Companies are faced with an increasingly competitive and specialized environment. Maintaining a competitive pace requires the ability to respond rapidly to the needs of customers, while maximizing process efficiency. We recently caught up with Rony Toussaint Mateos, the Supply Chain & Procurement Director at our partner, Stratesys, who has some keen insights into the challenges midsize businesses face when undergoing digital transformation. In addition, he provided a perspective on the solutions available to midsize businesses as they pursue competitive advantages through digital transformation.
Addressing Market Challenges Through Digital Transformation
In general terms, companies are aware that one of the best ways to adapt to the challenges coming from the marketplace is through digital transformation. However, the specific approach that an organization may choose to take for this transformation can differ according to the characteristics of the company (size, sector, geography, etc.). While large corporations frequently approach these initiatives in a global and homogeneous way, small and midsize businesses often propose a more modular strategy, focusing on specific problems that allow them to face their key priorities and weaknesses.
“With respect to procurement, an increasing dynamism can be seen within companies, especially with respect to the supply of goods and services,” Toussaint commented. “An increasing number of small- and medium-sized companies include their purchasing function as a key area in their digital transformation strategy, focusing on strategic and collaborative procurement.”
The Role of E-Procurement
Procurement professionals are seeking to elevate the profile of the purchasing function as a driver of value and impact on the company's strategy and income statement.
“Midsize businesses need to reinforce the idea that a well-managed purchasing function, with the right tools, can provide significant improvements and alignment that enable it to be a driver of the company's strategic plan,” Toussaint told us.
Companies in this segment frequently seek success stories that showcase other similarly sized companies within their sector or industry. By evaluating how other organizations have solved their problems in and through e-procurement, they can discern the true benefits of this type of digital transformation.
Best-in-Class e-Procurement from SAP Ariba
SAP Ariba solution offers midsize businesses an integrated and scalable solution – one that can serve as a company’s “platform for life.” Through its different components, SAP Ariba effectively addresses the main problems that are inherent in the purchasing function by:
- Homogenizing processes and ensuring that all actors involved in procurement activities work with the same tools and achieve visibility into the end-to-end procurement process.
- Improving the operations, negotiation capacity, and efficiency of the purchasing function, while providing performance indicators to inform continuous improvement.
- Reducing purchase execution times by ensuring compliance and quality standards.
“Our perception is that SAP Ariba is one of the best e-procurement tools in the marketplace and that it is key to Stratesys’ business development,” Toussaint stated. “SAP Ariba is fully aligned with our strategy of adding value to our customers.”
Adding Value Through Partnership: Introducing Stratesys
SAP Ariba’s valued partner, Stratesys, has introduced a packaged solution to facilitate and empower the management of strategic purchasing in organizations. When deployed, the Stratesys Welcome Sourcing – Indirect Procurement Digital Transformation package simplifies transactions in the purchasing area and improves the communication process with suppliers throughout the indirect purchasing process.
Stratesys created and qualified the Welcome Sourcing package as a part of their SAP Ariba business development plan. The main objective of the package initiative is to offer the market a rapid, cost-effective implementation solution that is based on the best practices that Stratesys has developed through their customer deployment projects.
“At Stratesys, we are adapting our commercial messages to the challenges and specific requirements of each sector and industry. In addition, we have invested in our own SAP Ariba Demo Realm to provide prospective customers with a more effective and personalized pre-sales experience.”
With Welcome Sourcing, customers can realize significant benefits in a short period of time, allowing the first stages of digitalization of the purchasing function to be carried out successfully. In addition, the solution is designed to facilitate scalability for other procurement categories and different activities such as contract management, supplier qualification, purchasing operations, etc.
“Welcome Sourcing allows us to differentiate ourselves from other partners and strengthen our relationship with SAP Ariba commercial teams by providing them with our expertise in e-procurement and the overall digital transformation process.”
Stratesys is also defining their SAP Qualified Packaged solution to highlight the most innovative elements, such as eLearning tools, advanced KPIs and Dashboards. The partner has compiled many improvements to provide a procurement function with greater added value:
- Advanced monitoring solutions: developed by our expert team, it provides our clients with improvements in connectivity and control processes between the client's SAP ERP systems and SAP Ariba.
- eLearning procedures for simplifying supplier onboarding
- Executive dashboard with strategic purchasing specific KPIs
Learn more about SAP Qualified Packaged, the Stratesys Welcome Sourcing package, and other partner solutions for midsize businesses.
See more value propositions from SAP Ariba partners:
Rocking the market with SAP Ariba partners
SAP Ariba’s Best-Kept Secret: Solutions for Midsize Companies
If you have any question about this content, please contact us:
Kathryn Zwack, Global General Business Marketing and Programs, SAP Ariba
Chelo Jiménez, Global Partner Marketing Manager, SAP Ariba
- SAP Managed Tags:
