Trade-Ranger seeks to automate invoice, accounts payable processes for buyers, suppliers
Houston — June 1, 2004 — Energy industry e-marketplace Trade-Ranger is introducing a new e-invoicing solution designed to automate much of its customers' manual invoicing and accounts payable processes.
Trade-Ranger is an e-marketplace for electronic procurement and supply chain management in the oil, gas and chemicals industries. The marketplace connects buyers and suppliers in the upstream, downstream and retail sectors, providing catalogue creation, trading and electronic document exchange services.
The new Web-hosted e-invoicing application, dubbed TRUE Invoice, will cover key activities from invoice creation through online dispute resolution and approval for payment, according to the e-marketplace.
Trade-Ranger said that the new e-invoicing tool, expected to be released later this summer, will allow the e-marketplace's buyers and suppliers to collaborate more effectively, improve process efficiencies and reduce costs and cycle times.
TRUE Invoice, which is expected to be capable of integrating with back-end systems in various ways, will offer customers the ability to send or receive electronic invoices created directly from an original electronic purchase order or not, as well as access to a collaborative online tool for dispute management and resolution.
"Our goal is to improve and streamline the invoicing and accounts payable processes," said John Wilson, Trade-Ranger's president and CEO, adding that both supplier and buyer members of the marketplace should see benefits from the new solution.
Specifically, for suppliers, TRUE Invoice will help guarantee delivery of invoices, improve the ability to predict and manage cashflow, reduce errors and cycle time, and ensure faster approvals and payments, according to Trade-Ranger.
Meanwhile, the e-marketplace asserted that buyers will benefit from an implementation with minimal hardware or software investment, integration with an existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) or accounts payable (AP) system, productivity improvements, reduction in errors and cycle time, decreased invoice queries and better management of spend.
TRUE Invoice will be part of the Trade-Ranger Universal Environment (TRUE), the marketplace's new Web-based front-end that provides modular access into existing Trade-Ranger applications. The new solution also will integrate into the existing Trade-Ranger environment and will leverage TRx, the company's existing connectivity engine.
To develop the TRUE Invoice application, Trade-Ranger is partnering with Tranmit plc, a U.K.-based software solution provider. "Third-party point solution companies continue to play a key role in helping us to build out the total Trade-Ranger solution roadmap," Wilson noted.
Trade-Ranger's shareholders include ConocoPhillips, Dow Chemical, Mitsubishi, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Total, Unocal, Occidental Petroleum and BP, among others.
