Belmin and IMPAQ form strategic alliance to promote ARIES service

Belmin Group Ltd and IMPAQ Business Solutions Limited (IMPAQ) are pleased to announce that they have formed a strategic alliance to promote Belmin’s ARIES (automated reconciliation & invoicing efficiency savings) service. The alliance harnesses the core competencies of these two leading e-procurement specialists. In particular, the partnership between Belmin and IMPAQ enables buying organisations to benefit from Belmin’s expertise in the provision of e-procurement systems whilst IMPAQ will provide its Supplier Portal service to allow suppliers to collaborate with buyers using ARIES.

ARIES is an automated reconciliation and invoicing service developed by Belmin Group Ltd, designed to deliver significant efficiency savings. Procurement process savings are key to meeting the Gershon savings targets and ARIES can be offered to all UK public sector organisations to reduce costs and capture spend analysis. It will replace existing manual methods of invoice processing and complement other Government initiatives such as GPC.

Since ARIES enables reconciliation of order queries before the order is accepted and despatched by supplier, any problems are resolved upstream in the process and not downstream. The system provides comprehensive management information to buyers and suppliers.

IMPAQ’s Supplier Portal is already widely used in the public sector to enable suppliers to collaborate with buyers that are deploying new purchase to pay processes to deliver efficiency savings. The Supplier Portal is a web hosted service that a supplier can use without disturbance to existing IT systems. All that a supplier requires to access the service is a PC with a browser and connection to the Internet.

Suppliers using the Supplier Portal to trade with customers using ARIES will be able to receive XML Purchase Orders, acknowledge received Purchase Orders, then access ARIES to confirm despatches and reconcile any variations. ARIES then generates self-billed invoices on their behalf and a payment authorisation file for the buying organisation. The result is true collaboration between buyers and suppliers that saves time and money.

Speaking on the strategic alliance, Jack McWilliam, Executive Chairman of Belmin Group Ltd said,

“We are delighted to be working with IMPAQ in the promotion of our ARIES service. IMPAQ’s Supplier Portal represents an excellent trading channel for public sector buying organisations and their suppliers. Linking ARIES to the portal facilitates rapid adoption of the service by the supplier community.”

For information on ARIES please visit www.efficiencysavings.com or call Ian Brine on 01278 450611.

Michael Bennett, Managing Director IMPAQ Business Solutions Limited, said,

“ARIES represents a ground-breaking solution for buyers and suppliers to electronically reconcile invoices using the internet to increase the buyer’s back office efficiency and speed up payments to suppliers. This solution will undoubtedly level the playing field for SMEs and help them improve their cashflow as a direct result. This initiative builds on the recommendations in Gershon’s report in delivering bottom line savings to the public sector whilst also helping suppliers.

For more information visit www.impaq.co.uk or call Michael Bennett on 01483 466900.