COUPA, KIMBERLY-CLARK & KPMG
“ When I see Kimberly-Clark products on the shelf, or I see somebody using one of our products like a Kleenex or a diaper, it really resonates with me,” says Jeff Markey, VP of Digital Transformation.“ I know that I was a special part of bringing that to that person and providing that moment of care.”
One company, a thousand ways of working To understand why Aurora mattered, it helps to understand what came before it. Kimberly-Clark operates in approximately 165 countries, working with thousands of suppliers to keep shelves stocked with products consumers rely on every day. For years, that global footprint was managed through a patchwork of regional systems, each with its own tools, workflows and rules.
“ We had a very complex system environment, process environment, data environment, around all of our source-to-pay processes in the procurement space,” Jeff says.“ It was inefficient, it was expensive and it was not standard for no very good reason.”
Dawn felt that pain firsthand.“ Our global procurement managers were struggling every day to ensure that they were following localised processes and using local tools,” she says.“ That wasn’ t efficient. If it’ s not efficient, they’ re wasting time not delivering value for Kimberly-Clark, and instead trying to navigate the challenges that non-standard tools and processes create.”
“ I SPENT 30 YEARS HERE DREAMING ABOUT A GLOBAL PROCESS AND GLOBAL TOOLS FOR PROCUREMENT”
Dawn Fritzell Director of Global Procurement Digital Transformation Kimberly-Clark
The fix would not be a patch. It would mean rebuilding procurement from the ground up, on one platform, with one process, everywhere.
Building the backbone: One platform, one process Aurora’ s answer was deceptively simple to state and enormously difficult to execute: a single global process, running on a single global tool.“ One global process and one global tool and structure allows finance and procurement to work hand-in-hand with our suppliers to get the best value, not always the lowest cost, but the best value for Kimberly-Clark, while maintaining that supply long-term with the rigour and controls that are part of finance,” Dawn says.
Roberto Magana, Kimberly-Clark’ s Chief Procurement Officer, describes the shift in terms of visibility.“ A system like Coupa enables us to have transparency on everything we buy around the world, in real time,” Roberto says.
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