Multimedia Giant Wins with Xoomworks

Savings and increased reliability follow as electronics and media multinational outsources management of its e-procurement system

The challenge: When a big-name global mulitmedia company decided to reduce costs in 2003, its e-procurement system came under the spotlight. The company had successfully used Ariba Buyer in tandem with SAP for several years, but there was obvious scope for savings in the way it was managed.

Ariba Buyer was run by an in-house team working on behalf of 6,500 employees in more than 35 countries. Users put about €23 million through the system, buying everything from office supplies to travel services.

The company’s managers realised that running the system in-house was costly and that monitoring performance was difficult. They decided to consider outsourcing the management to an external provider. If a suitable partner could be found it would not only cut costs but also make new implementations and upgrades simpler.

The Xoomworks solution: Several organisations ranging from small niche players to big multinationals were asked to submit proposals for the project. Xoomworks came out way in front of the other contenders. Xoomworks worked closely with the in-house team to put the necessary changes into effect. The company’s managers were pleased that the people they had talked to at Xoomworks in the selection process were the same team delivering the project.

At each stage of the project progress was audited to make sure knowledge transfer had been successful.

Key to the project was a sensitive teamwork approach to a potentially difficult transition, and Xoomworks scored highly in this. As a result of an extremely professional approach, the project was completed in just 12 weeks and Xoomworks took over managing Ariba Buyer on behalf of the client. Xoomworks is now responsible for maintaining the Ariba Buyer system, implementing improvements and upgrades and operating a helpdesk. They run a daily set of system tests to highlight any issues regarding ERP integration failures, system metrics, PO and receipt failures, punchout suppliers and ASN failures.

They scope and define any requests for new functionality and help ensure Sarbanes Oxley compliance, a critical issue for all large companies. This includes wording of new controls, development of password encryption functionality and creation of new client processes.

Other projects have included working closely with the client to correct errors resulting from the creation of a new disaster recovery server and helping a major supplier develop a punchout platform. Xoomworks devised a process to mitigate all SAP integration issues found after system refreshes and runs a quarterly benchmarking programme.

Xoomworks also leads a range of training sessions for the company’s European Ariba support teams. Its managers are able to discuss timescales and costs of any further implementations, and Xoomworks will be closely involved in a major project to roll out Ariba Buyer to several countries in middle and eastern Europe.