They say that necessity is the mother of invention. The health crisis has created new needs for businesses from all verticals and has forced them to reinvent themselves. And Fluxym is not excluded!
At first glance, it might not seem like the best time to launch a Source to Pay project amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and its repercussions (no more economic activity, lockdown, borders closed, etc.). And yet, Fluxym took up the challenge by mobilizing its teams and adapting its project methodology.
The result: we are now capable of setting up Ivalua’s Supplier Relationship Management module in 4 weeks! And did we mention we can do that fully remotely?
Source-to-Pay: a strategic priority for 2020
At the beginning of 2020, an international consulting and business services group decided to deploy a single solution to monitor their entire purchasing chain as their number 1 priority. As for any purchasing department, their expectations were quite high as for the results of such a transformation.
This process automation project addressed several challenges. It had to increase operational efficiency, highlight spend visibility, and improve the bottom line. But this digital transformation was also the opportunity to enhance user comfort, and increase employee engagement by suppressing many tedious tasks.
Rethinking our methodology to start the project while in lockdown
So why did they decide to launch their SRM project anyway? Because even during such a tumultuous period, a strong, efficient, and visible supply chain is one of the best investments a company can make. If the supply chain does not work, the rest of the process does not work either.
Face-to-face has always been preferred for projects involving different partners, and it has sometimes seemed like it was the only way to work. The COVID-19 crisis forced us and our client to review the organization and planning of the project.
We therefore adapted our methodology to coordinate the deployment of all the modules of the Ivalua suite (Supplier Management, Contract, Catalogs, Items, Procurement and Invoice) in just 3 months. Instead of asking ourselves “Can our teams do this from home?” we asked “Can our teams do this even better from home?”
Bertrand Lesné – Fluxym’s Source to Pay Leader
“To succeed in this challenge, we decided, in agreement with our customer, to stick as closely as possible to the standard processes of the solution. We made a few adaptations and decided to manage the project with short 15-day sprints. In addition, we reviewed the organization of the work sessions. We agreed on a tighter 3-hour format, better suited to the remote work of participants spread over several countries.
As a result, the workshops were very effective. Everyone was mobilized around the objectives to achieve and the deadlines to meet”, explains Bertrand Lesné, Fluxym’s Source to Pay Leader
Good practices to keep for the new normal?
The first supplier batch implemented in just 4 weeks
Supplier Relationship Management is the backbone of any Source to Pay project. If you do not know who your suppliers are, how can you make informed decisions about where you source from?
With Ivalua’s SRM module, Fluxym built the foundation of the Source-to-Pay solution by creating a single database for the group’s 1,200 suppliers. After following user training, 20 buyers were tasked with:
- Adding new suppliers
- Updating the existing suppliers (legal documents, certifications, …)
- Accrediting suppliers listed on the solution portal, by registering their geographic approval and their purchase categories.
The Secret? As easy as 1-2-3!
The success of this project revolved around 3 key factors:
- Technology: the functional richness of Ivalua’s standard settings met the expectations of an international company seeking complete and unified management of its purchasing processes.
- Methodology: the project method was completely redesigned to adapt to the context. It inevitably gained agility, particularly thanks to the participation of decision-makers in the work sessions. The highly regular reviews also made it possible to apply corrective measures over time and to avoid any drifting.
- People: as one would say when receiving an award, nothing would have been possible without the joint mobilization and responsiveness of both Fluxym and its client. Everyone’s commitment was necessary to move the project forward at a high pace. Decision-makers focused on resolving any blocking points pending at the end of the workshop sessions.
The entire solution implemented in 3 months
The project was on track and the Fluxym teams were working hard to deploy the next batches, namely the contracts, catalogs and articles modules, followed by the Procurement and Invoice modules. The final Go live was scheduled for the end of July.
“We were very proud to support our client in the success of this project, which is all the more strategic in the current context. The agile method that we have developed allows us to offer our future customers a solution that quickly responds to the many challenges of the “new normal”, such as evaluating suppliers to anticipate risks, finding alternative suppliers to secure the Supply Chain, and safe working and collaboration remotely ”says Christophe Rivayran, Associated Director at Fluxym.
Go even further and download our White Paper “Experts’ view on Source-to-Pay”