UltimaX EDM for Microsoft Dynamics AX TM

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1 UltimaX EDM for Microsoft Dynamics AX TM Managing unstructured information in an organization is proving increasingly challenging for employees and colleagues. As many businesses today suffer from document overload, the daily management of electronic and paper documents is taking up more and more time. However, a user-friendly solution is now available, which is as intuitive to use as your familiar Microsoft Dynamics AX environment. The paperless office is still far from being a reality. UltimAX EDM has been especially designed for Microsoft Dynamics AX and is consequently a fully integrated solution. EDM, short for Enterprise Document Management, consists of a Document Management System (DMS) and a Workflow Management System (WFM). This combination of systems, fully integrated into your Dynamics AX, offers you the most efficient and advanced solution available on the market today. Benefits Enhanced efficiency Cost reduction Improved cooperation between departments Quality enhancement Quick access to information Quick and straightforward information management Process streamlining Enables teleworking Introduction UltimAX EDM enhances operational efficiency and effectiveness. You furthermore reach higher levels of employee satisfaction, as repetitive and often manual operations are strongly reduced. Faster document monitoring and document accessibility on a SharePoint based document exchange platform will improve your relationships with customers and suppliers. UltimAX EDM also provides more in-depth insights in current business processes, helping company managers to find ways to improve the related administrative processes. UltimAX EDM is furthermore seamlessly integrated into AX. Traditional Document Management and Workflow Management systems have the disadvantage that their interfaces deployment and management costs are high and that these interfaces often turn out to be user-unfriendly and unable to offer the desired performance levels or reliability. This is mainly due to the fact that at the development stage compromises are inevitable to make these systems work together with various ERP systems. UltimAX EDM however does not need an interface between the two systems, as they are really integrated into each other, and hence fully exploits the benefits of both systems. UltimAX EDM does not only significantly extend the set of standard documents and/or workflow functions offered by AX 4.0, 2009 and 2012, it also includes various efficiency enhancing modifications of standard AX processes. Whichever AX version you are using today, UltimAX EDM will allow you to work paperlessly! ADULTIMA IMPROVING BUSINESS PRODUCTIVITY

2 Documents Available Wherever and Whenever You Like With UltimAX EDM all of your documents are always available wherever you are. In other words, every user always (24/7, through the company network or the Internet) has access to the most recent version of any document, such as purchase invoices for instance, regardless of the documents physical location. The documents can also be automatically linked to workflows enabling completely paperless transfers without any unnecessary s or scans. The risk that decisions are taken based on incorrect documents is minimized. Thanks to the built-in version control system older versions remain nevertheless accessible in AX, in full compliance with the configured security levels. Efficient Organization Speedy access to the correct information within your familiar environment will avoid delays and mistakes, thus improving your customer and supplier relationships and contributing to cost reductions. UltimAX EDM has the added advantage that it saves physical storage space and valuable time otherwise spent on document tracking, printing, sending, and copying activities. These benefits offered by UltimAX EDM also enhance the cooperation between users and the respective teams inside and outside the organization, as knowledge and information are shared faster. With an Audit Trail you can keep track of who has accessed a document or a workflow at which moment in time as well as of the operations he or she has performed. All users can access their task history at any time and get an overview of all the workflow tasks previously assigned to them. This also guarantees that the available information is reliable, resulting in better decisions within a shorter period of time. In short, the right information is always available at the right time and place to the right person! "Research has shown that an estimated 80% of all of the information within an organization is tied up in paper or electronic documents. A simple inquiry, offer, or complaint can generate a file containing no less than 75 documents. Many of these documents, such as requests for information, inquiries, purchase invoices, receipts, complaints, and other customer-related documents are important to guarantee high-functioning operational and administrative business processes. A lot of time is wasted retrieving, gathering, and routing documents. Valuable time, which no organization can afford to waste. By using a Document Management System (DMS) combined with a Workflow Management System (WFM), document management is automated and documents can be created, accessed, changed, and routed in a more efficient and less time consuming way."

3 Document Flow Management UltimAX EDM adds a Business Process Management (BPM) system to your existing AX platform allowing you to facilitate and manage all processes. With this BPM, business processes can run analogously, which considerably reduces the turnaround times. UltimAX EDM comes standard with comprehensive security features. Thanks to this advanced workflow within UltimAX EDM and its seamless integration into AX, the general state of each workflow can be checked whenever necessary. You can for instance check where documents are delayed and why. The overview screen gives you a snapshot of all the bottlenecks within your organization allowing you to quickly provide feedback to your customers, suppliers, or employees. The built-in notification & reminder system furthermore informs users of all new workflow tasks assigned to them. In short, the Business Process Management system is aimed at increasing the efficiency and reducing the processes turnaround times by improving the integration of the process steps between man and machine, combined of course with paperless document transfer. Key UltimAX EDM Components Document Management Document Management is understood to mean the bringing together of all unstructured information into a single system and its automatic supplementation with additional information from several sources. These sources may include the document itself, the person processing the document, as well as information from AX and SharePoint. These metadata will allow you to logically classify documents and to easily retrieve them using the available tools. Documents are scanned through the Corporate Mailroom or digital post office or imported from the file system or mailbox and captured electronically. Every document gets a unique identification number ensuring quick retrieval, if necessary, of the physical documents.

4 The documents can be distributed from the digital post office. A document can for instance be presented to the person for whom it is intended or sent to the archive or to the recognition software for further processing. With AX, outgoing documents such as sales invoices, reminders, and shipping notes can be archived and distributed as PDF documents. In UltimAX EDM, this means that documents can be made available to customers and suppliers on a SharePoint platform immediately after their creation. Documents sent and subsequently returned, such as signed shipping notes, contracts, etc., can also be archived automatically. Archiving Our mailboxes contain an enormous amount of information. Hence, UltimAX EDM would not be complete without the possibility to also archive that information. All s, both incoming and outgoing, can be archived by means of an Outlook plugin. The system knows when an has already been archived so that it is not included twice. Answers to s are added at the bottom of the list, with a link to the original . Any initiated from AX will also be created through Outlook and afterwards linked to the document archive. Knowledge Management Turning information into knowledge is definitely one of the objectives when using an information system. UltimAX EDM helps you to manage this knowledge and enables you to retrieve it effortlessly. Wherever a user is and whichever method he uses, he should always be able to find exactly the information he is looking for. That is why Dynamics AX now offers a transaction related search mechanism, which allows searching for documents with their complete audit trail and metadata. Additionally, you can also retrieve documents using a desktop search engine as well as through the SharePoint based web environment. In short, whether or not you are an AX user, the information is always accessible in a secure environment and provides you with the knowledge you are looking for!

5 Workflow Management Workflows are managed within UltimAX EDM. This means that workflow tasks such as approvals or verifications can be assigned to anyone, even to non-ax users. Every process, for which a workflow has been created, has a template comprising the entire business logic. Workflows can be started automatically within AX provided that certain conditions have been met, or interactively, whenever a user deems it necessary. Invoice Processing Incoming purchase invoices are captured and archived using UltimAX EDM. It goes without saying that the system also processes digital invoices. A mailbox can be linked to the system so that s with invoices attached can be captured and processed. Subsequently, the recognition software will take all the necessary information from the document and upload it to AX and the document archive. After their upload to AX all invoices are handled in exactly the same way. Both invoices without purchase orders (utility invoices) and invoices with purchase orders (goods invoices) are handled at a central location. From this central location workflows can be started to obtain the necessary approvals, and corrections can be carried out, such as VAT corrections, various surcharges, rounding differences, and discounts. Finally, the invoice will also be registered from this screen and be granted approval status, after which the invoice can be included in the payment proposal. Approvals can be granted manually or obtained through workflows. This unique method separates the payment approval process from the registration process, considerably speeding up the processing of your invoices. The turnaround time of an invoice is reduced and the operational efficiency is greatly improved. All invoices can be processed from the same screen. Invoices do not longer have to physically travel around the organization to get the necessary approvals and copying invoices is completely superfluous. UltimAX EDM s benefits are therefore not limited to invoice capture and recognition, as these stages are followed by an approval and registration stage. The image integration system within AX guarantees that the invoice is always visible, wherever this is necessary, such as within the supplier transaction, ledger accounts, and of course also within the payment proposal. Document Collaboration Integrating UltimAX EDM into Microsoft SharePoint greatly facilitates the creation of portals for straightforward document sharing with your internal and external users, thus enhancing your document management.

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