Protiviti helps global energy conglomerate complete a complex integration of an E&P target

The parent company planned to move the E&P firm onto its existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform in a couple of years; however, it wanted to institute more formality and consistency in the planning, procurement, AP and inventory management functions in the meantime. But the two organisations were effectively speaking different languages when it came to finance. One thing both companies had in common was their relationship with Protiviti.

Given Protiviti’s familiarity with both organisations and experience in dealing with large independent E&P companies, the parent organisation asked Protiviti to design and implement streamlined and automated procure-to-pay (P2P) and materials management (MM) functions as part of the integration.

E&P Company Solution

Protiviti held eight workshops with key stakeholders across the E&P organisation’s departments to map out, review and implement interim P2P and MM policies as well as to discuss the eventual onboarding to the larger company’s ERP system. The scope of the workshops spanned receiving and returns, material transfers, cycle counts, well reconciliation, asset dispositions and disposal, and excessive or obsolete inventory. Protiviti also led a comprehensive physical count of mud pumps, separators, generators, tubular goods and other equipment across several locations in three states.

Simultaneously, Protiviti worked with the AP department to analyse AP transaction data and build a dashboard that management could use to identify, prioritise and resolve issues and uncover the root causes driving invoice processing delays and creating the invoice backlog.

Key stakeholders from the E&P company participated in the workshops, and their engagement and responsiveness were critical to the project’s timely success. Working closely with E&P company personnel, Protiviti performed a diagnostic evaluation of the function and identified several opportunities to increase AP effectiveness and efficiency. The team also mapped the current inventory processes and identified gaps in controls that were negatively affecting reporting. To prepare for the MM function’s future state, Protiviti spearheaded a
standardisation of policies and conducted an assessment of existing technologies to identify applications that would best support future requirements.

In less than six months, those efforts delivered the following benefits for the E&P company:

• A road map for short- and long-term AP improvements
• Standardised P2P, MM, material transfers, cycle counts and other processes
• An updated existing ERP system that improved invoice processing
• An application for maintaining up-to-date inventory count and valuation records
• Complete and accurate inventory records

Parent Company Solution

Observing the progress at the E&P firm, the parent company realised that category management throughout the conglomerate needed improvement. While centralisation and a category management structure were present within the supply chain function, more formality and rigor were needed to optimise performance. What’s more, poorly defined category manager roles contributed to weak oversight of spending and category prioritisation.The company asked Protiviti to leverage industry best practices to design a more mature, effective and global category management framework and organisation structure.

As part of a roughly 10-week project, Protiviti first assessed category management in a series of workshops and interviews with key personnel. Among other tasks, Protiviti reviewed documentation and category management outputs, defined category taxonomy and analysed spending to determine how categories were prioritised.

Those undertakings revealed several weaknesses within the function. From a supply standpoint, category management lacked common definitions and objectives, as well as a formal approach to assign and segment categories. From a business standpoint, the function had failed to leverage the firm’s global reach. Additionally, Protiviti measured 11 processes in category management against industry best practices and found large gaps in two of these processes and modest gaps in the rest.

Based on those and other findings, Protiviti advised the company to put each purchase category through an annual 11-step process to confirm that sourcing plans and strategies were still appropriate. Categories were also segmented into three tiers based upon their importance and the level of formality and discipline required in the procurement and management process.

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Other benefits delivered to the parent company include the following:

• A new global category management methodology to enhance value across business units and the introduction of procedures, policies and tools to facilitate consistency within the function
• An enhanced view of enterprise spending, category definitions, and risk profiles to ensure proper resource allocation
• A new senior leadership structure to oversee supply chain practices and to eliminate overlap and ambiguity

Turning Difficulty Into Advantage

Integrating company cultures following a merger can challenge the best companies, especially when they have significantly different operating and organisational philosophies. But integration following a merger or acquisition doesn’t have to be difficult or time-consuming if companies prepare by appointing the right leadership, engaging stakeholders and leveraging the right expertise. By tapping into third-party knowledge of leading integration practices, disciplined programme and project management, proven methodologies, advanced analytics and industry experience, companies can not only reduce the time required to successfully complete the integration, but also ensure that the expected value and return are realised.