ERP for Energy Companies

We will define your software needs and wants as well as how you would ideally use new automated solutions across your entire energy company, whether you are an electricity generation, upstream, downstream, or midstream oil and gas, biofuels, solar, wind, or hydropower company.

We will guide you through selecting the best fit, most cost-effective business applications and implementation partners to manage your financials, inventory, assets, maintenance schedules, safety, compliance, and more.

After finalizing your ERP software and services contracts, EAG stays with you to oversee your implementation until you successfully go live.  We will oversee integrations, data migration, change management, budgets, design and configuration, walkthroughs, training, testing, and go-live cutover and will provide executive and project sponsor support throughout the duration of your project.

• Companies struggle to enforce and ensure that every employee is following industry and companywide standards due to lack of visibility.
• Lack of a robust customer portal prevents customers from viewing their activity and account history.
• Do not have aging reports that can be pushed to clients.
• Time-consuming to create consolidated financial statements across multiple ERPs. Inaccurate data analytics due to manual intervention.

Our rapidly-growing energy clients are already very busy with their day jobs and do not have time to become ERP experts. Though your key people still have to devote some time to an ERP initiative, hiring an ERP consultant frees them up to make the important ERP decisions while staying focused on their day job.

The more complex your business, the more likely for difficulty when selecting and implementing software. ERP Advisors Group will help you uncover your true needs and will only vet the most viable options for your size, requirements, resources, and strategy.

We will create your requirements document and demonstration script with energy industry best practices in mind while retaining what is unique to your company, leaving out the manual workarounds.

Many clients hire us to help when they suspect they need a business case for new software. ERP Advisors Group helps stakeholders buy into what is best for the company by getting their input at multiple stages throughout the Needs Analysis, Selection, and Implementation.

A frequent complaint we hear from prospects who tried to select software on their own is feeling confused about the software's capabilities. We get vendors to show your requirements during their product demonstrations. This ensures you feel confident about selecting the best products that can meet your needs.

We negotiate tens of millions of dollars in deals every year for our clients. We provide contract review on all terms and conditions, including software and services, and every agreement embedded throughout the contract. Our clients receive price protection for many years to come on their purchases. While we don't guarantee it in writing, we normally save our fees on this step alone.

Energy is a diverse industry, which includes sub-industries such as oil and gas, generation and transmission, and mining. The best ERP for energy companies is one with a robust platform and a strong ecosystem of partners and solutions. Solutions for project management, asset management, and field service management, to name a few, may be necessary for any successful ERP for an energy company. Of course, this all comes second to the automation of accounting capabilities, especially those associated with project management and the construction of assets such as billing and invoicing, material takeoff, cost estimating, and project documentation. 

ERP will automate your core accounting capabilities in order to create a single source of truth. The General Ledger will capture financial transactions and help automate traditionally manual tasks, such as accounts payable and accounts receivable, along with billing and invoicing. From there, the system can be configured or integrated with third-party solutions for more specialized capabilities not offered “out-of-the-box” such as joint interest accounting or tools to keep up with fluctuating energy prices.

Beyond the core accounting functions, Energy companies need to manage their projects and the complex accounting that comes from moving a project from one stage to the next. Capabilities should be in place to initiate the project in order to plan, budget, and procure materials while ultimately monitoring major milestones from start to finish. This may also include time and expense tracking for labor over the course of the project. Once the construction of an asset is complete, an Energy company’s ERP system must be able to pivot into maintaining the asset. This includes accounting for regular maintenance and required materials, billing and invoicing for maintenance, and then decommissioning once the asset comes to end of life. 

Many Energy companies also require more specialized solutions for regulatory compliance, sustainability initiatives, and environmental health and safety, especially among fluctuating government policies or initiatives. National or international focuses can change, forcing energy companies to adapt. If their ERP isn’t modern and adaptable, Energy companies will be unable to keep up with the evolutions. 

Energy industry diversity also results in providers needing solutions like plant management, supply chain management, or even lease management. This goes back to the importance of identifying the best platform that can satisfy your needs across your software ecosystem. 

If you select an open platform allowing for integrations, you can ensure your system will be able to grow and expand as you do. Additionally, the importance of data cannot be undersold in the energy sector. An ERP built on a robust data platform will enable connectivity even as more solutions are adopted.

Unfortunately, no ERP will be able to manage and track fluctuating energy prices out of the box. But there are tools or configurations designed to monitor pricing in real-time. These tools can integrate with your ERP or be configured to ensure the flow of information between systems. Additionally, many of these tools have advanced to capture and analyze historical data in order to facilitate informed decision-making and budgeting. The right vendor or implementation partner can recommend solutions or configure the system to meet these needs.

Yes! Although perhaps not with some of the legacy applications you have become accustomed to. Modern ERPs are developed with integrations and growth in mind. Ecosystems with industry-specific energy partners plus best-of-breed solutions with pre-built integrations can streamline your implementation process. If your existing best-of-breed solutions are more modern, but don’t have an existing integration, system integrators or implementation partners can help develop it. 

Some older solutions, however, may require extensive time, resources, and development to integrate with a modern ERP. Most of the time, it can be accomplished in order for Energy companies to continue to use their existing solutions, such as upstream or downstream tools. But we encourage our clients to consider a long-term strategy and, where they can, continue to modernize.

No, asset management is typically not native to ERP. While the financial capabilities are there to help account for assets, this does not include the actual maintenance tracking or monitoring of machines and other equipment. Asset Management solutions are offered as additional modules or third-party applications, depending on the platform. 

Most Energy companies need robust capabilities to monitor assets in real-time, ensure efficiency, and identify opportunities for improved health and performance. When assets slow, the system will facilitate proactive maintenance and manage repairs to ensure system longevity and business productivity. Finally, the lifecycle management capabilities that have maintained the assets this long will ensure the decommissioning of machines is handled properly, minimizing waste along the way.