Energy Company Identifies $20M in Overbilling Through Price Collection
A renewable energy company implemented systematic price collection and discovered significant billing discrepancies across their distributed operations.
The Challenge
The company operated solar installations across 15 states, each using local contractors for maintenance and repairs. Without centralized pricing data, each site negotiated independently, resulting in wide price variations for identical services. Invoices were paid without systematic comparison to contracted rates.
The Approach
VenLink's onboarding module was configured to collect standardized pricing from all service vendors. The system created a pricing database that enabled comparison across regions and identification of billing variances from contracted rates.
Implementation Timeline
How the solution was deployed and results were achieved
by Procurement Director
The Outcome
Analysis of the first year's invoices against collected pricing revealed systematic overbilling by several vendors. One national vendor had been billing 40% above contracted rates at multiple sites. Total identified overbilling across all vendors exceeded $2M in the first year, with projected savings of $20M over the contract lifecycle through improved rate enforcement and renegotiation leverage.
"We knew we were probably overpaying, but we had no way to prove it. VenLink gave us the data to hold vendors accountable."