Case Study
U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs decreases invoice processing costs by 33%
-
Previously, VA using multiple, siloed systems to process invoices
-
Used the Pega Platform™ to create a unified, online invoice certification system to process payment on behalf of medical facilities nationwide for the purchase of hospital equipment
-
Decreased invoice processing costs, increased annual invoice volume, and increased dollar value of payments processed
The Business Issue
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is responsible for administering programs to support Veterans, their families, and survivors. VA has more than 400,000 employees and encompasses a network of more than 2,000 medical facilities, clinics, and benefits offices nationwide.
The VA Financial Services Center (FSC) processes payment on behalf of medical facilities nationwide for the purchase of hospital equipment. Previously, the FSC relied on multiple, siloed systems stitched together, making communication among systems slow and expensive to maintain.
The Solution
To ensure the most advanced medical equipment and services are available for Veteran care, the FSC implemented the Invoice Payment and Processing System (IPPS) on the Pega Platform, enterprise-level Pega Customer Service, and has begun implementing Pega Robotic Process Automation. With IPPS, VA FSC has streamlined operations, improved accuracy, and decreased invoice processing costs by 33%.
The ability of IPPS to accommodate rapid change has allowed VA to leverage the application’s existing functionality and adapt it to meet the unique payment types for other areas of VA. IPPS is now the enterprise commercial payment platform serving all three VA administrations.
It also is a critical first step toward converting manual faxed forms into webforms, eliminating the current fax submission process and improving visibility for customers into the status of their requests. With this capability, FSC will leverage Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to capture data from the webform and populate it without the traditional, data entry process.
As part of the new Customer Engagement Portal using Pega Customer Service, the new portal reduced a time-consuming manual registration process from an average of 3 minutes per request to under 30 seconds.
All text sourced directly from Governments Building for Change.
The Results
- 33% lower invoice processing costs
- 66% increase in annual invoice volume, to 2 million (up from 1.2M)
- 33% increase in dollar value of payments processed, to $21 billion (up from $14B)
- No increase in payment processing staffing levels, despite 66% volume increase
- Cumulative cost reduction estimated at 40%
- Record-setting results on performance metrics, such as late payment rates and discounts
Related Resources
eBook
Read the full article on VA FSC in this report.
Highlights
Watch this video short about VA FSC’s strategy.
Demo Video
There’s no one-size fits all for government legacy modernization. That is why leaders across the globe are using Pega Government Platform.