Data Processor Customized Journal Entry Screen (AP Modules)

As illustrated in the CRM data flow chart, through a customized journal entry screen, an accountant has direct access to all operational information necessary for the processing of all incoming invoices. This section analyses the development and functionalities of this module and illustrates its main advantages and characteristics.

For approximately a three-month period of time, a number of accountants (control group) participated in the test process, which aimed at reporting all possible information which is considered vital during the checking and processing of crewing Accounts Payable (AP) transactions. Several types of purchasing source documents, such as disbursements, invoices, crew wages, and insurance accounts, were processed by this group of accountants in a test database environment. Consequently, all information which was found to be necessary during the processing of the documents was identified and categorized in computerized and non-computerized forms:

™ Non-computerized information solely derives from Crew Superintendents, who are basically the Initial Data Providers. For this purpose, the process of FIS has been established, which, as previously explained, aims at generating and maintaining this information in a computerized form. Moreover, the initial coding on the basis of a single seafarer became a mandatory operational task for Crew Operation groups.

™ Existing computerized information mainly concerns the vessel and employment of seafarers and derives from the following crewing software modules:

¾ Crew Change History (C/C Hist.) ¾ Crew Change Planning (C/C Plan.) ¾ Crew List

¾ Crew Management Contract (Line up) ¾ Medical Report (Med. Rep.)

Once all information useful for the accountant had been established in a computerized form, a technical analysis follows in order to set up the requirements for the development of a customized “Journal Entry” Module. The in-house IT developers, together with the assistance and participation of other staff members, worked for a couple of months in order to finally develop a program called AP Module (see Figure 18), which became the “Data Processor” in the data flow chain of the new CRM system.

Figure 18: A Customized CRM Journal Screen (AP Module)

Click buttons (direct access to empirical operational data)

FIS Automatic identification of

refundable expenses

The new module provided the following three innovative functionalities:

™ Convenient retrieval of empirical seafarers’ and vessels’ data/information (FIS, medical, wages, crew list etc.) through direct links, which may be activated by simple button clicks that are available on the screen (e.g., access to FIS through the name of seafarer).

™ Analysis and recording of cost business transactions on the basis of the following dimensions:

¾ Vessel’s Name ¾ Seafarer’s Name ¾ Seafarer’s Nationality

¾ Port of embarkation/disembarkation

™ Automatic identification and processing of refundable expenses (Paid By column) through business rules established to provide direct links with the CRM contract and other in-house software.

The AP Module was initially implemented in a test database environment in order to be used and evaluated by the “control group” of accountants for a period of one month. At the same time, a “control group” of crew superintendents was formed in order to review the processing of documents and identify possible errors or deficiencies. The aim was to ensure that correctness of the processed accounting data was accomplished by the accountants without the involvement of crew superintendents (change of process). The effectiveness of the new process had to be checked and evaluated primarily by crew superintendents (the ‘order’ generators). Moreover, the performance of accountants’ working groups was evaluated in terms of the time needed to check, verify correctness and record the bookkeeping transactions of an invoice.

This exercise continued for another month with the participation of additional groups from other sections. The fact that many people were involved in the development as well as in the new module implementation process improved their motivation and minimized their resistance to change. It should be noted that computer mediated communications,

such as internet and video conferences, were used in order to involve Marlow Germany’s and Marlow Netherlands’ employees in the project.

IT developers collected the comments and suggestions made by all working groups and consequently worked to provide all relevant enhancements and corrections. The module was completed and implemented into a live environment in January 2005. Contrary to the traditional journal entry modules, Marlow AP Module is an IT instrument that enables the complete processing of all purchasing source documents to be made in the accounts section with no need to transfer the documents to any other in-house section. During the journal entry process, empirical data related to the movement of seafarers are conveniently available on the screen for the accountant; thus, the efficiency of cost checking, verification and posting process has significantly improved since the introduction of this highly specialized tool.

Currently, all types of accounts payable source documents, including expenses such as manning fees, crew wages, and land and air travel expenses are either directly entered or imported from other IT sources in the AP Module. Consequently, all accounting data are transferred through an interface to the financial ledger. At the same time, refundable expenses are automatically transferred to the Sales Software Module ready to be selected as sales order items and invoiced to the clients. The advantages of this integrated process, which are explained in the next section, have been recognized by the company’s accountants and ship operators (critical communities) at an early stage, which led to the complete replacement of the traditional double entry accounting screen. The new CRM system has been developed to accommodate the needs of all companies of Marlow organization in Cyprus and abroad. It is currently being used by Marlow Cyprus, Marlow Germany, and Marlow Netherlands. In the near future, it is expected that the project team will schedule its implementation to other affiliated companies of the organization in East Europe and Asia.

6.2 Measurable Benefits