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From colourful maverick spending to globally standardised procurement processes
Company
Flint Group
Branch
Printing inks
Products
Printing consumables and printing equipment
Number of employees
6,500
Turnover
2 billion €
Headquarters
Luxembourg
Websitewww.flintgrp.com
Increasing efficiency while saving time and costs in the P2O process with SAP ARIBA
Prior to apsolut’s implementation of SAP Ariba, Flint Group had limited visibility into its indirect spend. Each item ordered required a separate ordering and approval process. Approvers needed several clicks just to see the purpose of the order. Cross-checks of budgets did not take place. Accordingly, it was difficult to control spending and ensure the best deals and lowest prices.
With the Guided Buying function, users can now quickly search for items they need and are automatically guided to the best supplier. Several articles can be procured at once without prior order transmission to an administrator. For the first time, the purchasing department has its own tool that is not structured according to the accounting logic of balance sheet accounting. The purchasers can track spending behaviour, identify regional and seasonal trends and consequently obtain a comprehensive overview of all expenditures.
SAP Ariba solutions also facilitate collaboration with suppliers. Buyers can now use the Spot Buy function to contact suppliers across multiple marketplaces.
Flint Group was also able to establish a preferred supplier programme and eliminate more than half of its end-customer suppliers. Redundant information within the master data was also eliminated.
And there are also many advantages from the supplier’s point of view! For example, the automatic payment run makes it easier to meet agreed payment deadlines. Since the entire cooperation up to invoicing is completely paperless, numerous manual steps are eliminated.
"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."
explains Göktürk Simsekol (Digital Transformation Director, Flint Group), who implemented the project in 2018 within the set targets and schedule.
70%
of the Tail-End suppliers could be eliminated (in the countries in which SAP Ariba solutions are used)
Integration of 5,078 catalogues in 6 languages
Implemented tools
SAP Ariba Buying
SAP Ariba Guided Buying
SAP Ariba Commerce Automation
Integration of a 3rd Party Invoicing Tool
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Steffen Bauer, Project Manager, BITZER
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Martin Traxl, Head of Strategy & Digitalization, OMV
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Sarah Eve Wiedemann-Geiß, who oversees purchasing and supplier management at Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall
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Markus Ortlieb, Director Global Procurement, ProMinent GmbH
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Gerald Goldgruber, Strategic Manager for Process Management and SAP, Frutura
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