Torben Draeger, financial key user and business analyst at Sysmex Europe, explained the objective of implementing a new solution, “We wanted to have linkage between the purchase requisition process and SAP as part of our purchase-to-pay processes, providing a real-time check on budget availability for both the person submitting the requisition and the approvers. We also wanted to eliminate the need to key in purchase order information twice, which is prone to error and time-consuming.”
Sysmex had already selected OpenText™ Business Center for SAP® Solutions for its support of SAP Fiori® . Combined with OpenText™ Vendor Invoice Management for SAP® Solutions, the two are able to meet the challenges for its second project, New Request Process, or NRP.
“We decided to use Business Center for SAP Solutions and its support of SAP Fiori applications, which we can develop, to best meet our needs for mobility, flexibility and user-friendliness,” said Draeger. “By extending our use of OpenText, we also take advantage of existing knowledge within the business and the two solutions use existing hardware, thereby minimizing the cost.”
Using SAP Fiori applications developed by OpenText, the purchase order approval process is delivered in an intuitive user interface requiring very little training, fewer than 30 minutes in most cases, which has led to high user adoption rates.
“When an order is sent for approval, the approver can easily and quickly confirm the availability of budget for the particular cost center,” said Draeger. “It is then a simple process to approve or reject the request, automatically moving the process on to the next step in line with our corporate signature policy and all instantly captured in SAP. Also, a full audit trail is maintained, which is essential for our auditors. This gives us greater control and is helping us reduce our overall costs.”
Adhering to policy and keeping a record of each step is key to Sysmex Europe meeting its obligations under quality control standards, such as ISO. It is important this is enforced, as each business function at Sysmex Europe manages its own general expenditure, with no centralized purchasing function. By deploying the Fiori applications in this way, it will be able to consistently provide scale for all regions in EMEA.