By Olivia Cahoon
Established in 1999, Oildex, a service of Tranzap, Inc., is a private software company with 150 employees and three locations in Canada, Colorado, and Texas. They produce software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions and offer oil and gas companies a framework to conduct business on the internet. In the 2016 Software 500, Oildex reported an annual revenue of $46,169,000, coming in at rank of 363.
According to the company, its SaaS system is one of the largest Web-based information exchanges in the oil and gas industry with over 7,900 companies and clients. Oildex surpasses the traditional desktop software systems by providing the tools for companies to collect, distribute, manage, and analyze essential business data.
Modernizing
The company recently released the OpenInvoice Field Ticket designed to eliminate disconnected paper processes and provide cloud-based field ticket document collaboration. Paper-based processes in the oil and gas industry lead to lost time, inefficiency, and stump management projects and budgets for energy companies.
“Oil and gas companies are suffering, and are looking for any and every way to reduce production costs. They are desperate for technology powerful enough to move the needle off of losing to restoring profitability,” says Michael Weiss, CTO, Oildex.
There are currently four customers that use the system with unlimited users. Weiss says that the technology will reduce the $10.00 paper ticket cost of processing field tickets to about $3.00 and return a savings of $644,000 for every 100,000 field tickets processed.
“Oildex has partnered with our clients and the industry at large, recognizing that field ticket automation could for many be the linchpin that shifts them to profitability. That kind of change has never been more critical than it is today for the continued success of the North American oil and gas economy,” says Weiss.
Cloud Needs
The OpenInvoice Field Ticket product was in development for two years as Oildex created a solution to address the financial challenges plaguing the industry. “The true cost of legacy field processes can no longer be ignored, as the gains achieved from field automation could be the make or break for upstream providers achieving profitability,” shares Weiss.
He adds that modern-day workforces would be surprised by the manual processes faced by most field workers and office managers and believes that their new software can resolve those issues.
Field tickets are usually completed by hand and given to the appropriate site supervisor. The OpenInvoice Field Ticket eliminates the need to find a site supervisor; instead it requests automatic approval using the cloud. “This labor-intensive, manual process forces companies to endure an average 22-day delay between the service performed and an invoice received, greatly slowing down the ability to analyze costs and manage budgets,” says Weiss.
Field automation creates real-time spend visibility to ensure project’s costs and changes are accurate and updated without the 22-day blind-spot into spending. It also automatically reconciles and validates invoices against field tickets and reduces invoice cycles that allows customers to approve and pay invoices faster.
“OpenInvoice Field Ticket reduces invoice cycle times by more than 50 percent, enabling operators to take advantage of early-pay discounts. If an operator obtained early-pay discounts on just 25 percent of their field tickets, it would translate to over $1 million in annual savings,” says Weiss.
The cloud-based software automatically copies all cost and coding data entered by customers from the field ticket to the invoice and greatly reduces data entry errors. It also works with supplier’s existing reporting technology systems so they can choose their tools. Using an Internet-enabled device, the automatic routing of the field ticket is sent to the correct person to review, code, and approve.
Industry Improvement
The release of the OpenInvoice Field Ticket is a game-changer for the oil and gas industry. It eliminates the traditional long process of field ticket approvals and offers a reduction of more than 50 percent for invoice cycle time. With this new software, operators will be able to take advantage of early-pay discounts and save money annually.
Oildex’s solution offers the opportunity to modernize and upgrade legacy field processes into the cloud for a more efficient and accurate process. As Weiss notes, the OpenInvoice Field Ticket brings the ability to make smarter, more informed decisions with real-time field knowledge. SW
Aug2016, Software Magazine
