Project Overview
Working with our customer’s Procurement team we developed a solution to manage approved suppliers to the business and help employees identify appropriate suppliers and access relevant information with a few steps as possible.
Microsoft Services
Requirement
Providing a self-serve, streamlined user experience for business users
The main objective for this solution was to create an ‘Amazon-like’ experience for internal stakeholders looking to find the most appropriate suppliers for specific products or services with as few clicks as possible.
- Streamline process for identifying approved suppliers in the business
- Ensure that listed suppliers are approved to work with specific business units
- Provide a simple and intuitive user experience requiring zero training as solution would be ultimately rolled out to the entire organisation
- Minimise admin overhead for procurement team previously spending significant time in communicating supplier info manually to business stakeholders
Solution
Modernising a manual process in the procurement department
The approach included a custom SharePoint list for creating and managing supplier profile records. The SharePoint list was connected to a custom Canvas Power app enabling internal stakeholders across the business to find approved suppliers and access their contact details in a self-serve manner.
- A custom SharePoint List with records to store and manage approved supplier records with metadata in a lean and scalable structure
- Supplier metadata included contact details and classification information that streamlined end user search and admin record creation and management
- A custom Canvas Power App connected to the SharePoint list enabling users to find and access approved supplier information and contact details
- Power App included filters and search options to enable quick search and identification of appropriate suppliers per business unit and associated category
- Power App optimised for mobile users to enable quick access on the go
Outcome
Enhanced employee experience and improved process efficiency
The solution has been successfully adopted by the Procurement team that already onboarded and made live the list of suppliers for the organisation’s Asset Management business unit, with other business units scheduled to follow in subsequent rollout phases.
- Positive feedback from initial adoption phase by employees utilising the app to identify suitable suppliers without the need for specific training
- Simplified user experience for Procurement admins who are able to add new suppliers into the live database within just a few minutes
- Significant decrease in admin overhead for Procurement team saving several hours every week previously spent in communicating with business stakeholders to answer questions and provide supplier info via email and Teams messages
“This is exactly what we wanted!”
Helen, Procurement Business Partner