Taps Xign to extend Six Sigma methodology to corporate finance function
Pleasanton, CA — August 16, 2005 — Sentara Healthcare, a not-for-profit healthcare provider, has selected Xign to automate its accounts payable (AP) operations.
Sentara has successfully applied Six Sigma methodology — the data-driven approach to eliminating defects in a business process — to improve the delivery of patient care. Because of this success, Sentara began looking for ways to improve its financial supply chain. After evaluating several vendors, Sentara chose Xign to apply Six Sigma principles to accounts payable in order to streamline operations and proactively monetize early payment discounts.
With Xign, Sentara said it expects to further business process transformation by measuring and monitoring AP processes to improve managerial effectiveness, compressing accounts payable cycle time, reducing invoice defects by more than 70 percent, reducing manual touch points through electronic workflow, increasing early payment discount capture, and tightening process controls and increasing visibility to liabilities.
Sentara targeted accounts payable for business process improvement because of the payback potential, said Linda Horton, Sentara director of Finance Operations. We chose Xign because it is clearly the best equipped to improve our process capability in support of our Six Sigma quality objectives. Xign will help us achieve new levels of efficiency and maximize our early payment discounts while improving financial control.
We're honored that Sentara selected Xign as the catalyst to extend Six Sigma process improvement to its AP operations, said Tom Glassanos, Xign president and CEO. Sentara joins other healthcare customers that rely on electronic payables to reduce costs, better manage working capital, and enhance Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.
Sentara Healthcare provides services in Southeastern Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina. It is comprised of more than 70 sites of care and offers health coverage plans, home health and hospice services, physical therapy and rehabilitation services, mobile diagnostic vans, and ground and air medical transport services.
