- Company
- SOCAR Malaysia, a fast-growing car rental company with extensive coverage across Malaysia
- Industry
- Transport
- Processes automated
- Invoice processing, payment requests, user access approval workflows, legal reviews, and commercial approvals
- Teams involved
- Finance, IT, Legal, and Commercial
- Previous approach
- Manual processes managed through hundreds of difficult-to-track email chains, with limited visibility into approvals and frequent inaccuracies
- Results
- 40% of Finance processing time saved, workflow solutions delivered in 75% less time and at 85% lower cost than traditional ERP approaches, complete visibility into IT access requests, and reduced manual error
SOCAR Malaysia’s challenge was not limited to one department. Rapid growth exposed the same operational problem across Finance, IT, Legal, and Commercial teams: important processes depended on email chains, manual updates, and people keeping track of approvals themselves. Zenphi gave the company a way to standardize these workflows without the implementation time and cost associated with traditional ERP projects.
A fast-growing transport business with increasingly complex internal operations
SOCAR Malaysia is a leading car rental company with extensive coverage across the country. As the business expanded, internal operations had to keep pace with the volume of invoices, access requests, approvals, and cross-functional reviews generated by that growth.
The underlying work was familiar: submit a request, route it to the right person, wait for approval, update the relevant records, and keep everyone informed. The difficulty came from doing that reliably at scale.
Hundreds of email chains made approvals difficult to track
Manual workflows created unnecessary stress, inaccuracies, and inefficiencies across several departments, particularly Accounts Payable and IT security. Requests and approvals were spread across email, making it difficult to know the current status, maintain a reliable audit trail, or see where work was getting stuck.
Team members searched for the status of individual invoices, copied and pasted documents between folders, and followed up on approvals manually.
The IT team did not have the consistent visibility and audit trail needed to manage access requests and approvals confidently.
Documents moved between reviewers manually, making it harder to maintain clear status, version control, and confirmation of what had been approved.
SOCAR needed a way to build and change workflows quickly rather than commit to lengthy implementation cycles for every operational problem.
Structured workflows replaced email-driven approvals across multiple teams
SOCAR Malaysia used Zenphi to redesign several business processes around forms, automated routing, task assignment, status updates, and audit trails. The workflows are built and maintained visually, allowing the team to change processes as operational requirements evolve.
1. Automated payment requests and invoice processing
The Finance workflow starts with a Google Form. From there, Zenphi routes the payment request through the required approval steps, assigns tasks, updates the invoice status automatically, and maintains the audit trail.
A payment or invoice workflow is initiated through a structured Google Form rather than an unstructured email chain.
The workflow sends the request to the appropriate approvers and keeps the process moving without manual forwarding.
Task assignment and status updates happen automatically as the invoice progresses through the process.
The Finance team has a clear view of where each invoice stands without searching through emails or folders.
2. Formal IT user access approval workflows
SOCAR also introduced a formal access-request process for IT security. Users request access through a Google Form, the workflow routes the request to the appropriate team member or approver, and the resulting actions are recorded consistently.
This replaced a less visible manual process with a structured workflow and complete audit trail, giving IT a clearer view of who requested access, what was approved, and how the request was handled.
3. Legal and Commercial approval workflows
Legal and Commercial teams use similar workflow patterns for document review. Zenphi routes documents for approval, sends confirmation emails, and maintains a centralized repository so teams can see the current version and approval status without repeated manual updates.
40% of Finance processing time recovered — with faster delivery across the business
| Area | Before Zenphi | With Zenphi |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice processing | Manual tracking across emails and folders | Status and audit trail updated automatically |
| Finance workload | Significant time spent checking status and moving documents | At least 40% of processing time available for other work |
| IT access requests | Limited visibility into requests and approvals | Formal process with full visibility and a consistent audit trail |
| Content access | Broader access with less centralized control | Estimated 70% reduction in access to business content |
| Workflow delivery | Traditional ERP-style implementation cycle | Solutions delivered in 75% less time |
| Implementation cost | Traditional ERP cost base | Solutions delivered at 15% of the traditional cost — an 85% reduction |
A single source of truth replaced manual status chasing
The Finance team no longer has to search manually for individual invoice status or copy and paste documents between folders. The current status and audit trail are visible from one place, reducing delays and removing the inaccuracies associated with manual tracking.
The IT team gained the same kind of visibility around access requests. Formal routing and audit trails strengthened user management and security, while the case reports an estimated 70% decrease in access to business content.
Workflow projects delivered in 75% less time and at 15% of the traditional cost
The benefit was not limited to how the finished workflows performed. SOCAR also reduced the time and cost required to build them.
The case reports that Zenphi workflows could be created, updated, and maintained in 75% less time than traditional ERP solutions. The implementation cost was approximately 15% of the traditional alternative, equivalent to an 85% reduction.
“As long as you know what you want, then you can create a workflow that suits your needs.”
One workflow pattern, multiple departments
The SOCAR case shows how the same automation architecture can solve different operational problems. Finance needs invoice approvals. IT needs controlled access requests. Legal and Commercial teams need document review and confirmation. The data and decisions differ, but the process pattern is similar.
Questions about this case study
What processes did SOCAR Malaysia automate?
The case covers automated invoice processing, payment requests, IT user access approvals, and Legal and Commercial document review workflows.
How much time did the Finance team save?
The case reports that the Finance team recovered at least 40% of its invoice-processing time after replacing manual tracking, status checks, and document movement with an automated workflow.
How does the IT access approval workflow work?
Users submit an access request through a Google Form. Zenphi routes the request automatically to the appropriate team member or approver and maintains the audit trail so the IT team has clear visibility into requests and approvals.
How much faster were workflows delivered?
SOCAR reports that Zenphi workflows were created, updated, and maintained in 75% less time than comparable traditional ERP solutions.
How did implementation cost compare with traditional ERP solutions?
The case states that the solutions were delivered at approximately 15% of the cost of traditional ERP alternatives, representing an 85% reduction.
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