SoftwareOne case study
Automated workflows speed up SAP's software procurement process
Simplifying software license management & streamlining procurement needs with PyraCloud
SAP’s intentions were to align with SoftwareOne on its strategy for cloud solutions as well as on a general technical level. This was a clear requirement from the start as the complexity in the processes and the volume of transactions can be handled only with intelligent automation.
Consolidating all software purchases under a single, global partner greatly improved the management of software purchases, ultimately enabling users to receive their business productivity software faster due to SoftwareOne’s streamlined automated processes.
- Client
- SAP SE
- Industry
- Information technology
- Services
- Business-to-Business integration services for SAP’s e-procurement system with SoftwareOne’s PyraCloud
- Country
- Germany
We work with SoftwareOne on a regular basis and its processes are integrated into our procurement systems. Excluding our internal orders, we process more than 3,500 software purchase orders a year – and this can be done only with intelligent automation and a close working relationship with a partner like SoftwareOne.
Richard Kobayashi
SAP IT Procurement
About the client
As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 365,000 business and public sector customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably.
The challenge
Prevent manual processes from causing bottlenecks in workflow communication.
We needed to consolidate under a single partner that fully understood the vastness of our software purchasing needs, which include not only processing quotes but also providing licensing expertise as well as managed services surrounding the validation of license terms.– Richard Kobayashi, SAP IT Procurement
SAP, one of the world’s largest providers of enterprise application software, had a variety of ad hoc software reselling partners contributing to its software portfolio. Because SAP is a massive global organization with nearly 80,000 employees across 130 countries, maintaining effective and consistent communication is a major requirement.
Furthermore, having several purchasing entities within the organization working in conjunction with various resellers can cause challenges related to quality and cost awareness. In all cases, compliance must be upheld across the entire organization. These challenges are mitigated by working with a single software reseller. That was the impetus for a rigorous RFP process where SAP selected SoftwareOne and reduced the number of resellers from more than 40 to this single preferred reseller.
Automating local country regulations and customer validations in a global message choreography was also a challenge, so those requirements needed to be well defined.
The solution
Use a single partner with automated workflows to improve data quality.
Like SAP, SoftwareOne is a global organization with several locations in major markets, which contributed to our selection of SoftwareOne as our global reseller.
– Richard Kobayashi, SAP IT Procurement
As in any fast-paced business, software users need their business productivity tools immediately. With more than 40 resellers across the globe, SAP needed to change its strategy. It began searching for a single partner capable of streamlining its procurement workflow by reducing the manual overhead in the purchasing process.
SoftwareOne’s flagship product – the PyraCloud Platform – is fully compatible with SAP Ariba procurement software as an integrated e-procurement solution. This integration helps to simplify software license management and streamline procurement needs.
SAP’s orders and invoices are now exchanged globally between PyraCloud and SAP through SAP Ariba software, giving stakeholders clear visibility into the status of orders at all times, speeding up the procure-to-pay process, and ensuring high data quality.
PyraCloud is a globally connected software procurement platform that provides real-time, single-point access to all software license and agreement information with advanced reporting analytics.
From installation to renewal, organizations can maintain complete visibility into their software assets throughout the entire lifecycle.
Since we started working with SoftwareOne as our preferred software procurement partner, data quality issues on invoices have dropped to nearly 0%, thanks to SoftwareOne’s processes and services in conjunction with the PO and invoice integration using SAP Ariba solutions.
SoftwareOne’s reliability has freed up significant time for our teams to work on more pressing tasks than data quality checks.
– Richard Kobayashi, SAP IT Procurement
From PyraCloud’s vast feature set, SAP uses the following services to meet its requirements:
- Individual customer validations on transactional data and granular escalation options
- Global support with local contacts
- Tracking of the start, end, and renewal dates to help maintain compliance
- Thorough compliance check services for end-user license agreements tailored to individual customer requirements
- Software asset management reporting for individual customers
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