NEW DELHI: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation's largest oil firm, has set up a shared service centre (SSC) for vendor invoice management in collaboration with IBM Consulting.
"IndianOil Shared Service Centre Vendor Invoice Management is a sizable digital initiative which synergizes invoice processing from a centralized office based in Noida (Delhi NCR)," IBM said in a statement.
The centre will be staffed by employees from both IOC and IBM Consulting's business process operations and is equipped to process over 1.5 million invoices annually.
The IOC and IBM Consulting's business process operations teams at the centre will process vendor invoices, resolve queries, handle exceptions, make payments and maintain the master files using on-premise OpenText Vendor Invoice Management (VIM) for SAP Business Suite on HANA.
"The project is substantially unique in comparison to other oil marketing companies' vendor invoice management projects," it said.
The SSC for vendor invoice management is equipped with the latest digital technologies like optical character recognition (OCR), a vendor portal and ticketing tools.
IBM Consulting will also deploy leading analytics and automation solutions to provide IndianOil with increased visibility of key process metrics.
The SSC will also make AI-enabled self-service chatbots available for vendors, which can be leveraged to get updates on invoices and status of payments.
The facility was inaugurated by Sandeep Kumar Gupta, Director (Finance), IOC in the presence of John Granger, senior vice president, IBM Consulting.
IOC, which has been leveraging technology, sees significant benefits for its business in setting up SSC.
Granger said, "The SSC underscores the powerful impact of technology on companies with the size and scale of IndianOil.
Helping deliver enhanced bottom-line growth, IBM is proud to be IOC's long-standing strategic technology partner in its digital transformation.
The collaboration leverages our deep industry expertise, the best of our global talent and world-class practices rooted in hybrid cloud and AI.
"Gupta, remarked, "IndianOil Shared Service Centre introduces centralised processing for accounts payable function across the length and breadth of India.
The adoption of advanced digital technology supports enhanced vendor experience by increasing on-time payments and faster query resolutions.