How NOV Decreased Manual Invoice Work by 25% Across 50 Countries

National Oilwell Varco (NOV) cut manual invoice processing by 25% in just one year while managing compliance across 50 countries and integrating a complex Oracle environment.

With 35,000 employees scattered globally, their finance team was buried in paper invoices and manual approvals. Today, they have standardized processes, proactive compliance monitoring, and a team that enjoys solving problems instead of drowning in them.

The Challenge

NOV's finance operation was running on fumes. Like many global companies at their scale, NOV's invoice processing involved a lot of paper, manual approvals, and duplicate data entry across different systems.

The complexity went deeper than just volume. Their Oracle environment mixed legacy E-Business Suite with newer Fusion Cloud systems, creating fragmented reporting across business units. And with operations spanning 50 countries, compliance requirements constantly shifted without warning.

Then They Saw Basware

"It was worlds different from what we were used to," says Brent Cazalot, who runs Financial Shared Services at NOV. "Seeing that level of automation was a big shift for us."

They implemented Basware in the US, tested it in Norway a few months later, and then scaled globally.

Building One System Across Multiple ERPs

NOV's Oracle setup presented a real challenge. Some parts of the business still ran on the old E-Business Suite while others had moved to Fusion Cloud. This created inconsistent processes and fragmented data across regions.

Basware integrated with both systems, giving the team one consistent view across everything instead of toggling between different platforms. Getting that first integration up and running took real effort. But once they had it sorted, adding new business units and ledgers became straightforward and repeatable.

"Once that was done, adding new ledgers and business units became very easy. It's a repeatable process," says Cazalot.

The reporting transformation was a big win. Instead of pulling data from a dozen different Oracle ledgers and trying to piece it all together, the team now goes to Basware for clean data and clear answers in one place.

Staying Ahead of Global Compliance

Here's where things get tricky for a company operating across 50 countries: compliance requirements never stop changing. New mandates show up frequently; deadlines change without warning, and when you think you're caught up, something else pops up in another region.

Before Basware, NOV was reacting to compliance changes in real time. There was no centralized way to track what was coming or prepare accordingly.

Basware’s compliance reporting changed that entirely. The system gives NOV visibility into upcoming regulatory changes across all their operating regions, allowing them to prepare instead of scrambling when deadlines hit.

"For a global company like ours, that insight is extremely valuable," Cazalot says. "Basware helps us stay on top of what's coming and what we need to prepare for."

Compliance monitoring goes beyond just tracking mandates. The system spots supplier data issues before they cause problems with regulatory reporting. It seems like a small thing until you realize how many compliance headaches it prevents down the road.

With operations across dozens of countries, each with different e-invoicing requirements, tax regulations, and reporting standards, having that built-in compliance intelligence means NOV can scale confidently without worrying about missing critical regulatory deadlines.

How the Team Changed

Basware handled the automation, but what changed was how NOV's team approached their work.

Instead of just processing invoices, they started using their time to understand why things kept getting stuck. Every week they'd meet and tackle a new problem. Invoice mapping broken? They'd fix it. Supplier data a mess? They'd sort it out. After a year, manual touches dropped by 25%.

"Our teams now understand exactly why an invoice needs attention," Cazalot says. "They're identifying the cause, fixing it where possible, and preventing it from happening again."

Employees weren't just doing their jobs anymore. They were looking for problems and fixing them at the source. The better it got, the more they wanted to keep improving their processes.

The Results

Basware transformed NOV's AP operations into a streamlined global system. The results: 25% less manual work, standardized processes across every region, proactive compliance monitoring across 50 countries, and one unified reporting layer across their entire Oracle environment.

This progress happened in about a year across 50 countries and multiple ERP systems.

For a finance operation of that scale and complexity, that's a complete overhaul.