Client Background

Client: A global pharmaceutical and consumer goods company

Headquarters: New Jersey, USA

Industry Type: Healthcare

Products/ Services: The company manufactures and distributes pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and consumer goods

Challenges

For a global pharmaceutical giant with customers in more than 60 countries, the sourcing and procurement function was incredibly strategic. The pharmaceutical leader saw several opportunities to increase its efficiency, reduce costs, and deliver an improved user experience across its global footprint. By modernizing source-to-pay processes, the company hoped to remove data silos, integrate multiple sourcing and ERP systems, and standardize processes in its extremely complex supply chain. If it could achieve these goals, the company would be able to reduce operational costs, save time, manage spending, and reduce ad hoc buying and “spend creep.”

Solution

Wipro used its process-mining framework to identify ways to modernize source-to-pay processes using the next-generation SAP Ariba cloud application as a centralized procurement system. Working with the pharmaceutical leader, Wipro conceptualized a new “Parent/Child” model to simplify the integration of SAP Ariba (the “Parent”) with region-specific (“Child”) processes and ERP systems. This model enabled the creation of a central repository of master supplier data and enabled real-time data validation and budget verification from ERP systems.

Implementation of SAP Ariba Guided Buying included development of customized, dynamic forms and category-based options to ensure compliance with policy mandates. It also improved efficiency in operational costs, which helped the company rein-in ad hoc buying.

Business Impact

By adopting a cloud-based, SaaS application, the reimagined sourcing and procurement system saved the pharmaceutical company approximately $3 million. It also delivered an enhanced experience for more than 60,000 users. But most important, the new system led to dramatic improvements to the procurement process: order fulfillment improved by 8% thanks to improved policy adherence and reduced buyer/supplier risks across multiple regions, the system optimized inventory by 10% and reduced unwanted expenditures, and ad hoc buying declined by 65% in two years.