GAIL (India) took a major step towards complete digitization, centralization and automation of its payment processes with the inauguration of its first state-of-the-art centre for Vendor Invoice Management (VIM) - Shared Service Centre (SSC) which has been partnered with IBM Consulting.

Titled ‘SARATHI’, the centre is a modern facility that will serve as a pan-India hub for processing and managing vendor invoices. The GAIL centre went live with SAP-OpenText’s Vendor Invoice Management.

It is a step forward for GAIL's ongoing efforts to streamline, digitize, automate and bring further efficiencies in its accounts payable processes. With the central theme of improving vendor experiences, the developed centralized VIM by GAIL aims to provide prompt payments, better experiences, enhanced efficiencies & transparency with to end users.

Speaking at the inauguration of the centre, Sandeep Kumar Gupta, Chairman & Managing Director, GAIL said the company is playing a pivotal role in developing the Indian economy and is positioning itself to remain competitive and succeed in today’s digital world.

“We are leveraging latest technologies with Shared Service Centre to optimize our operations, gain agility and improve ease of doing business. We believe this transformational program will bring significant benefits to our business and its related stakeholders,” Gupta said.

R K Jain, Director (Finance), GAIL said, “The Shared Service Center - ‘SARATHI’, Supplier Portal - ‘SPARSH’ and ‘ASHA’ are key initiatives for us to consolidate operations from across GAIL. This will enable us to operate on one standardized platform while driving efficiencies across the Finance operations and enhancing vendor experiences.”

He said the program has been implemented in a record timeframe which is a testament to the close collaboration between GAIL and its partners such as OpenText, SAP and IBM.

Lula Mohanty, Managing Partner, IBM Consulting APAC, said, “SARATHI is a terrific example of initiatives by large public sector organizations across Asia Pacific for making the most of technology such as automation, to transform operations and services for business value. Our engagement with GAIL brings together IBM Consulting’s deep knowledge & expertise in the energy sector, and our industry-leading technology & business process operations capabilities. This combination is truly a differentiator for clients seeking to deliver outcomes quickly from their transformation efforts.”

The SSC is staffed by a team of highly skilled accounts payable team of GAIL & employees from IBM Consulting’s Business Process Operations who will be responsible for receiving and processing vendor invoices using the advanced technologies and automated workflows to ensure invoices are processed accurately and efficiently.

The new facility is equipped with Mail Room for digitizing invoices with invoice storage facility equipped security measures to ensure the safety and confidentiality of vendor information. Besides, SARATHI has helpdesk for resolution of vendor queries which operates in two channels: one through dedicated telephone no. (0120-4446060) and dedicated email: VIMHD@gail.co.in. The Centre is future ready and scalable, enabled to handle an increasing volume of invoices as high as 400 invoices per day or one lakh invoices in a year as its operations grow.