Source to Pay systems / software and ERP implementation

Hi,

This is regarding a Source to Pay software and ERP implementation consulting project for one of our clients and we are looking for experts who can assist us in deriving possible solutions to address client’s current scenario.

Project background: We are a Procurement Consulting firm and one of our Pharma clients is planning to move to a new ERP from existing SAP ERP. They have operations in US, Europe and Asia and each region currently follows different ERPs and different Source to Pay tools from multiple tool providers like Zycus, Ariba etc.

The objective of this project is to identify how the Source to Pay tools should be linked to changes to a common global ERP implementation strategy – including alignment of timing between a common global ERP implementation and Source to Pay tool implementation. Client have identified 3 options for S2P implementation considering their need to align with their plan for a common Global ERP implementation. We need your inputs to the bullet points below which starts with  “Question to expert”

      • Option 1- Use a single tool provider for all modules within S2P across countries and regions

      • Option 2- Use only specific modules of a single S2P tool provider be common across all countries and regions

o Question to expert: 
We suggested them to consider Supplier Information Management and Contracting tool to be kept common or standardized across locations for efficient data management. However, they are asking if there is a global ERP implementation with global Chart of Accounts, Material Groups etc., would it then be critical to have the same global purchase req, PO, invoice Source to Pay modules?

      • Option 3- Allow all countries to choose their own Source to Pay tool and then have a higher level system/tool to pull key information from each local system and aggregate globally

o Question to expert: 

They want to know what steps needs to be followed to achieve this in terms of aggregating the spend data from each system across location?

o Question to expert: 

What tools should be considered for this option? Will just deploying a Spend analysis tool help them achieve this and how?

• Question to expert: 

Can you also tie Options 1, 2 & 3 with which may make more sense if an ERP implementation is global with global Chart of Accounts, Material Groups…….vs………an ERP implementation which is regional with no common Global Chart of Accounts, Material Groups?

• Question to expert: Can you comment on the dependency of the Source to Pay Strategy (e.g. Options 1, 2 & 3) on the Global ERP strategy and the need for the workstreams to be linked?

• Question to expert: What are the incremental steps to be taken by client to drive this S2P tool and Global ERP strategy implementation?

o Example: Finding the capabilities of new ERP (example: SAP HANA), Hiring a third party Technology consultant, suggesting when implementation partners should come in etc.

We would like to engage with highly experienced experts who have work experience in handling Procurement System transformation and implementation only. We want inputs based on your experience only please and not any information from secondary sources. Please respond back at the earliest if you can help us with this project.