CompanySanitas
BranchHealth Insurance
ProductsCompulsory basic insurance and private supplementary insurances
Number of employees887
Turnover3.0 bn. Swiss Francs
HeadquartersZurich, Switzerland
Challenges
Challenges
  • Greenfield approach: previously Sanitas had not used a digital tool for supplier management
  • High regulatory compliance and governance requirements by the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA)
  • Enablement of all employees concerned
Solutions
Solutions
  • SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance
  • SAP Ariba Contracts
Advantages
Advantages
  • Compliance with all regulatory requirements (state of the art)
  • Very high transparency
  • Audit-ready solution / improved risk assessment
  • Efficiency gains through the elimination of manual error potential
  • Individually managed contract process through digital collaboration in the Ariba network
  • Central contract filing enables quick retrieval of contracts
Why Apsolut
Why apsolut
  • Project team on site in Switzerland
  • German is the project language not only for the implementation phase, but also for the training of the employees a decisive factor for success
  • Convincing project roadmap, which has provided the right answers to Sanitas specific requirements
  • High level of understanding of SAP Ariba logic, which focuses on the best possible functioning of the End-to-End-Approval-Workflows
  • Very good price-performance ratio for apsolut services and for SAP Ariba

Success factors: Integration, the right roadmap, close Partnership

“Digital tools are only as good as the way they are implemented and used by employees,” says Michael Spiess, Chief Procurement Officer at Sanitas Health Insurance. Together with his colleagues from the Compliance and Governance departments, he therefore defined four core objectives for the digitalisation of purchasing at one of the largest Swiss health insurance companies:
1. The new purchasing tool must be seamlessly integrated with the also new ERP-system, which is also being developed.
2. The implementation must be carried out with a partner who has the greatest possible technical know-how as well as the process-related understanding of Sanitas’ special needs and regulations.
3. This partner must be able to establish a close relationship with the users in order to gain acceptance for the system.
4. People make the difference: on-site meetings must be possible.

With SAP Ariba, the choice fell on a tool that not only reliably maps the regulatory requirements, but also provides an end-to-end process from the ERP system to purchasing department. The implementation took place on the greenfield, because up to now Sanitas only had a central storage of contracts in PDF format. An end-to-end digital process did not exist until now. SAP Ariba now enables Sanitas to have full transparency in supplier management for the first time and thus solid regulatory security. The solution is audit-capable and, Spiess is convinced, that it will significantly reduce the Maverick-Buying-Quote. As soon as the suite is fully implemented, Spiess also expects a measurable gain in efficiency as a result. In addition, the connection to the Ariba
Network, in which many suppliers are already represented, is a positive argument.

According to Spiess, the reasons for commissioning apsolut were the very open discussions from the beginning and a convincing roadmap:

“We knew that this was apsolut’s first project for a health insurance company, but that didn’t matter. Because apsolut always listened to us, understood our requirements and finally delivered solutions. We could design different processes for direct and indirect purchasing. Together we work professionally in state-of-the-art mode.”

The apsolut Switzerland team led by Remo Eggimann is supporting the Sanitas project team beyond the go-live. The local and linguistic proximity has proven to be very helpful for the onboarding of the employees. Here the team can draw on its wealth of experience in the management of complex transformation projects and knows exactly when which stakeholders need to be integrated into the decision-making and operational processes.

While the Ariba modules Supplier Lifecycle & Performance and Contracts modules went live on 1 February 2022, the Sourcing module will go live in Q4 2022. The implementation of Buying and Invoice Management will start in 2023.

Transparent supplier data enables active supplier management

Easy access to all contracts

Implemented tools

SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance
SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance
SAP Ariba Contracts
SAP Ariba Contracts

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"apsolut led us in a very cooperative and super-competent manner throughout all phases of the project! Above all, the open collaboration between all project members kept motivation high throughout. The project team gets on very well with each other. We were also impressed by the solution-oriented approach and the ability of the entire project team to make quick decisions!"

Hubert Buchsteiner, Group Vice President Purchasing, ZKW Group
zur Success-Story

"A transformation program of this scale needs a strong internal team from Procurement and Internal IT, but of course also experienced and committed external partners. The most important aspect is that everyone then works together with passion and conviction towards the common goal. In addition to the strong know-how of the consulting implementation partner – in our case apsolut – a strong line of communication from the partner to the software supplier SAP is also necessary."

Martin Traxl, Head of Strategy & Digitalization, OMV

“The cooperation with the international apsolut project team from Germany and India was very effective despite the tough schedule. Due to the high degree of standardisation and automation, we were already able to realise potential savings and, in particular reduce process costs.”

Markus Ortlieb, Director Global Procurement, ProMinent GmbH
zur Success-Story

„apsolut not only guided us through the project with utmost professionalism and a proactive approach – decisive was the fact that apsolut enabled us to operate the new tool independently and to control the next steps ourselves. In addition, thanks to apsolut, we have been able to establish the right network, including with the right contacts at SAP Austria. The project has been an overwhelming success and we have managed to foster an almost friend-to-friend relationship with the apsolut team."

Gerald Goldgruber, Strategic Manager for Process Management and SAP, Frutura
zur Success-Story

“For the new Ariba system, wewere able to onboard more than 1,400 users in three national subsidiaries with only little training effort. With regard to our Procurement processes, we have gained significant transparency and control.“

Jane Wanger, Global Procurement Systems & Support bei KSB
zur Success-Story

"When selecting our implementation partner, apsolut was able to prevail over internationally active competitors thanks to its excellent understanding of our requirements, openness in partnership, and great flexibility. Thanks to the very good cooperation with the apsolut team, we successfully completed the project and signed a support agreement for future developments."

Julia Graubner, Senior Procurement Project Manager, K+S
zur Success-Story

"We have never regretted our decision to rely on apsolut as our implementation partner. The preparation, support, and transparent project progress at all times convinced us. We are delighted to have apsolut as our partner for all questions relating to our SAP Ariba tool."

Marcel Krischer, Zentis GmbH & Co. KG
zur Success-Story

“apsolut impressed us in the project work with McKesson above all through the open and cooperative partnership. The project team gets on very well with each other. But we were also impressed by the solution-oriented approach and the fast and efficient enablement of our support staff.”

Annette Römer, Project Manager, McKesson Europe AG
zur Success-Story

"Of course, we are immensely proud of how we implemented this complex transformation together. The always competent and more than punctual execution moved us to initiate a parallel project for partial process innovation in the ongoing project. Actually a no-go, but with apsolut no problem! With this positive experience, it was easy for us to initiate another project, which is currently being implemented. One thing remains to be said: Without the team around Bodo Hempelmann, this journey would definitely have been more difficult!”

Manuel Steffen, Project Officer Source-to-Pay, Evonik Industries
zur Success-Story

"From the beginning of the project, we have made a remarkable change together with apsolut. The Döhler employees find their way through the easy user interface without any prior knowledge of SAP. As a result, our purchasing department is no longer an operational procurement office, but a team of in-house consultants."

Shibu Palakalodil, Projektleiter SAP Ariba-Implementierung
zur Success-Story

"apsolut impressed us in our project , particularly because of the open and cooperative partnership. The project team gets on very well with each other. But we were also impressed by the solution-oriented approach and the fast and efficient enablement of our support staff!"

Annette Römer, Project Manager at McKesson Europe
zur Success-Story

“With a partner like apsolut, not even a pandemic is able to stop us! When the project started, we were a little skeptical, due to the fact that the project team was unable to meet face-to-face. But we are now delighted to say that all our concerns have proven to be unfounded.“

Chandrashekhar Saldur, AGM - Global Procurement & Projects, ETG Group
zur Success-Story

"Together with apsolut, we started as a pioneer in Central Procurement and we are very pleased that we were able to reap the first fruits of this pioneering work so early on.”

Stefan Ehrhardt, Head of SAP Governance Purchasing, MAHLE
zur Success-Story

"apsolut demonstrated a high degree of flexibility and commitment during the project. The structured working methods and the dedicated team enabled us to meet the urgently needed go-live deadlines."

Paul Trautmann, Manager Procurement Processes & Projects, Röhm GmbH
zur Success-Story

“We had many specific requirements and together with apsolut we found a solution for each one of them. We used to search for supplier information, now we do find it. We are really very satisfied!”

Tanja Sefrin, Project Manager, KUKA
zur Success-Story

"With apsolut, we have gained a partner who has implemented our requirements effectively and efficiently in the configuration of Ariba in a practical manner and in a breathtaking amount of time. The customer-oriented approach was one of the main reasons why we also chose apsolut for the implementation of SLP and Contract Management."

Frank Unfried, Director Digitalization Purchasing & Indirect Spend bei Pfleiderer
zur Success-Story

"Being able to design our purchasing processes flexibly, digitally and above all efficiently offers great added value. We will therefore continue to expand our system in the direction of SAP Ariba."

Armin Kaczmarek, Senior Vice President Corporate Purchasing, Vorwerk
zur Success-Story

‘We’re on the right track to being able to take full advantage of the potential that this transformation offers, as apsolut not only gives us the expertise that we need, but also has an incredibly agile and committed approach. apsolut no longer feels like an external partner to me, but more like an internal department, with whom I hope we can continue to work well into the future.’

Dr. Bei Mortensen, IT Business Service Owner – SCM & Manufacturing, GEA Group
zur Success-Story

“In addition to the high level of expertise, what impressed me most about the apsolut team was the enormous commitment. We were very well supported throughout all stages and overcame all difficulties together”,

Anne Otto, Business Process Expert, Digital Solutions, JOYNEXT
zur Success-Story

"apsolut has been supporting us in the ope-ration of our SRM system for 10 years. It does not matter whether we report a problem in the production system or want to discuss change requests. We are contacted by apsolut in a timely manner to resolve our concerns or discuss our requirements in detail. apsolut always provides the important piece of securi-ty in the background - if anything goes wrong, they always help quickly and straightforwardly."

Torsten Enseroth, SAP S/4HANA Solution Architect, Friedhelm Loh Group
zur Success-Story

"Although personal contact was very limited due to Corona, a strong team formed during the intensive project phase. The decision-making paths at BITZER and apsolut were always short so that issues could be dealt with promptly and the planned go-live date achieved. The home office was not an obstacle, but also gave us the necessary flexibility for a project of this size.

All team members have done a great job, I have rarely worked so well with a consulting firm!"

Steffen Bauer, Project Manager, BITZER
zur Success-Story

“We knew that this was apsolut’s first project for a health insurance company, but that didn’t matter. Because apsolut always listened to us, understood our requirements and finally delivered solutions. We could design different processes for direct and indirect purchasing. Together we work professionally in state-of-the-art mode.”

Michael Spiess, Chief Procurement Officer, Sanitas Krankenversicherung
zur Success-Story

We were able to roll out Ariba very quickly, because we established a pragmatic and open culture of cooperation with the apsolut team from the very beginning, and we were prepared to systematically align ourselves with the standard“,

Sarah Eve Wiedemann-Geiß, who oversees purchasing and supplier management at Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall
zur Success-Story

"The mix of virtual design discussions, system demonstrations and break-out sessions, supported by best-in-class tools that allowed us to annotate and track tasks and decisions during screen sharing, enabled us to work closely with apsolut even though distances of up to 12,000 kilometres had to be bridged. We were very pleased that both our projects could be successfully implemented with the help of apsolut."

Alina Aftene, Procurement Solutions Specialist, Delivery Hero

"When selecting a partner for our procurement transformation, a high level of technical know-how was of course also important to us. Here, apsolut was able to convince us with best practices from customers of a comparable size. The decisive factor in the end was the experience in change management! Only in this way were we able to introduce a fully-fledged procurement system that is also accepted by all employees."

Göktürk Simsekol, Digital Transformation Director, Flint Group
zur Success-Story
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