| CASE STUDY

Optimizing Business Processes with a Custom Microsoft Power Platform

At a Glance

An enterprise tech company wanted a modern digital, secure business process for managing payment terms for all global subsidiaries and sellers. 

​RedCloud consultants worked closely with the client to develop a custom solution that streamlined their submission process, accommodated local labor laws, provided (near) real-time tracking for 200+ payment terms, and ultimately saved them hundreds of hours of tedious labor. ​

The potential for digital business transformation using the Microsoft Power Platform, is truly staggering in its scope, scale, and magnitude."

-- Matt Little, Senior Consultant

Challenge

Before each fiscal year, a RedCloud client managing payment matters on behalf of 100+ global subsidiaries must collect terms documentation for thousands of sellers. Each subsidiary must accept the payment terms or customize them through an exception process, which involved countless emails and executed documents.

At the project outset, this process was managed by one person, and manually tracked in an Excel workbook. It took hundreds of hours to complete, and the margin for error was high without the ability to log/audit the process. This was costing the company hundreds of hours in labor each year and left it prone to legal/financial issues. 

Solution

After meeting with key stakeholders to discuss technical and business requirements for a customized system, we developed a business application utilizing all workloads of the Microsoft Power Platform to transform the entire payment terms submission process.

This new “Power Platform” streamlined terms submissions and exception requests, automated repetitive tasks, and eliminated the need for countless email and document exchanges.

All edits made to requests are tracked in audit and change history logs, and every email is saved and logged in a secure database. Overall, the new payment terms submission process is significantly more efficient and has reduced the company’s legal/financial risks.   

We needed this platform to streamline the process as simple as possible, so it’s easier to manage/refresh.

We wanted automated decision documentation, and needed to make sure important elements are secure and that it was designed to have access by geo."

-- Client Representative

What We Did

• Interviewed stakeholders running the payment term process to develop business requirements 
• Established technical requirements
• Designed and built a modern business solution utilizing all workloads of the Microsoft Power Platform

• Customized the app with quick adjustments to best fit evolving business needs and requirements
• Ran QA and UAT tests
• Implemented the Power Platform, delivering a complete solution

​DIGITAL TOOLS WE USED

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Results

99%+ of localized business rules document requests were complete within the two-week deadline. 115 payment terms were customized in-tool; 102 non-standard exceptions accommodated in-tool. The time to submit and process each payment term was reduced by an estimated 75% in comparison to the previously tedious, time-consuming submission process.

• Eliminated tedious manual reporting processes for 6 workstreams with one cohesive, live Power BI dashboard
• ​Improved data security by enabling row-level-security for SharePoint lists and document libraries using Power Automate
• Automated daily batched emailer reminders for tasks managed in Microsoft Planner​
• ​​Replaced an email and Excel-based task management process with a customized SharePoint form and automated email notifications. 
• ​Reduced handling time by transforming an email-managed invoice process with a custom Power App
• Streamlined and automated a three-party approval process involving multinational contracts.