CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORIES
Special education provider Melmark purchases smarter by adopting a digital procurement platform
About the company
Melmark is a multi-state human service provider with premier special education schools, professional development, training, and research centers. They are committed to enhancing the lives of individuals with autism, intellectual and developmental disabilities. The overall goal of their program and services is to allow each individual to achieve their highest level of independence and confidence and to become active members of their communities.
Industry
Individual and Family Service
No. of employees
500 - 1,000
Headquarters
Berwyn, PA
A time and space-consuming manual process
For a company as massive as Melmark, they handled all their procurement on Excel and paper. This meant they had to deal with stacks of paper, and it was time-consuming and took a lot of space to store them. In short, It was a painstaking process.
Fully flexible
“I literally managed everything on Excel, by myself. So it was very cumbersome. All of this cabinet space behind me is filled with paper from stuff that we would print out and scan, and I'd save the hard copies just in case we lost anything.”
Jim Calvarese
Director of Facilities at Melmark
They purchase a lot of different things, usually one-off stuff, and the vast majority of their purchases aren't necessarily cataloged purchases. Because of the needs of the individuals that they are serving, and their buying habits. Frequent non-catalog purchases meant they were constantly exposed to risks, noncompliance, and little to no cost savings.
A need to save money and time
They wanted to digitize their procurement process and bring all their non-catalog purchases onto the system To get visibility into what's been purchased. They were looking for a procurement software that will streamline purchasing and send notifications to people involved in the process.
Going digital will help Melmark get rid of an incredible amount of paper. It is important to note that their non-catalog purchases accounted for 55-60 percent of their overall purchase. They wanted visibility into their budget and the ability to create reports. On top of automation, they also wanted to reap the cost benefits of having a procurement platform in place, which would also improve their overall efficiency.
Fully flexible
"You know automating the invoice part will take a lot of work off our finance department because there are employees dedicated solely to entering invoice information into the computer. So, you know, having Kissflow Procurement Cloud removes a lot of time from those people, and allows them to work on other essential tasks, which, again, just further improves our efficiency.”
Jim Calvarese
Director of Facilities at Melmark
Kissflow Procurement Cloud Experience
Jim Calvarese
Director of Facilities at Melmark
"I'd say the number one thing that I've received from everybody is like, wow, this is really easy to use. And, you know, I brought it up to people, you know, I have a lot of friends in Philadelphia. I would continue to recommend it to other companies because I do think that it's very easy to use, and you know, again, the flexibility and just being able to do whatever your company needs to do within the software is such a game changer. It's great."
Saying goodbye to paper
Through Kissflow Procurement Cloud, Melmark automated its procurement process. Digitization of the PO process resulted in complete transparency throughout the process, eliminating delays in the purchase order process. Requestors were able to track their POs easily, and approvals were much easier to obtain. The automatic notifications were the cherry on top. A great advantage that Melmark experienced was Kissflow Procurement Cloud's ability to access it from anywhere in the world at any time.
To take stock of the brand's non-catalog purchases, we designed a flow where every non-catalog purchase goes through a supplier onboarding process. We ensured that there is always a contract in place against every non-catalog purchase. Upon supplier acceptance, the purchase order assumes the status of a binding contract, solidifying the transaction. After the supplier delivers the products on the specified date, they undergo rigorous quality assessments, upholding Melmark's commitment to excellence. In the event of discrepancies, a streamlined return process ensures swift resolution and replacement, if necessary. Once the supplier sends invoices for payment, they are processed swiftly through integration with Melmark’s accounting system. Invoices undergo an automated three-way matching process to validate accuracy and completeness. Upon successful matching, payments are promptly processed, reinforcing Melmark’s culture of punctuality and reliability.
By streamlining its overall procure-pay process, Melmark was able to bring complete transparency into what's happening in purchasing.
The amount of customization available in Kissflow Procurement Cloud simplified the overall flow of information in the system and significantly sped up the purchasing process.
A new era of procurement
Before implementing a procurement system, it took 25 minutes for a purchase request to be processed (given everyone was attentive to their email). Now, with the implementation of Kissflow Procurement Cloud, it has come down to a mere 5 minutes at maximum! Jim was also able to reduce the time he spent at the office. It was not uncommon for him to spend 11 hours every day taking care of all the purchases. But, post-implementation, he is able to go back home on time.
Fully flexible
"I could get rid of this whole cabinet over here. That'd be great. It's a huge benefit. I actually don't really know what I'm going to do with all this space. Since now it's all electronic, and I'm not going to have to store it all. It's also a big cost benefit because the copy paper here is very expensive. It's going to end up saving us quite a bit of money too, which is also nice."
Jim Calvarese
Director of Facilities at Melmark
With everything automated now, the entire process is super efficient and transparent than ever before. Melmark is also eager to expand the implementation to its other offices in New England and North Carolina.
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