"TNS power Nizhny Novgorod": transition to work with suppliers in electronic form

PJSC TNS energo Nizhny Novgorod is the largest power supplying organization of the region, the guaranteeing electricity provider in the territory of the Nizhny Novgorod Region. Enters into structure of PJSC TNS energo Group — one of the leading independent power supply companies of Russia.

For 2017 the organization controls 60% of sales market of the electric power in the area, services more than 32 thousand legal persons and over 1.3 million personal accounts of natural persons under agreements.

Background of the project

Process automation "TNS power Nizhny Novgorod" based on the DIRECTUM system began in 2012. Since then in the company projects on transfer to an electronic form of contract management, by business trips and meetings, classical office-work, to increase in efficiency of internal service works were successfully implemented.

By 2017 about 850 employees in management of PJSC TNS energo Nizhny Novgorod (further – Management) and eight remote departments of the organization are connected to a system (up to 200 users at the same time). Annually using DIRECTUM:

• more than 700 economic agreements will be approved;
• about 70 thousand entering and 110 thousand outgoing letters are registered;
• about 6 thousand memos are made out and 6.5 thousand instructions are issued.

New tasks

Every day a huge number of documents of suppliers comes to the company. All of them should be received, processed and saved in archives according to the adopted regulations. Document flow becomes complicated because of territorial remoteness of divisions and the centralized accounting functioning based on Management in Nizhny Novgorod.

The scheme of the movement of a document package from the supplier

The organization made the decision on transfer of external document flow to an electronic form under the influence of several factors:

• complexity of approval and control of the movement of documents in the company;
• the considerable volume of the signed papers (more than 1000 pieces in month);
• временнóе lag of the moment of the beginning of work on the document from the fact of its receipt in the organization;
• need of fast preparation of supporting documents for transfer to the controlling orgna;
• the growing interest of suppliers in transition to electronic exchange.

The following tasks were set for the working group:

• configure management of two flows of documents from suppliers – paper and electronic, to integrate them with internal treasurer and budget processes;
• organize uniform archive of documents, facilitate preparation for checks and dredging.

Paper documents

At workflow automation in the company it was decided that activity in "TNS power Nizhny Novgorod" should be conducted only with electronic copies. It was supposed that papers will be seen only by employees who get them, sign or store. All others can use in work only the scan.

At the same time the working group managed to minimize a way of the paper document from the division which received it before accounting and archive.

Process of work with documents in paper form

Within the project the main stages of work on the paper document of the partner were defined:

1. Receipt in remote division of the organization.

1. the Employee scans paper, enters it in the DIRECTUM system, fills out the main details of the document.

1. the Scan goes to approval to DIRECTUM. The paper original is located in the folder for transportation in Management (for signing by the first head).

1. the Next stage — in department the electronic document in DIRECTUM comes to the fixed Center of the Financial Responsibility (CFR) which head is last approving. By this moment to it the folder with originals of documents — on signing arrives from departments.

1. the First head signs documents from the folder received from the head of the CFD and returns back.

1. Employees of the CFD scan documents with signatures of both parties in new versions of electronic documents. One copy is transferred to accounting, the second — goes to the supplier.

1. the Accountant performs operation in the accounting system of 1C. In the electronic document the corresponding mark is given. The paper option is located in archive.

Even if in a system it is brought the scan copy of the document signed on both sides, the paper original cannot be destroyed — not less than five years are required to store it. With respect thereto was decided not to refuse maintaining traditional archive. As the image of the document signed on both sides is stored in DIRECTUM and there is information on original storage location, the user can print it in batch mode with inventories. Thus it is not required to look for paper in archive any more.

To check the mechanism in work, the working group of the project performed primary filling of archive and also carried out reconciliation of its data with a system.

Electronic exchange with partners

Upon transition to electronic document management between the supplier and the organization there is an intermediary — the operator of e-document flow. In the simplest case the accounting system interacts with its services directly, receiving documents and sending confirmations on their signing.

In a situation with "TNS power Nizhny Novgorod" initially was required to consider an important point — after obtaining electronic vendor documents there was the same approval of the electronic document, as well as in a case with paper analogs. The speech, of course, went about work in the DIRECTUM system — that at approving there were no questions of with what document type they work.

The developer prepared several options of the organization of process. Following was recognized the most optimal of them:

1. the Packet of electronic documents from the supplier comes to service of exchange. In the automatic mode they are taken and transferred to EDMS with filling of the identified details of a card.

1. the Fixed employee sees a task in DIRECTUM on preprocessing of the received document package. Need of this stage is connected with the fact that in service of exchange there is no part of information necessary for internal approval of the received packet.

1. After processing the document package goes to approval to EDMS. At the same time the first contractor of a task is always the fixed accountant officer who checks correctness of the received documents. Then they are sent to the CFD.

1. the Last approving — the head of the CFD. He makes the final decision on need of signing of documents.

1. the First head approves documents as own electronic signature.

1. Daley they are given to accounting and are located in archive.

1. the answer Automatically goes to service of exchange about signing of documents.

All participants of process work only with the electronic images of documents (formalized and unformalized). At the same time the main rule is followed: the electronic document subscribes and stored in that format in what it arrived from the supplier.

Uniform archive

Storage of scans of papers and the documents created in electronic form is organized in one archive. The structure of directories is as close as possible to a traditional method which can be observed in accounting. At the moment 80% of uniform archive of the organization make scans of paper originals, 20% are electronic documents.

Obviously to advantage of such storage – a possibility of the automated data processing. The scenarios of unloading and dredging allowing to find and export scans and electronic documents with signatures to any file structure are for this purpose developed and implemented. If it is required to transfer them to a third party, it is enough to write on the carrier and/or to print with stamps in batch mode.

Results and perspectives

All stages — from a research before completion of trial operation — were implemented in 7 months. Specialists of department of an ACS "TNS power Nizhny Novgorod" and representatives of DIRECTUM entered into the working group of the project. Today in the company the first positive results are observed. In particular, the speed of passing of processes of document flow and level of comfort of work of end users considerably increased. The next step — the solution of new tasks, among them:

• gradation from paper documents of suppliers to electronic;
• improvement of the mechanism of interaction with operators of e-document flow;
• wiring design and the interchange format documents with supervisory authorities on telecommunication channels;
• automation of internal service processes, development of end-to-end — with parent organization.