BHP Billiton Petroleum Speeds Payment Process for Complex Services With Quadrem Invoicing Solution

BHP Billiton Petroleum Speeds Payment Process for Complex Services With Quadrem Invoicing Solution

March 22, 2006

Technology Automates Manual Processes With Direct Integration to SAP; Automatically Invoices and Supports Contract Compliance

    SINGAPORE, March 22 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- BHP Billiton
Petroleum is 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 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 in the Gulf of Mexico. 
Additionally, the company is evaluating a roll out of the
invoicing solution to its operations in Trinidad, the
United Kingdom, and Australia.
  
    Using Quadrem's solution, suppliers receive orders for
services from BHP Billiton Petroleum's SAP system and send
invoices through the Quadrem platform leveraging a central
catalogue of approved service items.  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." 

    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
http://www.PIDX.org .

    About BHP Billiton Petroleum

    BHPB Petroleum Americas is a division of BHP Billiton,
the largest diversified natural resources company in the
world.

    About Quadrem

    Quadrem ( http://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.

    For more information, please contact:

     Katherine Kirkpatrick 
     Tel:   [phone]
     Email: [e-mail] 

     Choon Boon Heng
     Tel:   [phone]

SOURCE  Quadrem