Accelerating and simplifying 360-degree workflows with NeoSystems
Table of contents
NeoSystems needed a secure way to route sensitive financial documents through approval processes — email wasn’t cutting it anymore. After implementing Nutrient Workflow, invoice approval times dropped from 15 days to less than one, and the company now processes more than 15,000 requests annually.
Background
An award-winning, tech-enabled professional services firm, NeoSystems is a trusted business partner that provides strategic back office services vital to running successful companies, associations, and organizations in various industries, including government contracting, nonprofits, and other highly regulated business enterprises.
NeoSystems offers scalable solutions with a team of industry experts, best-in-class software applications, and an advanced technical infrastructure that leverages cloud computing. The company has preconfigured processes known as NeoFlows(opens in a new tab), which are based on years of experience working with government contractors and highly regulated businesses to solve complex process needs. It also has custom-built solutions and services tailored to its clients’ needs.
The challenge
As the company’s client roster grew, the email-based method of routing documents and confirming receipt was no longer efficient or secure. Because the information employees and clients deal with includes proprietary financial data, NeoSystems needed a process that could ensure document security while improving efficiency.
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Why Nutrient Workflow?
CEO Michael Tinsley wanted more than just a secure system — he wanted a process management solution so good that clients would choose NeoSystems because they depended on it. After reviewing the landscape for business process automation tools, NeoSystems discovered Nutrient Workflow and began evaluating it in 2013.
“Nutrient Workflow offered the most intuitive design tool amongst all the workflow products we reviewed, in addition to providing a graphical view of the process in motion.”
Tinsley noted that Nutrient Workflow’s intuitive design tool enabled faster workflow creation, while its graphical view helped non-technical staff understand processes. Crucially, the on-premises deployment option addressed the high-security standards required by federal regulations.
The Nutrient Workflow solution
When first launched, Nutrient Workflow handled outsourced financial services — payroll, invoicing, and financial statement preparation. The system quickly expanded to include HR functions (new hires, onboarding, terminations), sales referrals, consultant bonuses, and invoice processing.
“All processes we use for our clients we use ourselves, too,” said Marty Herbert, business analysis manager. “That allows us to bring real-world experience to the table when we design and implement processes for our clients.”
NeoSystems now uses Nutrient Workflow for more than 50 request types, processing more than 15,000 requests annually — up from 7,000 in the first year.
Benefits
Since implementing Nutrient Workflow, NeoSystems has seen improvements across process efficiency, client onboarding, IT operations, and overall return on investment.
1. Improved processes with automation
“The biggest single benefit, in terms of overall impact to NeoSystems, is the improvement in our customer invoice approval process,” said Herbert.
“Within our internal invoicing function, before Nutrient Workflow, we were running on a 15‐day approval cycle, from the initial email being sent to a client manager to finally sending out a bill to the customer. Now the invoice approval time is less than a day. That represents a big improvement in efficiency and an even more noticeable improvement to our days sales outstanding (DSO).”
Employees and clients now expect the streamlined workflow and can’t imagine returning to the old paper-and-email routine. “Rather than digging through hundreds of emails to find transactional data, we present the information onscreen so users can push a single button and they’re done,” Herbert said. “Sensitive information doesn’t travel through email anymore.”
2. Improved client referral and onboarding
Employee referrals now flow through a simple form that automatically routes to sales and tracks the referrer for bonus payouts. When a lead converts to a client, onboarding kicks off automatically.
Previously, onboarding a new client meant sending multiple emails across departments and tracking each task manually. Now, a salesperson fills out one form, and based on the selections, notifications automatically route to IT, HR, accounting, and other relevant departments. The system even handles commission approvals, letting sales focus on selling instead of chasing followups.
3. IT time savings
The local file copy plugin has become a favorite. Previously, invoices and financial statements had to be manually saved to secure network locations — IT would receive a support ticket, pull the file, and save it for every transaction.
“It saves us more than 10 hours a month,” Herbert said. “We had a backlog of 600 transactions, with 150 new ones each billing cycle. It took two days to clear. Now the entire process is automated.”
4. ROI
The primary return has been security — the on-premises solution eliminates breaches from human error or email interception, which is critical for a company handling sensitive financial data. The efficiency gains are equally significant: two weeks cut from invoice approvals, and 10+ hours saved monthly in IT.
“The automation has been great. The fact that the system itself creates efficiency without having to rely on human interaction really pays us back.”
Post-implementation
Nutrient Workflow has become a tool NeoSystems uses to help clients automate their own manual processes. The development team continues exploring plugins like Excel Batch, Web Services, and PDF Generator to expand capabilities across HR, IT, and finance workflows.
Partnering with Nutrient Workflow
In 2014, NeoSystems took on a major client with nearly 80,000 employees, requiring a standalone Nutrient Workflow instance. The experience designing complex, high-volume processes led NeoSystems to become an official Nutrient Workflow partner.
“That’s why we became a Nutrient Workflow partner. When you are in the business of providing back office services, looking for efficiencies and ‘a better way’ to do your work, Nutrient Workflow is your best friend and has become almost second nature for NeoSystems.”
