Published on: Thursday 23rd October, 2014 Mobile app to enable more efficient approval of 50,000 financial transactions each year

Aer Lingus is implementing Advanced Air Approvals, a suite of mobile apps from Advanced Business Solutions, to support its investment in digital processes and to drive further efficiencies in procurement. The anticipated go-live is December 2014.

By interfacing with Aer Lingus's existing Advanced e5 financial management system, Advanced Air Approvals will allow senior managers to approve or reject transactions from Apple and Android smartphone and tablet devices while they are 'on the move'.

Aer Lingus's 50,000 transactions each year, such as requisitions, invoices and new supplier requests, will appear as a list in Advanced Air Approvals and can be categorised by type.

Authorised staff will be able to approve transactions even when they are offline, with the app holding the transaction and processing in e5 when a network connection becomes available. The real-time app also has the functionality for managers to attach notes if a transaction is rejected.

Integration with the organisation's finance system is managed via Advanced's cloud-hosted Air Administration gateway. This will enable the airline provider to restrict the app usage to specified users and monitor levels of activity to ensure high levels of security and protect sensitive financial data.

John Greene, Head of Data Governance and Enterprise Reporting at Aer Lingus, explains, "Investing in mobile technologies is a key part of our IT strategy to maintain a competitive advantage. We saw an opportunity to extend this by streamlining our back-office processes to offer greater mobility and visibility to senior staff that spend time out of the office. We've selected Advanced Air Approvals to support this mobile initiative and are looking forward to continuing a very a positive partnership with Advanced using the automated app."

Advanced Air Approvals will enable the airline to tightly manage its finances by allowing users to drill down into e5 for further information to determine whether to approve an invoice without a corresponding purchase order.

Greene adds, "Since implementing Advanced's finance, eProcurement and spend analysis solutions we have been able to transform our management of over €1bn of annual spend. Using Advanced's automated app will further assist us to approve invoices more efficiently to ensure greater financial control and compliance."

Advanced Air Approvals is available for Advanced's e5 and e-Financials customers. The app can be accessed at http://air.advancedcomputersoftware.com and is also available for download from the iTunes store.

Advanced Business Solutions is an Advanced Computer Software Group company.

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