Challenge:
Efficiently process thousands of invoices before they become past due, with limited staff

Williams is the 10th largest natural gas producer in the United States and specializes in developing non-conventional reserves from tight sands, coal bed and shale formations. It's primary production areas are in the Piceance, Powder River, San Juan, Fort Worth and Arkoma basins, as well as a presence in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale. One of its most active areas has been the Piceance Basin in Colorado and, Williams was finding it hard to stay on top of its invoice processing. Indeed, for its Piceance Basin activities alone, in 2008, Williams was processing up to 9,000 invoices each month, and many of those invoices were falling into past due status.

Williams, like many large energy companies, was wrestling with an inefficient invoice process. In 2008, with its rig count growing and its number of suppliers increasing in Parachute, Colorado, Williams recognized that a change was needed.

Williams personnel knew the company needed a more efficient yet reliable invoice processing system, yet they were hesitant to make an investment in a new system unless they were sure it would significantly reduce the amount of time employees were spending on invoices, improve the processing speed and accuracy of those invoices, and provide a sufficient return on investment.

Solution:
An ePayable system that takes the hassle out of invoice processing

After looking at different invoice processing solutions, Williams selected the Oildex Spendworks ePayable system. Recognized by World Oil as one of the best data management solutions, Spendworks was designed by energy industry professionals specifically for natural gas, oil, and energy companies, to help streamline and simplify the invoice process. Spendworks does this by allowing suppliers to electronically upload an invoice directly into its application. Invoices are then automatically routed for coding, approval, storage, and analysis. No more dealing with "lost" invoices or the hassle of manually entering, routing, or coding paper invoices and shuffling them from office to office.

If a vendor is unable (or unwilling) to send invoices electronically, it's no problem. Spendworks allows vendors to scan paper invoices, so Williams can still process them electronically. Either way, Spendworks reduces the amount of steps necessary to process an invoice and the amount of time - as well as coding errors.

To Williams Project Coordinator Tim Haltiner, it was critical to have a fast, efficient method of processing thousands of invoices a month, so Williams' valued vendors could get paid on time.

So before signing on with Oildex, Williams ran a test pilot of the Spendworks application at one of its regional locations. The result: Spendworks performed as advertised.

Result:
The ability to secure early pay discounts, plus huge time and cost savings

Since rolling out Spendworks, Haltiner said the application has continued to perform even better than Williams had hoped.

"Our first hurdle was getting invoices processed fast enough so that they were paid on time and we were no longer past due - and that happened pretty quickly," he reported. In fact, the process went so smoothly that Haltiner wondered if Spendworks could help Williams move invoices through its system even faster in order to secure early pay discounts from some of its vendors.

As Haltiner recalled, before Spendworks a 10-day turnaround (a timeframe that vendors typically require for an early pay discount) was difficult to achieve. But since deploying Oildex's invoice processing and spend analysis solution, "getting invoices into the system, all the way through to A/P, and getting that check cut within 10 days is not only a possibility, it's a reality."

Thanks to Spendworks, said Haltiner, "we've drastically reduced the amount of time it takes to process our ever growing number of invoices, and our employees are able to process many more invoices than before."

Getting back to those early pay discounts, Haltiner said Williams approached 10 of its strategic vendors and was able to negotiate an early payment discount from each. While that may not seem like a lot, the early pay discounts Williams receives from those vendors alone will help recoup much of what Williams invested in Spendworks in under two years.

"The ROI's been huge," said Haltiner, "and we're hoping to get more vendors on board with early pay discounts as we increase our rig count. So it's just going to increase."

"When we rolled out Spendworks, our main objective was to pay our invoices on time," he recalled. "Early pay discounts were a secondary bonus to all the features and benefits that we were getting." But now that Haltiner knows what's possible with Spendworks, whenever Williams sets up a new vendor, he immediately proposes an early pay discount arrangement. That arrangement is not only good for Williams and its vendors, it's good business.

Click here for more information about Williams' success with Oildex early payment discounts and ePayables solutions.