ALLPOINTS FIBRE NETWORKS
“Data has become one of the really big differentiators in the industry”
NATALIA MERKULOVA, FINANCE DIRECTOR, ALLPOINTS FIBRE
To enable automation and enhance the benefits from collaboration across the functions, APFN implemented three key technologies: DeepStream as the buy-in platform; Oracle NetSuite as the ERP system; and Gatekeeper as the in-life contract management portal.
“ Initially, everything was – as is the case within most procurement teams around the world – Office 365 and email-based,” says Stuart.“ It became quite evident, when we were trying to run 40-50 concurrent sourcing events, that this wasn’ t sustainable.”
APFN’ s response was to search for a piece of software that could automate the process and it spent almost five months evaluating the market before identifying DeepStream, which links through an app to Oracle NetSuite. The business can now submit multiple tenders with numerous suppliers through a single user interface, allowing questions and answers from suppliers to be pushed back out on a mass scale.
Expanding on the ERP element, Natalia adds:“ Our approach is to define and implement the new process first and only once the processes are tested and fine-tuned post implementation can they be automated. The teams have spent a lot of time documenting what’ s called P2P2P: procure-to-purchase and purchase-to-pay, with the first part sitting in procurement and the second in finance.”
Stuart adds:“ That’ s the backbone of our procurement-finance interaction. The process was written and then the next step was to configure our ERP system to support it.”
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