Quadrem Middle East (QME) the Middle East subsidiary of Global eMarketplace Quadrem International has announced the introduction of automated Service Entry Sheet submission as part of its extensive range of products and services in the e-procurement arena. The solution will allow the suppliers of Oil & Gas EP companies the opportunity to complete and submit their Service entry Sheets on line and submit straight back into the ERP of the buyer for evaluation, financial approval and then delivery back to the supplier for invoice generation. This coupled with Quadrem’s electronic invoicing solution will help speed payment processes, reduce input error and aid financial planning for oil companies and their suppliers.
Leo Van Rensburg General Manager of QME commented on this announcement: “Having recently surpassed the 100Million USD mark in terms of throughput of our document exchange ‘Supply Centre’ in the GCC region, this new functionality endorses our commitment to all our clients in the GCC and demonstrates the unique products that we offer to the Oil & Gas businesses, making our platform a truly pan industry initiative”.
One of Quadrem’s major global buyers, BHP Billiton Petroleum, also recently announced its commitment to Quadrem in improving its procure-to-pay process with Quadrem’s new electronic invoicing solution for oil and gas upstream services, which is based on the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) PIDX standards. The solution connects directly to BHP Billiton Petroleum’s enterprise resource planning system, SAP, and enables the oil and gas operator to: rapidly and accurately pay invoices, analyze line level expenditure data, identify price discrepancies and promote purchasing that complies with corporate contracts.
“We’re dramatically reducing the time it takes our engineers to reconcile invoices without having to make significant changes in our business processes,” said Yusuf Dalal, World Drilling Finance Advisor for BHP Billiton Petroleum. “Additionally, Quadrem’s automatic download to SAP eliminates five to six business days of work at the front-end of the procure-to-pay process. These and other efficiencies, including the time saved using electronic delivery rather than regular mail, are enabling us to make important process improvements and compress payment cycles. Within the first month after implementation, we began to meet the DPO goals we’d set.”
BHP Billiton Petroleum began piloting Quadrem’s invoicing solution in October with other regional major Oil & Gas suppliers, Schlumberger and Halliburton, who were directly integrated end-to-end, and GlobalSantaFe, who utilized a supplier web portal. After seeing successful results during the pilot phase, BHP Billiton Petroleum is moving forward by working with Quadrem to onboard 75 top suppliers.
Using Quadrem’s solution, suppliers receive orders for services from BHP Billiton Petroleum’s SAP system and send invoices through the Quadrem platform. The invoice is stored in the Quadrem platform and a “proforma invoice” is sent to BHP Billiton Petroleum. Once the “proforma invoice” is approved, the Quadrem platform releases the invoice, which is automatically loaded into BHP Billiton Petroleum’s SAP system for final payment. The resulting efficiency and reduction of errors accelerates BHP Billiton Petroleum’s payment approval cycle – a process that traditionally is very inefficient for oil and gas companies because upstream services involve so many variables and approval touch-points both offshore and at centralised purchasing offices. Other important functionality includes: attachments and discrepancy reporting for both planned and unplanned items (e.g. price discrepancies), and an audit trail for all changes, approvals and discrepancies.
“BHP Billiton has been an important customer for years on the mining side, and has experience with our ability to deploy effective supply chain solutions globally,” said Charles Jackson, Quadrem CEO. “As we’ve expanded our offering to the oil and gas industry, they and their suppliers have been instrumental in helping us resolve the challenges of complex services procurement that are common in oil and gas. We’ve developed a unique solution that works with and builds upon BHP Billiton’s SAP infrastructure. We’re excited about the value delivery here, and we are already exploring the opportunity to replicate BHP Billiton’s successes with several like companies.”
Leo Van Rensburg added “Once again this global announcement further enhances our credentials within the Oil & Gas arena which is of particular importance to our commitment to our customers in the Middle East Region. Along with our announcement today of the automated service entry sheet submission and the announcement of BHP Petroleum we have a number of services that will be of great application to the major Oil & Gas institutions in particular our ability to integrate our exchange, Supply Centre, into various ERP systems to allow these major buyers to connect to their suppliers to communicate supply chain documents, such as Request For Quotations, Purchase Orders which are just 2 of a suite of over 16 documents. We are looking forward to building on our existing customer base in the middle east to continue to deliver proven e-procurement services in this region”.
Quadrem works closely with operating companies, oilfield suppliers, and third parties such as Oilfield Services Portal (OFS Portal) to help develop the API PIDX document standards that support energy supply chain processes. OFS Portal, of which Schlumberger and Halliburton are members, is a group of diverse suppliers working together with a non-profit objective to provide electronic data in standardized format to B2B trading partners to facilitate eCommerce in upstream oil and gas products and services. Creation and adoption of standards is a key component in the success of e-business. With the PIDX XML standards, the underlying format of Quadrem’s invoicing solution has been sanctioned by the API, and will greatly simplify the process for all participants in a transaction. For more information on PIDX see www.PIDX.org.
About Quadrem
Quadrem (www.quadrem.com) provides e-business solutions that connect buyers and suppliers to maximise supply chain efficiencies. Quadrem’s global transaction platform, vibrant international trading community and high-quality content services enable customers to implement the most effective e-business initiatives for buyers and suppliers. Established in 2000, Quadrem has locations in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Mexico, The Netherlands, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, UAE and the United States. Quadrem Middle East opened their Regional Middle East office in early 2005 and have now started rolling out their services accross multiple countries throughout the GCC. Quadrem in a certified SAP integration partner.
