Success Story: AmeriGas Partners
(UGI Corporation)

• AmeriGas (A UGI Partnership)
• Industry: Utility
• Integration: Web-Based Accounts Payable Integration with PeopleSoft
• Location: King of Prussia, Pennsylvania

Case Study: The Problem

An amazing transformation has taken place at AmeriGas, the nation's largest retail propane distributor. Headquartered in King of Prussia, PA, AmeriGas serves 1.3 million residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, motor fuel, and wholesale customers from about 650 locations in 46 states. One of AmeriGas' expense reduction strategies for 2004/2005 was to centralize its back office in the areas of cash applications, collections, and accounts payable. AmeriGas was all too aware that it was not going to be easy. The reality of what needed to be changed to bring AmeriGas into the 21st Century was a mammoth task.

AmeriGas was still mired in first-generation A/P invoicing. They had mountains to climb to get to web-based A/P invoicing in order to reduce costs and stay competitive. With over 650 retail locations across the U.S., AmeriGas had a daily challenge processing invoices. Their retail sites had very limited technology - no computers or scanners. A/P invoices were coded in the field and forwarded by postal mail to King of Prussia. Invoice data was then manually entered into their PeopleSoft accounting system. Besides the costly task of sorting and physically filing thousands of paper invoices, there were delays in paying vendors that resulted in late fees. Everyone agreed that the process was very inefficient and needed to be streamlined.

Selection Criteria: The Decision

AmeriGas was looking for better information management - tracking of data and invoices; workflow of documents; reduced time in retrieving copies; more information for field managers; quicker access to data for multiple PeopleSoft users; greater visibility for managers budgeting expenses; additional control for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

Their two-year search for an imaging vendor resulted in the selection of Feith Systems. What made them select Feith? AmeriGas wanted a totally web-based solution that would be tightly integrated with their PeopleSoft accounting software. Thin was in, since there were so many sites that needed to participate in the process, installing and maintaining software at the remote sites would have added another expense layer. Other vendors could only provide solutions that required software installations on the desktop.

"We were looking for a single vendor solution that would address all of our needs," said Pat Arrington, Manager, Disbursements at AmeriGas. "Feith had an integrated workflow solution, a strong audit trail, a quick integrator tool, and an extensive product line that was scalable and flexible. To top it all, it was all Feith's software and we liked their hands-on approach to dealing with its customer. A refreshing touch."

Success Story: The Solution

Feith and AmeriGas engineers collaborated to implement a completely web-based document imaging (WebFDD) integration with PeopleSoft. The result was a solution that is user-driven from PeopleSoft with integration via Feith's WebFDD URL tools and managed by Feith Workflow iQ. "It was a really cool collaborative effort," adds Arrington. "The integration was seamless."

Invoice status is managed throughout with Feith's Workflow iQ. AmeriGas chose Workflow iQ for its flexibility and ease of implementation. Invoices are now scanned and sorted via bar codes and fed directly into Feith Document Database (FDD) where they enter the Accounts Payable Workflow. An A/P analyst views the image of each invoice in WebFDD and sorts them based on document type. From that point on, A/P analysts work from within PeopleSoft where custom screens using the Feith WebFDD URL interface provide the "show me the paper" button functionality. This functionality enables the analysts to key into PeopleSoft directly from the invoice image. When the invoice information is saved in PeopleSoft, vital index information, such as the PeopleSoft voucher number and status codes for workflow routing, are saved in FDD.

A significant benefit for the managers in the field retail locations is that they can now quickly access documents initiated within PeopleSoft and review or challenge items scheduled to be paid. "This Web integration keeps our IT costs to a minimum," says Arrington. "The self-service that WebFDD provides reduces phone calls to the A/P Department."

As FDD is distributed to the retail locations, vendors will be required to send invoices directly to headquarters for processing. Simply cutting down on the cost of forwarding invoices from each location is a big part of the savings that they will realize.

The Payoff: Continuing Success

One of the biggest returns on investment is increased productivity. AmeriGas is enjoying the benefits of a fully implemented Web invoicing A/P system - reduced processing costs, decreased manual effort, increased accuracy, improved timeliness, elimination of lost items and reduced storage space for source documents. In addition, FDD improves information distribution and approval processing, enhances electronic audit trails, and makes customer service much more efficient. Automation has improved AmeriGas' cash management, including capturing of discounts, avoiding late fees, and the detection of duplicate bills and overpayments.

To say that AmeriGas is thrilled with the potential for saving tens of thousands of dollars annually, is putting it mildly. They're simply ecstatic!