About the Client
A major UK airline wanted to bring its eProcurement solution up to date, make a number of improvements, and introduce mobile working.
The Challenge
The airline operates an on-premise version of the Ariba Procurement platform, with thousands of users, to generate business and compliance benefits through online ordering for goods and services. The platform had been in service since 2001 and is responsible for the majority of non-fuel spend. With support for this platform coming to an end, the airline needed to upgrade – at the same time, the challenge was to create a new procurement mobile application and take the upgrade as an opportunity to improve various elements of the solution.
The Solution
Upgrade: Old hardware, middleware and software was decommissioned to bring Ariba in line with the airline’s corporate IT support. Moving the solution to new hardware and simplifying the integration, saved maintenance costs and dramatically reduced total cost of ownership. With thousands of users it was critical that everyone could use the new system without a hitch, so extra effort was invested in training, change management, user acceptance testing and communication. The upgrade was completed ahead of time and went live as scheduled.
Enhancements: As part of the upgrade, Xoomworks completed a review of the current Ariba Procurement set-up. A number of enhancements and simplifications were identified that could be built into the upgrade to make the most of the change.
Mobile: A mobile app for iPhone and iPad users was built that would allow specific personnel to review and approve purchase orders raised on the Ariba Procurement platform. The mobile app was positioned within the airline’s current app store and made available as a standard download to users with appropriate permission. The interface was simple, clean and intuitive so that anyone with previous smartphone or tablet experience would easily grasp how to use it, immediately allowing the business to start realising the benefit of having an ‘anytime/ anywhere’ approval process.
“We selected Xoomworks because of their in-depth procurement knowledge and expertise,and their experience in building sustainable stakeholder relationships.”
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