We live in a hybrid world in which the digital economy and physical information still coexist. The energy industry is no exception where paper still feeds many workflows and physical mail floods the mailroom. It’s not a matter of eliminating paper documents—we need to eliminate the cost and distraction. This is especially true of inbound and outbound mail.
Let’s take a closer look at the problem energy companies face in the mailroom and how Pepper maximizes cost reduction for mail processing with less friction and distraction.
A Digital Inbox
When it comes to receiving physical mail, the accounting department gets their fair share. Despite the availability of reciprocal data sharing networks to exchange invoices between operators, many energy companies (especially smaller E&Ps) rely on tried and true methods to send JIBs and non-op revenue details in the mail.
Our industry is meshed together with joint operating agreements as operators share the risk and reward of drilling a well with many partners. Multiply the nearly one million active wells in the US by the number of mineral and working interests in each of those wells. This very large number easily explains why there is such a pervasive flood in the mailroom as operators perform a massive paper shuffle—each and every month.
Land teams are likewise inundated with paper mail. As our industry undergoes continued consolidation, operators are sending out bulk mailings of change of operator notices, division orders, and consent to assign letters. These arrive alongside AP invoices, JIBs, and 1099s at the start of the year. Receiving and routing all of this to the right staff is very people-intensive and not just for the mailroom. Every recipient of a letter or envelope stuffed with dozens of pages (e.g., revenue PPA) must stop what they are doing and key into a piece of software. More likely though, mail accumulates on desks, perhaps getting keyed in and coded once a month.
There is a very real financial impact to ingesting paper mail across the energy enterprise. For example, an operator has little to no visibility into its inbound expense pipeline with AP invoices and JIBs sitting on desks. This makes it difficult to accrue for those expenses. And whether the CFO has to approve an unexpected outlay of reserve cash to meet the actual AP expenses vs. budgeted or release funds that weren’t needed, it can signal poor financial discipline. Not to mention the G&A costs at every step, from hand delivering field tickets left in a mason jar on the lease to invoices and more.
With Pepper, the mailroom chaos and distraction suddenly ends. With our energy-focused digitization services, we can transform accounting and land correspondence and literally put it in your Outlook inbox. Our industrial scanners process 1,500 pages per minute with high accuracy, classify each according to your preferred document taxonomy, and deliver it wherever you want. That could be SharePoint, OpenInvoice, or right into a land management system. It’s completely turnkey and leading operators rely on us every day to deliver their mail at a fraction of their previous G&A.
Bulk Mailout, Simplified
Operators who are on the receiving end of change of operator notices, division orders, and other land and legal documents are also often on the hook for mailing out their own. With accelerating mergers and acquisitions, this seems like a full time activity for some.
1099 season also creates a fire drill of activity at many operators. Well compensated accounting professionals can often be seen stuffing envelopes as thousands of owners are sent these important documents by mail. Then there are other types of bulk mailings that must be processed throughout the year at varying intervals, like unclaimed property due diligence letters. G&A and postage quickly add up.
When it comes to outbound mail, Pepper reverses the digitization process. We transform your spreadsheet of contacts and PDFs into a quality printing operation. Pepper’s data management expertise ensures your letters are only sent to the correct current address to avoid piles of returned mail and wasted postage. We’ll print, apply postage, and mail everything on your behalf. No more fire drills, which makes for happier employees and better margins.
Looking to digitize your inbound mailroom or simplify outbound mail processing? Reach out to Pepper now for a quick quote.
