SAP SRM coupled with SupplyOn can reduce your process costs for the procurement of services and reduce Purchasing’s workload

While catalogs for ordering office supplies via SAP SRM have been an established standard for years, this has not been the case for purchasing complex services.

Why is that? In our view, the main reason is that, for office supplies, buyers know exactly how much of anything they need to order.

When ordering a service however, it is necessary to reach agreement with the supplier. SAP SRM does not support the process of negotiating with suppliers, and that explains why operating departments cannot simply buy services from a catalog.

SupplyOn has now solved this problem.

Possible applications range from industrial cleaning services through machine maintenance down to software enhancements – in fact, all types of service procurement.

And here’s how

The operating department and Purchasing reach agreement with the supplier about performance units. Purchasing negotiates purchase prices for each type of performance unit, for example a software developer with skill level 4 might cost €120 per hour. Purchasing then lists these performance units in a catalog.

After an initial setup, the buyer from the operating department places his request in a shopping cart of the in-house SAP SRM system, and – where they are already obvious – may also select performance units from the catalog. He then clicks on Source@SupplyOn, and the supplier immediately receives an e-mail with a link to the SupplyOn system, where he can view the request transmitted from the SAP SRM system in the background.

The supplier examines the request and submits a quotation for the required services in line with the previously negotiated performance units, likewise accessing the catalog to do so. Once the supplier has created his quotation in this way, the buyer receives the data in his SAP SRM system – as before, transferred in the background from the SupplyOn platform – without having to go via Purchasing.

In SAP SRM, the operating department reviews the quotation and generates a purchase order based on it, which is then received by the supplier via the SupplyOn platform.

By the way, for special items or features not yet listed in the catalog, the supplier can add his own text and a price. In such cases the system will send the information via Purchasing, so that they can check the price and possibly renegotiate with the supplier.

What are the benefits of this integrated solution?

With this integrated solution between the customer’s internal SAP SRM system and the SupplyOn platform, which are linked by a special connector provided by SupplyOn, you can not only make significant savings in process costs but also save time in the procurement of services.

Where previously Purchasing had to be involved every time an operating department made any request to a supplier, they are now relieved of that task while still retaining complete control that the negotiated prices really are used. The operating department can operate independently and does not have to wait for Purchasing to complete the process. Don’t let your company waste this potential benefit. Let us demonstrate how this solution can also reduce your process costs and turnaround times in the procurement of services!

For SAP SRM experts:
It is of course possible to use approval workflows and budget reviews from the SAP SRM system. The solution works in both classic and extended classic scenarios.