Transform™ AP for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne™ Takes the Pain Out of the Invoice Approval Process for Stillwater Mining Company

The arduous approval routing process required that a paper invoice be pushed, for example, from Corporate to mine, smelter or refinery to be coded and signed by site accountants, then
routed to approvers in different areas of the mine, smelter or refinery before it was routed back to the corporate office where a check was finally processed. The long approval process was
eating up AP staff time, limiting the ability of the AP team to capture early payments and even, with some high dollar amount invoices requiring added approvals, to make the payment by the
due date.
Before the approval process ever started, AP staffers were besieged. They were using two systems to enter invoice data — one for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and one to scan in the invoice
for archiving. With an AP Supervisor and two staffers logging overtime every week, it was time to make a change in the process.
Stillwater’s AP and IS managers came together to choose a solution to automate their process. For both, the most important factor when choosing an invoice automation solution was its integration to JD Edwards, along with ease of use. After attending a JD Edwards conference to assess the solutions and compare demos, the Stillwater team determined that Transform AP from Bottomline was the best solution.

Platinum-level Results with Transform AP
From start to finish, the invoice approval process has improved dramatically at Stillwater Mining Company. According to AP Supervisor Ruth Michel, the company CFO and VP and General Manager of the East Boulder Mine are “very pleased” with improvements resulting from the implementation of
Transform AP.

A Streamlined Process
With Transform AP, Stillwater has no need to sort invoices by non-PO, 2- and 3-way matches. Double-duty on data entry is a thing of the past for the AP staff. Invoices are automatically
entered into JD Edwards after scanning. With automatic routing, approval turnaround time has dropped from an average of 18 days to sometimes just a few hours. Coders and site accountants
at different locations are now using Transform AP over the Web to approve invoices without the need for paper to travel from site to site.

Increased Discounts
Stillwater Mining Company has already increased early payment discounts by six percent.
Productive Employees AP employees have gone from working overtime to having free time, requesting more work from the company’s Corporate Controller. They are now pleased to take on tasks that fully
utilize their accounting education.
End users of Transform AP’s Web-based approval overcame their resistance to change, commenting “it’s easy.” They were accustomed to JD Edwards and worried that they would be re-learning the process. But soon they learned Transform AP integrates so closely with JD Edwards, the screens look
exactly the same. They also appreciated the lack of paper and ease of automation — they no longer have to chase down approvals and shuttle paper invoices back and forth over miles of Montana road.

“We’ve taken more discounts in the first two months this year than we took in the whole first quarter of the year prior to adoption of Transform AP,” said Ruth Michel, Stillwater’s AP supervisor."

Excellent Customer Support
Without any need for customization, the Bottomline support team was able to configure Transform AP so that Stillwater could experience all of its benefits.

About Transform AP for EnterpriseOne
Transform AP is a software application that captures incoming supplier invoices, links these to EnterpriseOne for purchase order matching and/or exception processing, and enables online review
and approval of the invoices for payment. Transform AP has been uniquely designed for use both with and within JD Edwards, providing seamless integration and visibility for everyday accounts payable users, while providing the same view of relevant invoice data to non-finance approvers within the
organization via a convenient Web interface.
This processing flexibility supports a company’s existing infrastructure investment and helps to maintain a lower cost of ownership by eliminating the need to purchase incremental ERP licenses for each approver. Organizations can also realize improved invoice visibility and accelerated processing cycles, as well as greater enforcement of financial and legal compliance regulations with a fully auditable record of each invoice and payment transaction, both inside and outside JD Edwards.

“When we came across something that Stillwater does differently, Bottomline found a way for us
to make it work and even made modifications to enhance the product,” said Anne Grant, who
managed the implementation on the IS side"

DPA_Stillwater Mining_TAP for JDE_CS (ID 69273).pdf