An Underwater AP Team
A quick project with immediate ROI - helping an AP team get their arms around their internal and external communications.
Challenge
Delayed supplier payments were leading to suppliers' uncertainty and delayed (or no) shipments. Trust between the AP and Purchasing teams reached an all-time low, causing strain on their collaboration and operations. A cash crunch had exacerbated the situation, but clearly the AP team was struggling beyond that.
Action
The first step was to conduct meetings with the AP and Purchasing teams, along with other internal stakeholders, to assess root causes. It quickly became clear that the leading source of the problems was the volume of emails into a shared inbox. This led to long email chains in which important issues got buried below items that were being handled routinely. To make matters worse, a generally low technical skill set on the AP team meant that they were unlikely to figure out how to dig themselves out from under the avalanche of email communications.
First, in order to better manage the group inbox, a Gmail group inbox manager called Hiver was introduced. This tool allowed team members to take ownership of incoming emails and facilitate internal communication through messages rather than lengthy email chains. Since the AP team lacked tech-savviness, this tool provided an accessible and user-friendly solution.
Secondly, an issues tracker dashboard was developed using Smartsheet. This tracker required the Purchasing team to enter all necessary information related to active supplier issues, allowing the AP team to act on them promptly and track their status. Automations were set up to send emails only to relevant individuals when necessary.
Finally, senior management agreed that issues would be raised only through purchasing and the issues tracker, further reducing the volume of emails to the group inbox. Other stakeholders were given a view-only version of the issues tracker dashboard so they could check on the progress of their issues, without bothering the AP and purchasing teams for status updates. The dashboard design was iterated twice incorporate feedback from stakeholders.
Result
The implementation of the Gmail group inbox manager and the Smartsheet issues tracker proved to be transformative, with a 90% reduction in active issues after 6 weeks. The productivity of both the AP and purchasing teams’ productivity soared and they could now focus on resolving critical issues promptly. Other internal stakeholders reported a substantial increase in trust in the AP team's ability to deliver resolutions promptly, and (relative) harmony was restored.
