ADP P2P Success Story: Automa2ng Payables in a Business Climate Of Constant Change Sushmitha Koka Sr. Director, Product Management Procure- to- Pay
Session Agenda Key Drivers for Automa2on Dealing with Constant Change Choosing an einvoicing Solu2on Impact of Acquisi2ons Reaping the Benefits Lessons Learned Looking at the Road Ahead
Challenges with Exis3ng Processes Oil & gas explora2on and produc2on company headquartered in Oklahoma Company was formed as the result of a merger between two smaller oil & gas opera2ons Challenges with small company technology and processes Manual and paper- based invoice management Lost and missing invoices Too many touch- points for each invoice Late payments impacted supplier rela2ons Number of calls to execu2ves Limited visibility into spend
Drivers for Automa3on Current processes were cumbersome for all staff and could not accommodate future growth Senior management was looking to improve vendor rela2ons, reduce process cycle 2me, and increase visibility across the en2re process Client hired New AP management people with previous oil & gas and P2P automa2on experience and background in business process improvement Consul2ng firm
Drivers for Automa3on First step toward automa2on was looking at internal processes to iden2fy areas for improvement Company and consultants interviewed all P2P and field staff Internally developed a beser process for invoice management Trained all staff involved with approving, coding, and processing invoices on basic guidelines Started talking with einvoicing vendors
Climate of Constant Change Business Change Went from pre- dominantly natural gas to oil company through acquisi2ons Economic Turmoil Industry and global markets crash in 2008 Management decided to freeze all technology spending due to uncertainty Invoice Volumes Monthly invoice volume doubled since implementa2on einvoicing solu2on provider was acquired Changes to the P2P system
Choosing ADP P2P Compared vendors in mid 2008 for electronic invoicing and workflow Goal to improve process, increase visibility and stabilize headcount Evaluated percentage match of suppliers in the network Performed client reference calls and used internal contacts to evaluate exis2ng clients Chose a vendor and was ready to implement in Nov, 2008, when global markets crashed leading to freeze on G&A spending Mid- 2009, management unfreezes spending, decided to proceed with same vendor Signed contract in Nov, 2009 with a go- live date of May- June, 2010
Impact of Acquisi3ons First Acquisi2on Discovered that company from whom client acquired assets uses vendor of choice Acquired area had mandated electronic invoicing with suppliers and achieved 80-90% e- Invoicing rate Wanted exis2ng suppliers to con2nue submi`ng electronic invoices without a break Go- live date moved up to Feb 2010 for this region 3 months faster than original plan Second Acquisi2on Assets expected to double with second acquisi2on in the area Completes company s transi2on from natural gas producer to oil company Had to on- board a new set of suppliers very lisle overlap with exis2ng suppliers
Lessons Learned Do not throw good technology at a bad process Technology is only a facilitator, process improvements are cri2cal Implementa2on was delayed by more than a year due to spending freeze, but we had improved our processes Number of touch points on an invoice is typically underes2mated Normally only AP cost is included when calcula2ng invoice processing cost, but approver 2me and cost can be significant Anything that reduced approver 2me and increases efficiency can have a huge impact Be flexible to handle changes that impact expecta2ons Expected to be 75-80% electronic during the first year and scan only 3,000 4,000 paper invoices per month Acquisi2ons doubled invoice volume and slower than expected supplier on- boarding scanning approximately 17,000 invoices per month
Benefits of Automa3on Increased invoice volume with smaller staff Volume of invoices processed per month doubled Now process twice the invoice volume with 30% less staff Reduc2on in paper invoices and processes More than 66% of invoices are received electronically Remainder of invoices are scanned into the system Early pay discounts pay for technology Accelerated process to capture discounts offered by suppliers Ability to priori2ze invoices with discounts for approval Ini2ally paid for 5 year contract with ADP within 2 years using incremental discounts Increasing volume through the system so drama2cally that last month alone discounts saved paid for the year s license fee
Benefits of Automa3on (cont.) Increased visibility into en2re process Know exactly what is out there in outstanding liabili2es Within 2 months of using P2P system, $50 million was visible in the system Improved vendor rela2onships Haven t shortened payment terms, but suppliers now have increased visibility and consistency around payments
Doing More with Less 38 34,000 25,000 27 Monthly Invoice Volume 17,000 AP Staff 21 Peak 2008 At Install Present
Other Benefits Now have visibility that was lacking in the paper invoice process Client has been able to maintain lucra2ve pricing deals in place with acquired assets because they could pay those vendors quickly Didn t have sta2s2cs around approval 2mes and process 2me as it wasn t feasible to capture manually but now can monitor Discounts weren t able to be nego2ated when processing paper invoices as it wasn t possible to pay 2mely and consistently; however, client now has almost 60 vendors offering discounts that are being captured regularly
Looking Ahead.. Growth in invoice volume Expect further increases in invoice volume due to increased drilling efforts Need to improve process to manage invoices and limit FTE increases Internal process improvements Process is stable right now will con2nue to look internally to make it more efficient Con2nue to follow up with internal users to iden2fy ways to increase electronic invoices and capture more discounts Leverage P2P system P2P gives the ability to move forward even with the growth and make the necessary changes Growth would have been very difficult without P2P would have had to double staff
Ques3ons?