Ariba – procurement transformation to increase value for customers and owners
Circle K identified a significant efficiency loss of up to 80% in their procurement processes compared to best practice procurement operators:
- Significant time to manually process, investigate and approve invoices
- Up to 17 times more time consuming than the best in class benchmarks
Objectives of the project
Ariba was chosen as the best full suite solution for the procurement function. Stretch was selected as the implementation partner to work with Circle K to achieve:
- One common solution for registering all Sourcing initiatives and Contracts
- Increase spend visibility and supplier control to avoid contract breach
- One common solution for order and payment of “indirect” products for all users
- Enable end-users to make orders directly to the supplier via contracts or catalogues
- Make invoice processing more efficient and increase invoice automation and quality
Stretch role and involvement
Stretch’s was responsible for implementing the Ariba solution across Circle K in Europe. Stretch delivered program- and project management together with Circle K, provided functional and technical expertise and gave guidance for the rollout approach. Stretch delivered organizational change management and support services to the business.
The implementation included the entire Ariba suite from Sourcing and Contract Management to operational procurement solutions like Ariba Procure2Order and Procure2Pay.
Achievement
Through this program Circle K achieved global spend coverage through better spend visibility, compliance towards negotiated prices, and more effective end-to-end and self-service procurement processes (Source to Pay). Experienced Stretch consultants, working closely together with Circle K, and with a close relationship with SAP Ariba, has been critical to help Circle K achieve expected benefits as increased compliance and control, preferred supplier loyalty and transparency, improvements in sourcing strategy and one standard Procurement process.
About Circle K
Circle K is a part of the Canadian company Couche Tard and owns and operates with over 15.000 gas stations across Europe and North America, and over 2.500 stations in Poland, Russia and Ireland. The network is composed of different types of stations – from small, local merchants with a couple of gas pumps to large service centers with a wide range of goods and services.