Profectus Group: Technology Driven Compliance Solutions

Legal, Procurement, Merchandise and Sales teams spend time and effort in drafting contracts that dictate the terms of engagement with a business partner. As the number and complexity of agreements increase and the invoices start rolling in, the execution of the contract needs to be scrutinized at every step. Contract Compliance (CC) products from Australia based compliance firm, Profectus Group, identifies irregularities and ensures transactional compliance. Profectus have a unique and dedicated focus on transaction certainty and accuracy. The company's automated compliance technologies and services are targeted to manage complex agreements, identify rate and service type errors in the invoices, allowing clients to validate them at line-item level against the agreed contract terms. Robert Visentini, CEO & Chairman, explicates, “We deliver best practices in procure to pay and compliance processes through technology.”

The Contract Compliance solution (CC) from Profectus delivers a full compliance framework to identify and prevent overcharges and over-payments and automate invoice validation and processing. CC is a secure web-based (cloud) system that stores unlimited contracts (including rate cards, schedules, product lists, rosters) and invoices.

The CC technology is predominantly used for GNFR (goods not for resale) vendors and is finding an error in at least 1 in every 200 invoiced line items. The technology checks 6000 invoice fields per second. The solution automates supplier query workflow and transaction approval process with the click of a button. In fact, the system goes further than helping customers recover their past overcharges by identifying opportunities in optimizing the contract terms and reducing cost through analysis of the spend data.

Profectus has developed market leading powerful and flexible audit tools to enable clients and Profectus to audit retail data in real time. Profectus' AUDIRE technology is built to deliver automation solutions for large retailers.

It empowers its’ clients to run their own Profit Recovery audits at a much cheaper cost, standardise audit processes and IP retention for all audit types plus optimises Audit cycle speed enabling a broader audit scope delivering increased outcomes. The automated audits ensure that the deals and the agreements executed by the merchandisers are compliant with the agreement. Data derived from emails, sales, purchase, and deal records are used to run extensive analytics to confirm that the deals negotiated are executed accurately. The automated solution also communicates non-compliance breach to respective business functions and suppliers.

Over the years, Profectus has built many trusted relationships with its clients. When a retail client wanted a long-term solution to check the invoices from several local and sea freight vendors to ensure that they are not overcharged and to auto allocate cost center data, the company turned to Profectus. For the last 10 years, Profectus has been supporting this client with full range of compliance audit solutions and services, including Accounts Payable audits and Merchandise audits. Most of the functions such as cost checking, invoice capture, SAP journal preparation and accrual processes are automated to increase efficiency.

In another case, a leading bank wanted an external technology partner to test its internal controls on invoice transactions and wanted to identify opportunities to further improve controls within its Accounts Payable (AP) environment. Profectus was chosen as the contract compliance and invoice automation partner. The mandate was to recover financial returns back into the business and establish a proactive pre-payment control on future non-compliant items. For them, Profectus not only reduced internal costs and improved invoices payment timeframes, but also implemented efficient processes and improved their vendor management service.

Designed particularly for retailers, wholesalers and large organizations, Rebate and Deal Management system (RDM) is yet another specialized technology from Profectus. It's a secure, cloud-based system to store and process rebate and deal agreements. The software offers best of breed rebate management and guarantees accurate rebate calculation and ensures better returns on investment. Clients and their vendors appreciate and value the transparency provided by RDM's shared web infrastructure. Additionally, RDM provides deep insights into opportunities for clients to optimize their vendor income terms. The company owes its success not only to its robust products but also to the company’s talented employees, who thoroughly understand complex compliance rules. The company fosters an environment of innovation and growth.

True to its name—Profectus, which means Progress and Success, the company has expanded its presence in New Zealand, United Kingdom, South Africa, and Vietnam. This year, Profectus is set to enter U.S. market to bolster its international expansion plans.