Proven Efficiencies with DocuWare

Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation automated the business processes in their accounting department to streamline workflows and provide all employees access to needed information whenever they need it regardless of their location. Additionally, audits are now easy to deal with and the company is in strong compliance with Sarbanes Oxley regulations.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation is a publicly traded exploration and production company in the oil and gas industry operating 6 offices between Texas, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Requirements

With 2 large offices and 4 field offices, Cabot wanted a digital document management system that could allow all employees to have controlled online access to information and eliminate the need for a physical file room. As a company that is audited frequently by joint partners and other internal audits, they also needed a faster, easier and secure way of providing requested documents.

Solution

Cabot had a strong relationship with their IT vendor and Authorized DocuWare Partner who recommended the document management solution DocuWare because of its flexibility and ability to easily integrate with third party systems. As a first step, the company decided to digitally store voucher packets containing an invoice, accompanying back up documents such as work tickets, spread sheets and the pay voucher sheet generated by the accounting system.

Initially, completed invoices and accompanying documents were mailed to the corporate office for filing. This process was time consuming, costly and every so often a document shipment was lost. In addition, looking for a specific piece of information in these packets was long and labor intensive

With DocuWare in place, accounting documents are now easy to access and submit. Invoices continue to be processed the same manner as before; however, now a barcode of the voucher number is added to the voucher sheet and used as a cover sheet to indicate the start and stop of each packet. Cabot decided to outsource the scanning and indexing of their voucher packets to their Authorized DocuWare Partner. Utilizing a data file exported from Cabot’s accounting system and the barcoded voucher number as a match code, the documents are scanned, indexed and electronically stapled into virtual packets. The document images and index information are then sent to Cabot and imported into their onsite DocuWare system. The process has evolved and today most of Cabot’s vendor invoices are received electronically and easily transferred from Cabot’s invoicing system to DocuWare.

“DocuWare ties our accounting system, invoicing program and supporting documents together in one solution. The integration was amazingly easy,” commented Molly Malone, Manager, Systems Analysis and Programming.

Benefits

Self-serve access to information positively impacts everyone in the company. Each person has the information they need to proficiently do their job. Staff members no longer need to get up from their desks and walk to the file room to resolve a payment issue and those in the field offices no longer keep their own set of records or call the corporate office for information. Needed information is at their finger-tips as digital files.

The company’s employees echoed this sentiment saying, “I love the quick, easy- access, paperless way to search for documents rather than having to dig thru files.”

As a publically traded company, Cabot Oil & Gas is mandated to comply with the Sarbanes Oxley requirements and submit an annual assessment of the effectiveness of their internal financial auditing controls to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). DocuWare’s security features and version control help the company meet these important legal regulations.

One of the biggest positive changes that has come from implementing DocuWare is eliminating the stress of audits. Today, providing requested documents, takes only minutes rather than days. The Accounting Department is able to export all requested information onto a CD and provide auditors with a mini-cabinet of electronic information. Staff no longer need to pull paper documents, copy them and refile the originals, saving them both time and money.

Conclusion

Cabot continues to expand its use of DocuWare; the Marketing Department is storing contracts and other documents, and the Corporate and Regional Land Departments are storing long-term documents such as leases, titles, contracts and letters.

One of the latest IT projects Cabot has implemented is to give the teams in the field electronic pens with special forms in order to quickly move work tickets for projects related to fixing trucks, hauling water or other labor charges into their accounting system. These PDFs are sent to a “watched folder” and automatically imported into DocuWare, where they can be matched up with the invoice and electronically stapled as supporting documentation, reducing the time it takes to bill for services.

“As we look to the future, we know that more and more of our business critical information will be stored in DocuWare. We are already seeing the positive results from bringing in DocuWare as a key element in our IT environment,” said Malone.

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