dispute resolution, as well as payment to invoice reconciliation.

“The system is very user friendly,” Spotts said. “You don’t need any specialized hardware or software. A new AmeriQuest member can usually be up and running within seven days.”

For any purchase, an AmeriQuest member that needs a product or service can call their local dealer, (i.e., tires) who works with the AmeriQuest authorized supplier to place the order. The invoice is stored on the Corcentric website, enabling any party with proper authorization to review and approve or dispute it. Corcentric also integrates directly with some user business/accounting systems, which brings even greater efficiencies to the traditional approval and payment processes than some less robust electronic systems.

The Corcentric system serves as a single hub, so rather than getting one invoice from a tire dealer, another from an office supply store, a third for truck parts, all invoices come through Corcentric.

“Under the AmeriQuest business model using the Corcentric system, our members can go to a single Internet website to obtain all of their purchases through AmeriQuest. These invoices are presented in a standardized format. They are currently perpetually archived. The member makes their payments to a single vendor (AmeriQuest) instead of multiple checks to multiple vendors. All this brings numerous efficiencies, administrative benefits and cost savings to our members,” explained Spotts.

“Being paperless allows us to get critical information out to the right people in our satellite offices in a timely fashion,” added Mark Joyce, AmeriQuest Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. “With a paper-based system, it could take a week or longer to get information to the right individual for his approval, but now that information is available immediately. Even when I’m out of the office, I can review and approve invoices using the Corcentric system.”

Fueling Growth

By eliminating the human intervention needed with other systems, the Corcentric solution enabled AmeriQuest to grow its business quickly without needing to materially grow staff to handle the increased payables and receivables.

The Corcentric system recently evolved into Electronic Invoice Presentment & Payment (EIPP), a comprehensive approach to electronically manage invoice data, disputes, approvals, payment disbursements and payment reconciliation. The continuing evolution of the solution has enabled AmeriQuest to continue to grow.

“Corcentric has allowed us to automate virtually 99 percent of our sales and accounts payable functions in a manner that seamlessly insures the total accuracy of the posting of all input,” Spotts said. “In 2006 alone, it allowed us to process 800,000 (A/R and A/P) transactions with a total full-time accounting staff of four employees. During this same period, our sales grew materially and our accounting department headcount remained unchanged. It offers so many efficiencies, I just can’t imagine doing this manually.”

Clark concurs. “The biggest advantage is the scalability,” he said. “Using Corcentric allows us to grow without adding more people.”

Corcentric and other e-commerce efficiencies throughout the organization helped put AmeriQuest in the financial position to merge with NationaLease Purchasing Corporation in December of 2006, Spotts said. “We had about half as many people handling a nearly comparable amount of sales volume, excluding fuel.”

NationaLease, founded in 1944, is the largest member-owned network of independent truck leasing companies representing a total fleet of 90,000 vehicles served by a reciprocal service network of more than 700 locations across North America.

Another advantage Corcentric offers is a veteran core technical staff, Spotts added. “If we have a question, we deal with the same key technical people as we did when we started with the Corcentric system in 2000. That’s a real plus; we don’t have to bring people up to speed. Corcentric isn’t just a training ground for other companies.”

Corcentric continues to evolve its technology as customer needs change, Spotts said. AmeriQuest is currently beta testing enhanced documentation and invoice processing capabilities of their EIPP system. “Once it is finalized, a lot of other companies are right behind us ready to use it,” Spotts said.