Transforming a complex procurement business into an automated, process-driven operation

Introduction

Gauteng-based Griffin Procurement Services offers customised project procurement and logistics solutions to construction, oil and gas, mining, tourism, forestry, agriculture and commerce companies across southern Africa. To ensure reliable, timeous and customised delivery of cross-border projects in remote sites, the company needs an efficient information management backbone.

Business challenge

Based on its years of experience in challenging operating environments, Griffin Procurement Services developed a set of processes and procedures to help clients to manage the complex moving parts of procurement in remote locations in southern Africa. However, the systems and processes driving its business were cumbersome and fragmented, and the high levels of manual intervention required in each process made it difficult to scale and grow.

Though Griffin Procurement Services wanted to automate its workflow, it struggled to identify a solution that would support the complexities of its business. Most “off-the-shelf” solutions evaluated were designed to support procurement processes based on predefined inventory. But since two-thirds of the items Griffin Procurement Services procures for customers are once-off purchases, a solution based on inventory lists would not be a good fit for the company.

What’s more, Griffin Procurement Services could not identify a suitable integrated solution that would enable it to automate its end-to-end business, from quoting and ordering to invoicing, shipping and payments. Document management had also become complex and unwieldy, due to the sheer volume of paperwork involved in procurement.

Solution

When Griffin Procurement Services came across the process automation and enterprise content management solution – supplied through Kyocera Document Solutions South Africa – it recognised that the platform was exactly what it had been looking for. Griffin Procurement Services decided to implement this ECM solution as a standardised, automated and scalable platform that would save money for the business and time for its people.

Griffin Procurement Services is using the process-driven workflows to automate processes across quoting, ordering and payments. Key features of the solution include easy sharing of information, security through user and access control, audit trails, centralised administration, collaboration and rich reporting capabilities.

Kyocera Document Solutions South Africa and Griffin Procurement Services invested a great deal of effort in the initial scoping of the project to understand the complex processes driving the business, as well as the expected outcomes. This helped to smooth out the implementation process. After initial installation, Kyocera and Griffin Procurement Services worked closely to design, test and refine processes to ensure the best possible outcomes.

Business benefits

The implementation of the ECM solution has enabled Griffin Procurement Services to shift from user-driven processes to process-driven operations with the following benefits:

• Streamlined document generation – Documents are generated in less time, with a consistent, professional look and feel.
• Efficient document management and storage – Electronic documents are saved in a central, searchable repository. It is easier to share documents electronically, without needing to e-mail or scan them.
• Accountable collaboration – The solution enables simple allocation of tasks to team members, with monitoring, follow-up, checking and enforcement of accountability.
• Tighter controls – This implementation has enabled far greater levels of control over processes, such as payments.
• Faster turnaround times – The ECM solution has improved turnaround times by 60% across payments and quoting.
• Scalability for growth – Griffin Procurement Services can now take on more clients easily without adding overhead costs.
• Improved accuracy – Information only required to be captured once and most data capture errors have been eliminated.
• Better planning and organisation – The ECM solution has made planning and organisation across complex processes easier, faster and more accurate.
• Discipline – The ECM solution enforces process discipline and ensures that procedures are followed.

“Kyocera went beyond what was reasonably expected in terms of our process automation. There were some unexpected obstacles at the start of the project, but Kyocera stepped up and worked hard at finding the right solution for us,” said Louise Jones, Business Development Director at Griffin Procurement Services.