Rentokil Initial automate CapEx approval processes with cloud hosted capital expenditure request software
Cloud-hosted CapEx request software offers Rentokil Initial centralised control, standardised processes, financial transparency and compliance over their CapEx approval processes in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the USA.
Rentokil Initial is one of the largest business services companies in the world, employing 58,600 employees across 91 countries. Rentokil specialise in pest control with Initial experts in commercial hygiene services. Their mission is to protect people from the dangers of pest-borne disease and the risks of poor hygiene.
Challenge
Historically, the business operated a decentralised model with each country managing local processes for capital expenditure approval, mainly on paper forms. At the divisional level, there was a desire for greater visibility, a smarter approval process and for forecasts to be tracked.
Solution
In addressing the business need for more visibility into its capital expenditure (CapEx) request approval process, Rentokil Initial sought a business process management tool that would incorporate workflow, business logic and reporting. Over the course of two months, they reviewed competitive products with their IT partner, Cognizant, and decided to implement a pilot program with a cloud-based solution to determine if it would satisfy the needs of their business users. In late February ePC was invited to implement a solution based upon BP Logix Process Director, to be presented to Initial’s finance team with a demanding go-live scheduled for April.
Modern workflow technology is going to be extremely important to our business as we strive to standardise and streamline processes across the globe. This has been a very impressive first attempt but the really interesting part now is; what else can we do with this capability?
Chris Broe, Group Chief Information Officer, Rentokil Initial
Upon completion of the pilot, being satisfied with its results, the company then deployed the product throughout its European Initial Textiles and Hygiene division on time, during April.
The CapEx request software, which is hosted in the cloud, can be accessed from any location and presents users with bespoke portlets, showing their assigned tasks and knowledge views. Users can initiate CapEx requests, which contain detailed budget, approved request and monthly cash flow data integrated in to the form. It applies logic rules to assist the users in completing the forms correctly, to ensure nothing is missing by the time the forms reach approval.
As an IT support group, we offer our business colleagues choices. The decision to select Process Director/Cloud Edition was made by the Divisional CFO, as the prototype of the CapEx process worked to his satisfaction. From an IT perspective we were also genuinely pleased with the pilot
Chris Broe, Group CIO, Rentokil Initial
Capital expenditure request form
- Automatic multi-lingual translation of eForms
- All figures automatically shown in local currency and GB
- Business unit and asset category current position report including
- Yearly budget amounts
- Approved CapEx amounts with remaining totals by month
- Monthly cashflow forecast for all approved CapEx requests
- Monthly budget and cashflow budget available
- User selection for business unit, category, currency etc.
- Entry of request amount and expected cashflow, over multiple years
- Inter-dependant capital expenditure request linking for larger projects
- Rich-text request descriptions with spell check
- Attachments of any format (XLS, JPG, DOC etc.)
- Comment log, for any participant to add time stamped notes to a request
- Predicted authorisation path dependant on unit, asset category, amount etc.
- Integrated sanity checks and rules for entered data
Once submitted, the electronic forms are routed through the relevant workflow, based upon asset category, business unit, budgets and authorisation limits, often requiring approval from as many as six or more people. eMail notifications are sent, containing hyperlinks directly to the forms or if staff are away from their desk, they can simply send one word approve/reject replies with notes, directly from their smart phones.
Capital expenditure approval and tracking system features
- User and group configurable web portal access to data, reports and processes
- Admin portals with greater visibility and system alert screens
- User/Business Unit membership with hierarchy for permissions
- End user management of back-end database through Excel file integration
- Automated routing of completed eForms through dynamic authorisation paths
- Full audit trail with user ID’s and timestamps for all user actions
- Automatic handling of time zones with localised display
- Rejection and clarification workflow paths
- eMail notifications and timed reminders
- PDF rendition of request forms attached to eMail notifications and for archival
- Automatic processing of eMail responses based on keyword extraction
- Microsoft Excel based reporting via dynamic data merges
The entire system is designed to be multi-lingual, with web-based eforms automatically translating in to the user’s local language. Flexible access to the user, unit, budget, limit and authorisation path data was also required, so ePC implemented an Excel import feature to allow end-user management of the backend data from within tools the finance team were already familiar with.
Results
The system has generated significant cost savings from centralised control, standardised process, enhanced financial transparency and ensured compliance.
Due to the clear benefits the system has delivered to the business, it has subsequently been rolled out across all European, APAC, Latin America and US operations.
I have been really impressed by the speed with which this capability has been developed and how flexible it has been to meet our requirements
Hilton Hess, Finance Director, Initial
If you want to find out more about capital expenditure request (CapEx) approval software, or wish to book a demo, please contact us.