GE faced a challenge. A global expansion was leading it into new markets but it was still using a cumbersome manual invoice payment process for letters of credit and guarantees. This inefficient process generated 21,000 pages of paper a year and required an analyst to spend as much as one full day a week reviewing, reconciling and paying bills.

It fell to Lynda McGoey, manager-trade and project finance, to assemble a cross-functional team to develop an in-house automated system that would save hours–as well as trees–and prevent the need for additional staff.

McGoey; Dee Dobler-Palin, analyst-trade and project finance; Valerie Bothwell, senior business analyst; and Doreen Lyons, specialist-treasury, collaborated with bankers and business requestors to develop digitized technology. The objective was to create a system acceptable to bankers that would read each bank fee quote, calculate the fees due and convert them to a U.S. dollar-equivalent.