NHS invoice processing by Swiss Post Solutions

15 July 2010

Swiss Post Solutions Limited is to provide an invoice processing service to ELFS Shared Services NHS (ELFS), a provider of accounting, finance, payroll and financial and business systems services to NHS organisations.

Under the four year contract, Swiss Post Solutions will implement paperless and automated invoice processing services which Lancashire-based ELFS will use for over 250,000 supplier invoices. The service, using Swiss Post Solutions’ document processing capabilities and a hosted Basware workflow solution, will simplify the accounts payable activities which ELFS undertake for its 11 NHS clients. Not only is the business case to implement the service compelling for the existing clients, but the flexible and scalable nature of the service means that it is a service that ELFS can offer easily to other prospective clients, helping ELFS to meet their growth targets and be able to provide leading edge solutions.
ELFS’ client portfolio includes NHS East Lancashire, NHS North Lancashire, NHS Oldham, NHS Blackpool, NHS Blackburn and NHS North West.
Jonathan King, CEO of Swiss Post Solutions Limited UK & Ireland is extremely pleased to have been awarded the contract: “In the current climate winning a contract within the public sector is a huge achievement. When the taxpayer’s money is involved companies need to be absolutely sure that they are making the right choices, and that’s why we’re delighted that ELFS understands that cost effectiveness and superb operational expertise are the cornerstones of our business strategy. We have established a partnership here that will improve their business processes, grow the company and increase client satisfaction.’
Graham Gornall, Director, Shared Services, ELFS, said: ‘We were impressed by Swiss Post Solutions’ experience, size and scalability and the partnership with Basware. From the very first engagement they showed a clear understanding of our particular business needs and their experience will enable us to strengthen our own offering to our existing clients and help us build the foundations for future growth and success. The move to e-billing and paperless processing is a key stage in our development. Because of this contract with Swiss Post Solutions we are now in an even stronger position to promote our high quality shared services excellence. Because of the close cultural fit between ourselves and Swiss Post Solutions we are confident that we can bring to our clients a world class service driven by genuine leading edge technology with a partner who is a key player in business process outsourcing within the public sector. That can only be a benefit to us and our clients. The partnership will enable us to implement best practice for our clients, using key performance indicators and real time reporting, flexibility, and scalability of Swiss Post Solutions offering.’
Swiss Post Solutions has a strong reputation across both the public and private sector and is a leading provider of outsourced mailroom services and a specialist in integrated document outsourcing services. The company has achieved a threefold increase in turnover since 2004 and profits have continued to increase above this rate. Due to its focus on building and maintaining customer relationships, Swiss Post Solutions has also seen a significant increase in the average contract duration and enjoys near-perfect retention rates.