ECM Briefs

Few companies would argue that managing the accounts payable process is a pain -- especially when that process is less than fully automated. It drains internal resources due to the time it takes to process documents, request additional information from vendors and update reports on unpaid invoice status – and those are just a few pain points.

Some companies, however, have seen the light.

This week at SAPPHIRE® ’07 Atlanta, SAP’s international customer conference, and the 2007 ASUG Annual Conference, we announced that natural gas distribution company, Alabama Gas Corporation (Alagasco), has optimized and automated its Procure-to-Pay process using enterprise content management (ECM) software together with SAP® solutions.

Alabama Gas is regulated by the Alabama Public Service Commission and serves more than 460,000 homes, businesses, and industries. By automating accounts payable processes, the company hoped to significantly improve the success of its business.

Before the implementation, Alabama Gas had issues that many companies have – it needed to decrease the amount of time spent searching for and/or re-filing documents, improve invoice tracking, streamline the approval process, improve visibility of non-purchase order liabilities, reduce the length of time spent responding to vendor inquiries, and ensure a more efficient internal control system.

Now, with an integrated ECM and SAP solution, along with a vendor invoice management system, the company has realized several benefits including:

• Significantly reduced invoice approval time (minutes vs. day)


• Increased early-payment discounts


• Improved ability to track invoices in the approval process


• Increased visibility of all accounts payable documents


• Reduction in vendor calls


• Enhanced ability to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley Act requirements

Read the full customer case study on Alabama Gas here.