Tungsten Network: Engineers of Intelligent e-Invoices

Richard Hurwitz, CEO

Enterprises worldwide increas¬ingly do business with ven¬dors around the globe and are confronted with a significant amount of paper-based invoices and man¬ual exception handling. Realizing the te-diousness of this task which consumes valuable business resources, corporations are moving towards automated electron¬ic invoicing and Accounts Payable (AP) systems that can seamlessly integrate with their existing infrastructure. With an aim to providing automated and com¬pliant B2B transactions, Tungsten Net¬work, since its inception, has focused on digitizing this inefficient paper-based AP processes. “Tungsten Network is all about global connections,” begins Richard Hurwitz, CEO, Tungsten Network. “We believe in removing paper from the pay¬ables process and connecting Buyers to their supply chain over our secure, digital transaction network.”

Since a majority of Tungsten’s network members deploy SAP, the company emphasizes developing solutions that seamlessly integrate with SAP, offering better customer experiences. “We are a certified SAP partner and our Tungsten Network Workflow product is SAP-certified,” says Hurwitz. Tungsten Network Workflow leverages SAP data, business rules, and security models in real-time, thereby eliminating the need to develop custom integration tools. Employees with access permissions can drill down directly from SAP to look at the invoice data and other associated documents via Tungsten’s certified ArchiveLink integration. Additionally, Tungsten securely manages the documents to ensure SAP availability and improve business performance. Tungsten Network Workflow, being a pre-built solution, does not require clients to perform any further coding and minimizes integration requirements.

“Our partnership with SAP is of immense value because it supports our commitment to providing easy integrations,” explains Hurwitz.

We primarily focus on creating trustworthy, digital connections between buyers and their suppliers through our transaction network

The variance in technical capability between prospective clients can be massive and the journey from a manual to straight-through automated system can be a long one. Tungsten has the ability to offer “any-to-any” connections between buyers and suppliers. “Regardless of the client’s current technical setup, we are fully-prepared to guide them along the path to paperless processing,” says Hurwitz.

GSK, one of Tungsten’s clients, wanted to address the number of paper invoices it was processing and reduce the high volume of supplier enquiries it was receiving—70 percent of which were related to outstanding invoices. “GSK first rolled out e-invoicing with us in 2004 and it today receives 95 percent of its invoices electronically,” states Hurwitz. GSK has also managed to reduce the number of supplier calls that were related to invoices by 60 percent. The invoices processed by Tungsten were paid on time which significantly benefitted GSK’s suppliers. “These successes led to GSK’s BPO partner Genpact endorsing us as the service provider of choice for Genpact’s AP automation initiatives,” says Hurwitz.

Over the last few years, Tungsten has expanded the reach of its solutions across major markets and with a higher number of suppliers. Tungsten Network aims to be the world’s most trusted business transaction network by using data intelligently to strengthen the global supply chain. The company will continue to research dynamic and disruptive ways through which data analysis can be deployed to reduce its customers’ expenses. “At Tungsten, we strive to be participants in our customers’ business not just be providers to them,” states Hurwitz. “Our network is expanding, and, as it does so, we create even greater value for the global supply chain,” he concludes.