Background
When you are an organisation with multiple sites up and down the country, procurement is a massive undertaking. Whether each site operates independently with the autonomy to do their own buying, or you have a central procurement department, there are ways to streamline your processes and make them more efficient. Finding efficiencies will save you time and money.
We have worked with several businesses who operate nationwide and have found solutions to make ordering from Darcy Spillcare as straightforward as possible.
What Did the Darcy Group Do?
For our customers who order regularly and in bulk, we can agree preferential pricing (subject to minimum spend). Customers with this agreement can view their agreed prices when they log into our eCommerce website. We have a contract with a government agency that has this exact set up.
An estates management provider for a major healthcare provider needed bespoke spill kits as what we had on the website didn’t suit their needs. Once the contents of the bespoke products had been agreed, we placed them on the website for only that customer to see. Read more in our maintenance spill kits case study.
That customer now needs to be able to replenish their spill kits and order other spill care products that they need on a regular basis. They want individual sites to be able to order their own supplies to reduce the number of purchase requests going through their central procurement team. Users will be able to log into our website, search for a specific word and only an agreed set of products will be returned. The buyers will see the products advertised at their agreed price and then once checked out, the company is invoiced.
We’ve also been working with a leading logistics company, specialising in container handling, cargo services, and integrated supply chain solutions. This project has been more substantial because we’re working closely with the customer and our development team to create a ‘PunchOut catalog’.
What is a PunchOut Catalog?
PunchOut Catalogs integrate effortlessly with your chosen procure-to-pay software, such as SAP Ariba and Basware, allowing employees to make purchases directly from preferred suppliers. This solution simplifies the shopping process by automating authentication and transferring cart orders between the buyer’s and supplier’s systems.
Here’s how it works: The buyer logs into their eProcurement system, which then directs them to our eCommerce site. The buyer can browse and add items to their cart, and once they’re ready, the contents of the cart are transferred back to the eProcurement system. From there, a purchase order (PO) is created and routed internally for approval.
Once this project is complete, the PunchOut catalog will enable buyers from sites across the company’s portfolio to purchase a collection of products at agreed prices from the Darcy Group.
What Was the Outcome?
The benefits of working with us to create a bespoke purchasing journey on our website include:
- Quicker purchasing with employees able to efficiently choose from a pre-authorised set of products using their dedicated login credentials
- The procurement team no longer needs to spend all day dealing with emails from 300+ sites with procurement requests
- This minimises rogue spending and incorrect orders
- Having a credit account means no credit card is required for online purchases and invoices are raised for your accounts payable department
- For customers who regularly order large amounts of products, we can agree preferential pricing.
The benefits of utilising the PunchOut system are more wide-reaching:
- Lowered transaction costs via automation and streamlined workflows
- Elevated shopping experience through integrated and personalised eCommerce
- Boosted productivity for procurement specialists
- Increased transaction speed with shortened purchase cycles.
The logistics company doesn’t have a central procurement department, instead each site is responsible for its own procurement. The existing setup is that buyers need to obtain a quotation from us, raise a purchase order and then get invoiced for the products bought. Offering this new streamlined process utilising PunchOut will enable the customer to focus on one supplier for spill care across its UK sites and reduce the number of suppliers in the supply chain.
Are You a Multi-Site Organisation?
Could a bespoke ordering system streamline your purchasing process and create efficiencies that save time and money?
Get in touch with our friendly sales team to discuss how we could find a solution that works for your business.
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