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Movement is not created in the moment – but in the system behind it
Company
Ottobock
Branch
Medical technology
Products
Prostheses, orthoses, wheelchairs
Number of employees
9,300
Turnover
1.6 billion euros
Headquarters
Duderstadt, Germany
Websitewww.ottobock.com
Together with apsolut, Ottobock is reorganising its purchasing and thus creating the basis for security of supply, controllability and sustainable growth.
When a person can walk again, you see movement. What you don’t see: the processes, decisions and supply chains that make this movement possible in the first place. For Ottobock, whose technologies enable people around the world to be more mobile, the real challenge was therefore not in the laboratory, but in the procurement processes behind it.
There was a lack of transparency for managing expenditure globally, reliably enforcing compliance and basing strategic decisions on reliable data. Procurement processes had grown over the years, were internationally fragmented and in practice were often organised outside of structured systems. Expenditure was only visible after the fact, approvals could only be controlled to a limited extent – and this also limited the strategic control capability.
Ottobock therefore redefined the requirements for a future-proof purchasing platform. Transparency should be created at an early stage, approvals should become binding and data should become the basis for strategic decisions. After a structured selection process, the decision was made in favour of SAP Ariba – not least because of its integrative integration into the existing SAP landscape and the prospect of mapping global processes on a standardised platform.
After selecting the tool, Ottobock put the implementation out to tender separately in order to ensure the right implementation expertise. apsolut impressed not only with its project experience, but also with its consulting approach with operational penetration.
“apsolut delved deep into the processes and that’s exactly what gave us the confidence to find solutions quickly, even when things really got stuck in the project",
recalls Yanneck Bode, Project Lead.
The actual transformation began with the start of the project. In addition to the Ariba modules Buying, Contracts and Supplier Lifecycle & Performance, Ottobock-specific requirements had to be mapped – including highly automated user management and the integration of an external master data governance system to ensure consistent master data.
At the same time, the organisational structure posed fundamental questions for the project team. The separation between direct and indirect purchasing could not be mapped one-to-one in the system. They were looking for solutions that were practicable without breaking up established structures. In addition, a differentiated approval logic was created that clearly assigns responsibilities and ensures compliance even before the order is placed.
The right balancing act was crucial: Use standards where they create efficiency and future-proofing – and at the same time map organisational realities in such a way that acceptance and auditability are maintained. During the course of the project, it became clear that the aim was not to introduce a system, but to change perspectives. Transparency is no longer created in retrospect, but in the process itself.
The project work was characterised by close exchange and pragmatic cooperation. Requirements were iteratively sharpened, processes harmonised and solutions developed through dialogue. “A tool should not mirror every structure that has developed,” explains Johannes Müller, Head of Global Indirect Procurement. “It is also an opportunity to scrutinise which processes we really need in the future.”
Changes in everyday life became apparent shortly after the introduction. Approvals are structured before the order is placed, expenditure is visible at an early stage and order-related processes improve the quality of invoice processing. Standardised workflows shorten throughput times, reduce coordination and provide employees with orientation.
Ottobock gains more than efficiency with the new platform. Early transparency enables data-based decisions and active management of the global supplier portfolio. Compliance is anchored in the system and purchasing is evolving from an operational processor to a strategic management tool.
At the same time, it creates a scalable basis for further growth. Following the successful launch in the first countries, the solution can be gradually rolled out in other markets in order to exploit synergies and harmonise procurement processes internationally.
Efficient processes are not an end in themselves at Ottobock. They enable innovation – and thus mobility and quality of life for people worldwide. Transparent purchasing strengthens this mission in the long term.
Implemented tools
SAP Ariba Buying
SAP Ariba Contracts
SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance
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„apsolut not only guided us through the project with the utmost professionalism and a proactive approach – the decisive factor was that apsolut enabled us to operate the new tool independently and to manage the next steps ourselves. apsolut’s employees quickly familiarised themselves with our system and processes, which made it easier for us to achieve the project goals within the given timeframe. I would also like to praise their flexibility in adapting to changes and their flexibility in implementation, with clear communication and excellent project management. We look forward to benefiting from this expertise more often.”
Zinah Matar, Digital Business Development Manager, Juffali Commercial Vehicles
"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
“I would give them nine out of ten points – apsolut is definitely among the top five per cent of all consulting services we’ve ever worked with.”
Felix Leister, Global Process Owner – Source-to-Pay, Festool
"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
“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
„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
“It was crucial for us to create a common, future-oriented standard that works for all units while still being flexible enough to allow for local requirements,”
Alexandra Leitenberger, Lead Project Manager and Service Owner SAP Ariba, Diehl
"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
“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
“apsolut won us over with their keen problem-solving skills. They took a pragmatic, efficient approach that allowed them to overcome every challenge they faced”,
Simon Band, Group Manager Materials Management – Purchase Contracts, Gelsenwasser
“apsolut delved deep into the processes and that’s exactly what gave us the confidence to find solutions quickly, even when things really got stuck in the project",
Yanneck Bode, Project Lead, Ottobock
"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
“The collaboration with apsolut was a complete success. Working together, we managed to lead our supply chain into the cloud and thus gain stability, such as in future sustainability,”
Michael Wölfl, Head of PPS, Alfred Ritter
"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
"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
„Despite all the digitalisation and automation, we still work in a people business. During this project, we have grown into such a resilient, unified team that we’ve managed to meet all of our deadlines up to this point, even though some of them were quite ambitious. Ultimately, that also motivates everyone involved to do their part in driving the project forward!“
Simon Bohn, Global Solution Architect Procure to Pay, STIHL
"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
“Buysmart has demonstrated that real change can only happen when humans and technology work hand in hand – and that’s exactly what apsolut made possible for us.”
Jens Scholl, Procurement Manager Indirect, Eckes-Granini
"It really helped to work with a partner who knows our organisation,”
Wiebke Stahmann, , eProcurement Expert and Project Manager, DMK Group
‘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
„Every time we came up against an unexpected challenge during the course of the project, apsolut immediately showed up possible options to resolve the issue. We always knew to what extent we had freedom of movement within the constraints of the cloud solution.”
Linna Krasnikov, SCC System Administrator, Kärcher
“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
"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
‘With its flexible and transparent procedure, apsolut perfectly complemented our own limited personnel resources. Together, we were able to address topics like multi-line items or dependencies with other tools. It’s unbelievable how much knowledge and expertise we were able to gain,’
Regina Krüger-Wendel, Chief Procurement Officer, Atruvia
“Right from the start, apsolut supported us with the comprehensive experience and expertise they had acquired from their enormous number of past projects. They were able to respond quickly and precisely to our complex requirements and present us with ideal solutions. Thanks to their experience with Ariba, we were able to digitalise our purchasing processes and make them more efficient as a result.”
Alexander Köhler, Purchaser and Project Manager, MLP
"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
"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
"As our experiences with apsolut were so positive across all national companies, we have already doubled the number of monthly support days twice. Thanks to apsolut, we now have the resources we need to implement rollouts in other national companies. At the moment, they are ongoing in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and France."
Sandra Mancino, Application Consultant, C&A
„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
"apsolut pro-actively asked us questions from the outset, discussed our aims and created a new roadmap. This approach was the complete opposite of the original project and it worked fantastically,"
Patrick Tydex, Project Manager, Zentis
„We were looking for a specific solution that did not exist yet. We didn’t want to compromise. So we looked for the right partner to model a flexible tool so that we could configure the specific processes ourselves. We used our expertise and creativity to make Squando our global supplier management tool.“
Ketylin Morello, Purchasing Strategy and Market Intelligence & Functional Product Owner for Squando, Schaeffler
“Technology undoubtedly opens up many new possibilities. But if you don’t convince people of the benefits of this technology, you won’t benefit from these opportunities. apsolut has played a major role in ensuring that people at Archroma recognize the advantages of the new solution and that the company benefits in the long term.”
Felipe Antunes Miranda, Global IT Category Manager and Project Manager, Archroma
“After the first Ariba roll-outs, we continued to work with apsolut to jointly develop our Ariba Suite. We usually work together at eye level, and I appreciate apsolut’s open and honest advice. I always have the feeling that the best solution for the customer is their guiding principle. This level of honesty is what led us to working together for so long.”
Małgorzata Pośpiech, SCM Process Manager, JOYNEXT
“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
„During our conversation with apsolut, it quickly became clear that while we definitely did have potential for digitalisation in direct procurement, the potential in indirect procurement was much greater. That’s why we shifted our focus, and it was absolutely the right decision“,
Yvonne Kippschull, SAP-Prozess- & Application Consultant, wolfcraft
“We were impressed by the flexible service tailored to our needs and requirements, the combination of on-site and remote support, the quick response to changes, and the high quality of the apsolut employees involved!”
Annette Römer, Project Manager, McKesson Europe AG
"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
“The process has become more straightforward and logical. Our users are now working much more autonomously – and we have more time for the content work,”
Etienne Auger, Team Leader Procurement Excellence, Swissgrid
“I was particularly impressed with the open and honest communication we had with apsolut during the project.”
Julia Führer, IT Inhouse Consultant Procurement, BIOTRONIK
“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
"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
“Our aim was to find a solution that works quickly. With the Copilot, we have found exactly that.”
Marlene Schenkel, Strategic Sourcing Manager, Abraxas Informatik
"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, McKesson Europe AG
“To be quite honest: I have experienced so many IT projects in the past where the ambitious original goals were eroded bit by bit. But this time, it was different because apsolut worked very systematically and always intervened promptly when something threatened to get out of hand,”
Thomas Henzler, Chief Information Officer, PILLER Blowers & Compressors
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