Centralising global ‘procure to pay’ processes to minimise risk and complexity for a leading beverage producer
The client, a leader in household, health and hygiene products, was undertaking a major reorganization of its global management and reporting. Henceforth there would be only 2 global regions, one for developed markets and one for developing markets. The objective was to group like markets together to help streamline decision making and speed up implementation.
In parallel they were looking to build a more unified and consolidated ERP system. Hitherto they had a number of instances of J.D. Edwards and other legacy systems as well as SAP.
The in-house SAP team designed a template for handling all internal cross border transactions via a central hub for each of the two global regions. All transfers between countries were to be purchased and then invoiced out by the relevant hub and relevant documentation (e.g. cross border paperwork) raised automatically where and when it was required. The actual movement of physical products was to be unaffected although improved by timely, accurate transacting and the availability of required documentation.
This new solution was to be fully interfaced with the sending and receiving site system (be it J.D. Edwards or SAP) and operate in the background with minimum intervention.
The plan was to use in-house resources for the build and implementation too and this was already underway. However the pressure was also on to design, build and implement a commercial solution for each of the country businesses too. There were insufficient resources in-house to do both within already highly ambitious timeframes.
The client turned to Pivot to take the lead in rolling out the cross border system across the ‘developed markets region’ centred on the Netherlands. The client had engaged Pivot on many projects previously and knew they could be trusted to pick up the project mid-stream and form the working relationships required to get the job done.
The first task for the Pivot team lead was to address a small number of issues with the initial implementation in Australia and New Zealand. This involved some reconfiguring followed by user testing and go-live. The next task was to start the build for Poland and the Baltic countries, based on a gap workshop already completed. Whilst this was underway, the Pivot consultant also worked with the business team in the gap ratification workshops for Russia and the Ukraine. For much of the time the building and testing was being done simultaneously in both country groupings which required many early starts and late finishes.
It was at this point that the client called a ‘time out’ to review the work to date and identify any enhancements appropriate. The Pivot consultant joined the team to help identify, develop and test these enhancements and then to provide the training.
“The Pivot consultant’s objectives were fairly simple, manage our ***** projects and support the live markets. However this was a huge task and he tackled it head on, working with the business team and other technical teams. He gained an understanding of our solution very quickly and could then be left to manage all areas with very little intervention. He went above and beyond the expectations ensuring there were no production issues as a result of any of the implementations or change requests.”
Client SAP Business Partner
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