Best Practices for Seamlessly Integrating a Middle Office Platform™ within Your IT Ecosystem
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The middle office is the functional area between your front-office CRM system and your back-office ERP system. At the core of the middle office is the Quote-to-Cash process. In this session, we'll share best practices for integrating your middle office with your existing IT environments. Hear our recommendations for ensuring integration security, quality, and performance to maximize your success.
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Best Practices for Seamlessly Integrating a Middle Office Platform™ within Your IT Ecosystem
- 1. © 2018 Apttus Corporation #AccelerateMO Tyler Fedun, Energy Transfer May 16, 2018 Best Practices for Seamlessly Integrating a Middle Office Platform within Your IT Ecosystem
- 2. © 2018 Apttus Corporation Manager, IT Applications Tyler Fedun
- 3. © 2018 Apttus Corporation Tyler Fedun, Manager, Energy Transfer Strategic and forward-thinking, specializing in full stack Microsoft development with ability to transform product development strategy into impactful solutions. At ETP I manage a team that delivers highly-visible, complex solutions focused on customer needs and long-term operational improvements. I was the project manager of ETP’s implementation of Apttus. In addition to being the project manager, I provided all technical guidance for the implementation for the project.
- 4. © 2018 Apttus Corporation ETP is one of the largest Master Limited Partnerships with one of the most diversified portfolios of energy assets in the United States totaling more than 71,000 miles of natural gas, crude oil, natural gas liquids and refined products pipelines with associated terminalling, storage and fractionation facilities in 38 states.
- 5. © 2018 Apttus Corporation Energy Transfer Partners Fully Automates Construction Services Contracts Achieving $1.77M in Annual Savings Challenges Energy Transfer had continuous audit findings in overbillings of rates, billed for unapproved personal on the job and limited visibility to contract data. Solution Energy Transfer worked with Apttus to integrate its ERP and CRM systems with Apttus Contract Lifecycle Management which provided automation, auditability, and visibility to data. Outcomes • 8% billing errors found in first 6 months • $1.77M in annual savings so far • Reduced audit findings • Rate comparison and employee verification, resulted in cost savings • Streamlined and better management of contract “Request to Execute” process for all contracts © 2018 Apttus Corporation “Energy Transfer Partners along with Apttus developed a system that meets our business needs as well as offering our vendor’s benefits to increase the strength of our relationship.” Tyler Fedun, IT Applications Manager, Energy Transfer
- 6. © 2018 Apttus Corporation We Faced Several Challenges Across the Company Exec. Management • Continuous Audit Findings • Visibility to data • Not knowing what is actually being requested for approval Vendors • Lack single view of obligations • Which rates are applicable to varies projects or scope of work; inadequate billing • Continuous Vendor Audits, due to lack of controls Project Managers • No standardization of contract request • Not knowing who was on the job • Approval of invoices with incorrect rates/fees • No Visibility to open commitments Contracting • Inconsistent approvals, not per DOA. • Closure of open agreements • Lack of visibility into active contracts Legal Risk Lost $$$
- 7. © 2018 Apttus Corporation Our Benefits Spanned Three Key Stakeholder Groups Project Management • Automated invoicing and rate compliance • Advanced reporting • Rate comparisons • Electronic time sheet approval • Improved clarity with agreements and payments Exec. Management • Reduced audit findings • Reporting • Rate comparisons • Standardization of service job classifications Vendor • Consistency and transparency with agreements and payments • Ability to pre-qualify for projects • Increased visibility to project managers
- 8. © 2018 Apttus Corporation Guidelines For System-to-System Integration Minimized Heavy Data Replication Moved Away From Expensive “Point-to-Point” Integrations Leveraged Existing Enterprise Integration Platforms Adopted SOA/MSA Principles and Techniques Configuration Over Customization
- 9. © 2018 Apttus Corporation Our Integration Architecture
- 10. © 2018 Apttus Corporation Are Successes • ETP went live with Apttus in Q4 2017 • 1500+ project mangers • 100s of external vendors • More negotiation of rates • Management significantly more aware • Currently implementing our 2nd phase • 8% billing errors found in first 6 months • $1.77MM in annual savings so far
- 11. © 2018 Apttus Corporation Lessons Learned Define Your Integration Patterns and Use Middleware Know Your Organizations Security Guidelines Only Migrate What you Need Challenge and Ask Why Make Decisions For Your Vendors and Involve Them
- 12. © 2018 Apttus Corporation Lesson: Define Your Integration Patterns and Use Middleware What: •We held the conversation early in design. •We didn’t assume they knew our domain. •Leverage existing investments (set yourself up for future projects). •Know CRMs email limitations. Result: •Increased design but reduced build times •Reduced support •Reduced points of failure •Last minute addition of SendGrid for email notifications © 2018 Apttus Corporation
- 13. © 2018 Apttus Corporation Lesson: Know Your Org. Security Guidelines What: •We held the conversation early in design. •Don’t assume they understand. What sounds crazy to them is sound to you •Ask about future internal projects. •Ask questions, understand the implications, get the right people in the room. •Understand audit requirements. Result: •We were able to leverage Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) •Could delay the project •Caused fires that did not need to be •Misunderstandings temporarily eroded confidence •Could not comply with audit out of the gate © 2018 Apttus Corporation
- 14. © 2018 Apttus Corporation Lesson: Only Migrate What you Need What: •Early on we identified all our possible data sources. •We devised a simple archiving strategy for what we did not migrate. •Received early backing from senior leadership to take what is needed. Result: •Pay now or pay later •Cleaner data set •Can be a fresh start for some areas •A chance to organize •Purge of clutter •Greatly reduced complexity of data migration © 2018 Apttus Corporation
- 15. © 2018 Apttus Corporation Lesson: Challenge and Ask Why What: •Just because they “always do it that way” does mean it’s the best way. •Browser performance, IE almost unusable out of the gate. Result: •Reduced SAP migration complexity by refactoring design and reuse of components. •Rework of CLM implementation, but improved performance for all browsers. © 2018 Apttus Corporation
- 16. © 2018 Apttus Corporation Lesson: Make Decisions for Your Vendors and Involve Them What: •We involved them early, get their wants, not just needs. •We started formal communication 1-2 months out, not too soon or too late. •We spent time and $$ to engage external vendors. •Have a support team in place. Result: •Vendors feel invested •Huge increase in adoption •Vendors can get information promptly, not passed around © 2018 Apttus Corporation
- 17. © 2018 Apttus Corporation Final Thoughts •Change is hard. •Involve the key players early, especially the day-to-day users. •REAL examples – Throw theory in the trash. •Leverage all the tools you can. Sell the advantage. •Pictures are literally more valuable than words. Diagram your processes, spend the time. It sucks, but it works. © 2018 Apttus Corporation
Editor's Notes
- In other words – I build really cool apps for operations. LOB apps, AI, data visualization etc..
- 1. This slide could be same that Kelly would be covering
- Energy Transfer wanted to deliver a complete Vendor and Agreement Management system through a portal. This portal would be the hub of activity and provide full transparency between vendors and Energy Transfer. Through this portal ETP provided automatic rate verification on invoices, real-time onboarding, payment tracking and much more. ETP delivered a more efficient and full featured work management system. Challenges: Previous System: Home Grown Extensive time and effort from contractor engagement to job commencement Difficulty to catch contractor billing errors against Poor visibility to construction completion and billing milestones Custom systems difficult to maintain Outcomes ETP went live with Apttus in Q4 2017 1500+ project mangers 100s of external vendors More negotiation of rates Management significantly more aware Currently implementing our 2nd phase 8% billing errors found in first 6 months $1.77MM in annual savings so far Reduced audit findings Improved visibility to outstanding commitments Streamlined and better management the of contract “Request to Execute” process for all contracts Prior to invoice payment, verified invoiced billing rates against contracted rates increasing accuracy Rate comparison and employee verification, resulted in cost savings Streamlined contractor pre-qualification process for MCA and EPC projects Tracked qualified contractor work assignments Apttus provided a CLM-centric solution via flexible cloud-based platform that allows ETP to manage and tailor their construction, operations, and procurement contract processes to better manage costs across a multitude of contractors of many sizes and level of process maturity. Profile: Location: Texas Company Size: 10,001+ employees Industry: Oil & Energy MSFT CRM Customer since: 09/30/2016 Company Overview: ETP is one of the largest Master Limited Partnerships with one of the most diversified portfolios of energy assets in the United States totaling more than 71,000 miles of natural gas, crude oil, natural gas liquids and refined products pipelines with associated terminalling, storage and fractionation facilities in 38 states.
- 1. Contracting Challenges Not full DOA approval being obtained Agreements staying open and never closing Limited Visibility to contracts being negotiated or those that were actually active Project Managers Challenges Data request for new contracts not formalized; phone calls, emails etc. Not all required data obtained in efficient time manner. PMs not knowing who was physically at the job site Rate approved vs rates invoices was a manual process Tracking of commitments was a manual process if done at all Vendor Challenges Limited visibility to all jobs being done for ETP Controversy of which rates were are applicable or should be billed for specific scope of work Vendor Audits due to continuous audit findings of over billings and illegit employees being billed (Inadequate controls) Exec. Mgmt Reduce continuous audit findings, overbillings, illegit employees being billed Visibility to rates, remaining commitments, utilization of vendors etc. Understanding redlines/changes being requested on contracts when asked to approve.
- 3 Rs for executives PM Benefits Auto approval for approved rates vs billed rates; manual before Improved reporting on active contracts and commitments Rate comparisons for like services Electronic approvals on contracts based on Company approval matrix, for contracts, timesheets & progressive payment schedules Improved clarity on agreement types and payment terms Vendor Benefits Consistency with agreements regardless of the PM, transparency to what rates are applicable to each agreement and visibility to ERP payment info Ability to pre-qualify for larger scope projects within the Apttus system May do business with limited PM’s today but if low rate provider will have broader visibility throughout ETP Exec. Mgmt. Reduced audit findings of over billings, work being performed without an agreement in place Visibility to vendors being utilized and rates for comparative services, remaining commitments on projects
- Ex: SAP PI – Apttus was able to integrate with our existing platform --No ‘file drops’ for data transfers. Real-time handshakes and confirmation of data transfers. -- We can respond to issues as they happen,
- 1. Naveen to update the Architecture Diagram
- -- Early we talked SOA in general. In build we were talking different languages. SAP PI vs. other 3rd party middle ware. -- Send grid was a last minute solution to limitation of CRM that should have been identified up front, could not email external
- -- They may not be used to being a high profile target; fake news; -- future internal projects – impact decisions you make today. IE B2B collaboration -- Get an auditor in early to identify what is required. Get other opinions.
- -- can be hard to convince people to let go -- get real. “will not having that document actually matter 7 years from now??? REALLY?”
- Ex: SAP Migration of Data Just use Chrome wasn’t going to cut it.
- 200 vendors in 12 months was a success, we had more than that before the lights we turned on. Over 700 in first 6 months. ShutterFly! Cheap communication.
- -- Host shared docs online. Force people to edit online and collaborate. We were able to capture a lot of input that would have been missed ‘just taking notes’ -- pictures - Not everyone has the same first language.