In today’s business world, constant reinvention and transformation are a must for all businesses whether large or small. Many organizations, while adopting the latest automation technology to improve front-end operations, tend to overlook essential back-office functions like utility bill management, letting these processes continue as they were.
However, ignoring these backend processes can be a big mistake as they end up spending a considerable amount of resources in collecting and organizing utility bills for power, water, telecom, etc. After all, every organization must deal with large volumes of incoming utility bills that need to be assimilated and processed for prompt approval and payment. Things become more complex when we talk about multiple facilities as it means centralizing data and insights from different locations.
The best utility best solutions combine tried-and-tested methodologies to provide cost-effective solutions and shorter turnaround times for advanced utility bill management.
Streamlined utility bill solutions can further help you increase accuracy and achieve faster utility processing for:
- Water: Normalizing all data from water usage across all meters.
- Electricity: Mapping usage and providing greater visibility for energy optimization.
- Natural Gas: Extracting natural gas consumption and collating total cost.
- Waste: Aggregating waste collection utility data from multiple service providers.
- Telecom: Data extraction from internet service providers, cable and telecommunication.
- Sewage: Stay on top of your sewage and drainage services.
At ARDEM, we employ our qualified resources and deep industry experience to build automated and effort-based utility and energy management solutions that streamline your entire utility bill process from receipt of invoice to payment. Our cloud-based intelligent technology also enables easy sharing while ensuring data security during transfer and at rest.
Here’s how you can benefit from our automated utility and energy management services:
Simplifying Complex Data for Utility Bill Management
While large volumes of incoming bills can seem daunting at first, proper organization and processing can help simplify the seemingly complex enterprise utility data.
Every utility invoice comprises multiple data points that need to be extracted and aggregated accurately for detailed insights and accurate approval. At ARDEM, we are capable of processing both digital and physical forms. You can simply forward copies of your physical bills to our headquarters in New Jersey and we will convert them into digital learning using our high-speed scanners. You and your team members can further forward us all bills received and we will sort and organize them for you. All digital files are then re-routed to our operations office that works round-the-clock in 3 shifts to push out the final output in as little time as 12 hours.
The confusing pile of unorganized paperwork is now transformed into high-quality data that provides actionable insights for smarter decision-making.
Automated Data Capture and Accurate Data Entry
Even as the world switches to electronic communication, many providers still issue paper bills or go for both physical and electronic communication.
Automated data capture technology enables all of your paper and electronic documents to be transformed into intelligent and usable digital formats. Our advanced algorithms further create intelligent relationships between data in order to seamlessly map them into the correct corresponding fields for effective utility bill invoice management. We further employ effort-based data entry methodologies including double-key data entry and multiple validation checks to ensure 100% accuracy.
Our combination of accurate data entry and automated data capture further accelerate the entire utility bill processing cycle by eliminating manual errors. Faster access to processed data leads to a high approval rate and you never have to worry about paying late payment fees again.
Utility Bill Management
Utility bill processing offers a considerable amount of challenges due to the variance between service providers.
Each utility vendor has a different bill format and their own set of metrics that they prefer to outline consumption and usage. ARDEM’s extensive utility database has mapped out thousands of different vendors so that data extraction is efficient and accurate.
The effective combination of advanced data capture technology and proven data entry methodology helps streamline your utility bill processing. We further employ the latest advancements in robotic process management to transform your entire utility processing cycle. The moment we receive your bills, they immediately enter the processing cycle to ensure that you get the final data as soon as possible.
Based on the final data, automatically generated notifications are sent to your list of approvers to decrease approval time and enjoy the goodwill of your providers. The standardized data is then shared with you in a flat file that can be easily ingested into your system. Our solutions are designed to completely remove the burden of utility bill processing from your shoulders while providing you with access to consumption metrics.
Sustainability Reporting and Energy Management
Apart from improving the payment cycle, utility data sets also act as an accurate historical utility database. Providing increased visibility, these data sets allow you to efficiently compare and identify the best methods to internalize and improve sustainability and conservation goals with efficient utility management.
Whenever you need to evaluate your utility usage or need to implement new and improved strategies to reduce current consumption, you can access your records with a few simple clicks and make smarter decisions with extensive insights.
Our utility management solutions further assist you with tracking the use of renewable energy and match performance against your sustainability goals and expected reduction in the cost of utilities. This database of renewable energy can also be utilized to efficiently reduce utility vendor costs with superior data management.
The ARDEM Utility Manager
In today’s global economy, a truly efficient outsourcing solution needs to have remote working capabilities. Remote working offers exciting new opportunities for leveraging global talent and achieving cost efficiency without compromising on quality.
The ARDEM Utility Manager offers you a digital workplace on our secure cloud server that can be accessed via unique login credentials. You don’t even require any special software or app to access the platform. Simply use your regular web browser and sign-in to start your utility bill processing. Simply upload the utility bills with a simple click or drag and drop into the specified folder to share the raw, unstructured data with your remote processing team.
You can also view the progress of your project in real-time via your private dashboard that shows you live updates and even lets you adjust your work instructions. The dashboard view can be further adjusted to view the metrics of your choice and view weekly, monthly and yearly statistics.
Cost-Efficient Solutions for Utility Bill Management
Along with the improved data quality, outsourcing your utility bill management also brings about a significant drop in your overall processing costs. Apart from eliminating duplicate bills, incorrect charges and late payment fees, automated utility management lowers your processing costs by an immediate 30%.
As your process continues and further improvements are implemented, you get to enjoy increasing returns on your investment. You don’t have to waste any time or money in hiring and training highly-skilled resources as we take care of everything for you. We build you a team of experienced Project Managers, qualified industry experts and the requisite number of FTEs with dependable backup for uninterrupted processing.
Security and Scalability
In today’s world of data breaches and cyberattacks, data security is not a matter to be taken lightly.
We practice ISO27001 that addresses security, the physical, network, and employee levels. Our standard practices include VPNs and SSLs along with encryption protocols during file transfer and at rest.
Apart from our security compliances and protocols, we are also extremely careful about who we share your data with. Access to sensitive data is provided strictly on a need-to-know basis, and we further ensure that your data cannot be moved, saved, edited, or seen by unauthorized team members.
ARDEM started over 16 years ago working as a U.S. Federal Government contractor and we have processed large volumes of confidential materials since then. We can further ensure you that there has never been any data breach throughout the history of our company and you can learn more after signing an NDA.
As your business grows and you expand operations, your processing needs also increase proportionally. At ARDEM, we can scale your outsourcing team to match your increased needs within 10 days to ensure that your processing continues uninterrupted.
As a family-owned company, we understand the importance of accountability in utility management processes and stick by our values to ensure security compliance, data accuracy, and shorter cycle times.
So, if you have any further questions about whether you need to outsource your utility management process, get in touch with us today for a short 15-minute call.