" We chose Docoon for its perfect balance between service quality and price, the value of the commercial proposal we received, and the quality of our interactions with the technical teams. "
In addition to disseminating economic and statistical information and monitoring regulatory developments, the Comité Professionnel du Pétrole (CPDP) provides shared IT services to the oil industry (major oil companies and independents, large retail purchasing groups). DPii Télécom, then Docoon (*), has become a reliable and committed partner to the CPDP. Thierry Couturier, AS400 IT manager for the CPDP, explains Docoon's role in this relationship.
Hello Thierry Couturier, can you explain the CPDP's missions and your role?
Thierry Couturier: The CPDP is a non-profit organization created by oil companies in 1950. Originally founded to study oil markets and collect data on sales and consumption of refined products, since 1999 the CDDP has served as a hub for the entire oil industry.
In 1998, at the initiative of the major oil companies, the CPDP took charge of managing a codification compendium aimed at creating a single language, regardless of the IT systems used. Still in use today, this codification system enables all French oil distributors to exchange purchase orders for the collection of products from all oil depots in France. This compendium allows for the codification of buyers, refineries, depots, products, and any other parameters necessary for the purchase and sale of petroleum products.
I joined the CPDP team in 2004 and rewrote all existing tools and services to implement a resilient, monitored, and supervised exchange system that can now handle up to 25,000 file transfers per day.
The CPDP offers its members the Petroleum Supply Service, known as SAP. It enables oil companies, major players, supermarkets, and smaller independent operators in the regions to send orders to all French oil depots in a standardized language for the supply of their gas stations or other distribution networks.
The Oil Supply Service consists of two main stages. Order processing, which sends orders to depots every 10 minutes, and fulfillment processing, which sends orders to depots every 30 minutes, transmits loading and stock data to distributors.
When did you start working with Docoon?
T.C.: In 2017, the CPDP added to its services a tool enabling the dematerialization of invoices between oil companies called DEFACTIP (Dematerialization of Invoices in the Oil Industry).
For reasons of confidentiality and discretion imposed by our members, it was not possible for the CPDP to be responsible for processing and archiving invoices.
Very quickly, we realized we needed a trusted third party. We issued a call for tenders with strict specifications.
We needed a service provider specializing in digitization, conversion, and archiving of invoices exchanged over a 10-year period. DOCOON was selected.
Thanks to DEFACTIP, petroleum product sellers can issue invoices in a standardized language that is understood by the entire French petroleum industry. Upon receipt of these invoices, the CPDP performs 200 checks to ensure that customers receiving these invoices can be confident that they fully comply with the specifications imposed on them and that they expressly comply with the DEFACTIP standard.
Each invoice received from a supplier is sent to DOCOON at the same time as it is distributed. DOCOON converts the file received in EDI format into a human-readable PDF invoice. The EDI and PDF documents are archived for 10 years in the supplier's and customer's safes.
DOCOON is the trusted third party of the CPDP and, by extension, the trusted third party of oil companies using DEFACTIP.
DOCOON was asked in 2021 to implement a change to invoices consisting of adding the supplier's bank details to the "Invoice footer," and in 2022 for a more complex change, adding the price calculation formula to the "Item" lines. Docoon delivered these changes very quickly and provided a fully operational test environment, enabling users to test the adaptation of their ERP systems to these changes.
What made you choose Docoon, formerly DPii Telecom?
T.C.: The balance between the service and price offered by DOCOON won out over the competition's proposals. The quality of interpersonal exchanges and the responsiveness of the technical and support teams reinforced our decision.
What about the electronic invoicing reform? Are you directly affected?
T.C.: Docoon was proactive on this issue, informing us of this change as early as October 2022. We needed to understand and assimilate the tax authorities' expectations and consider how DEFACTIP would evolve, particularly in terms of sending invoices to customers, which could no longer be done as we had been doing, i.e., directly from the CPDP, itself an OD (dematerialization operator), to customers, since the authorities require them to be transferred via a PDP (Partner Dematerialization Platform).
With Docoon registering as a future PDP, it seemed obvious to us that we should work on this topic with them.
We have now established the 2023 ROADMAP aimed at bringing DEFACTIP into compliance with the electronic invoicing reform. All flow evolution diagrams have been drawn up.
Both suppliers and customers, all DEFACTIP users were convinced by the adjustments to be made to the tool.
Interoperability between PDPs will enable DEFACTIP provider-users to issue invoices to the CPDP in DEFACTIP format to a much wider range of customers. These invoices will be converted to Factur-X format by DOCOON, posted on the public portal, and sent to the PDPs of the recipient customers.
Similarly, DEFACTIP customer-users will be able to ask DOCOON to convert invoices received in Factur-X format from suppliers who do not use DEFACTIP into DEFACTIP format.
What do you appreciate about your relationship with Docoon?
T.C.: I have always had excellent relationships with my contacts at DPii and then DOCOON, both with the sales department and the technical teams. Technical support always responds very quickly and effectively to our requests. I would like to highlight the quality of the support provided, the effectiveness of the solutions offered, and the fact that resolution deadlines are always met.
Thierry Couturier, thank you for all these explanations.
* Since September 2022, Docoon has been the new entity bringing together the Odyssey Messaging group (specialist in multichannel communication) and its brands DPii Télécom and Docoon, specialists in digitization and electronic signatures, respectively.
