When Thomas Dexter founded Dexter Press in the 1920s, he likely had no idea what would happen to his company over the next 100 years. The small printing press originally known for travel postcards grew into the printing powerhouse that is Dexter Solutions today.
However, Dexter Solutions growth wasn't exactly linear. The company went through several acquisitions and buyouts between 1970 and 2014. Each transition brought new players to the table in terms of internal tools. That left Dexter Solutions with multiple enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to support, causing a lot of technical overhead.
Bobbie Masterson, the technical solutions manager for IT, is intimately familiar with the challenges of managing disparate systems across Dexter Solutions' hospitality business units.
Legacy systems offer manual processes and zero customer visibility
Prior to Invoiced, all invoices were generated by the various ERPs and sent to customers via postal mail or email (or both in some cases). Most customers mailed in check payments, while others called in to pay using a credit card over the phone.
Checks had to be processed manually and credit card payments required access to multiple payment processors. Each payment had to be reconciled in the appropriate ERP. And if a customer didn't receive an invoice or needed another copy, it required a call or an email to Dexter Solutions.
Besides all the work required on the back end, Bobbie and the Dexter Solutions finance team was concerned about the customer billing experience. Other than an emailed PDF invoice, legacy tools offered nothing when it came to an online experience.
"We wanted to give our customers the power to self-serve," said Bobbie. "The workload on our finance and customer service teams was just not sustainable anymore."
The finance team at Dexter Solutions wrote up an exhaustive requirements list including an online customer portal, customizable invoice templates, online payment processing and invoicing, and invoice history. They began their search by creating a cross-functional team to evaluate between 8 and 10 invoicing platforms. Invoiced's robust customer billing portal checked all the boxes.
"Invoiced met all of our customer-facing billing needs during the discovery process," said Jon Mobley, Chief Financial Officer of Dexter Solutions. "It's the best fit for the systems we are currently using."
Invoiced increases automation and customer self-service options
Over the next 6 months, the Dexter Solutions finance team cleansed their customer data and built connections between their internal systems and Invoiced's billing platform. Dexter Solutions can now offer customers an online billing portal that enables the following:
- Deliver customized online invoices to customers.
- Securely process digital payments using fund-on-file.
- Download invoice copies & payment receipts.
- Offer subscription billing with time-based discounts and late fees.
- View invoicing data in both admin and restricted settings.
Today, Dexter Solutions' ERP system creates an invoice which subsequently triggers an invoice email from Invoiced to the customer. The customer can then securely view and pay the invoice online, rather than mailing a check or calling in. Dexter Solutions customer service staff can also take payment over the phone and record it in Invoiced using a restricted view of the platform.
Once payment processing takes place, the customer can download a receipt and invoice history. Dexter Solutions can also log in and email one-off invoices and receipts to customers who need them. And, payment is reconciled back to the appropriate Dexter Solutions' ERP system.
With the launch of Invoiced, Dexter Solutions has shifted an increasing number of payments from mailed paper checks to online payment methods. The customer service team has also seen a reduction in the number of inbound calls and email messages related to billing.