Using Web Workflow to Automate Ad Credit Processing at NBC Universal

NBC Universal used a largely manual approach to processing advertiser credits and handling of unpaid invoices for advertising spots that aired with issues. The process consisted of email notifications from the customer financial services (CFS) department to account executives on invoices with unpaid balances.

Printed copies of invoices were distributed as a reference for the account executive who then worked with the advertiser to determine if a credit was due or if the balance was to be paid. The credit or no-credit decision was then manually approved by sales management and finance and ultimately entered by CFS into the Peoplesoft system. The entire process was manually intensive and difficult to follow, due to the proliferation of emails and printed and faxed invoices.

What We Delivered
Brady and Associates managed the construction of a web-based work-flow application to automate the processing of billing credits and non-payments. The system allows all participants in the process (over 1,000) to access personalized work queues that display a summary of items to be processed and item detail. Users can then approve or reject decisions, sending the decision to the next level for handling. Users are alerted by email when there are items requiring their attention. Items are automatically cleared from the system as they are cleared in Peoplesoft. The system downloads data from Peoplesoft on a daily basis.

Results
The credit processing system has drastically reduced processing times of credits and non-payments. Credits can now be processed in a matter of minutes instead of days or weeks with the manual system. In addition, the system has reduced confusion and the number of mistakes made in the process. The web application has also enabled the collection of more specific reason codes from account executives; this information has proven extremely valuable to NBC Universal management in avoiding issues in advertising runs and spot placement.