Procurement processes and the supply chains they support are under enormous strain, but this is not the time for crisis-mode operations. Businesses must go even further by redefining their procurement functions, how they operate with agility, and which capabilities are needed – and SAP Preferred Success is ready to help deliver them all.
Businesses worldwide count on their procurement functions to solve complex problems. From ensuring compliance and sustainability, increasing customer satisfaction, and reaching strategic goals, this area has long served as a proponent of recovering profitability, preserving cash, de-risking production and delivery, and pivoting with market dynamics.
While still a crucial player in disruption mitigation, procurement leaders need to face today’s volatile economy with a completely new approach. Region-specific shutdowns, material shortages, consumer behavioral shifts, and forced social distancing – all these concerns and more require transparent operations, immediate access to alternative suppliers, optimized contracts, demand predictability, and widespread digital collaboration.
For many SAP customers, this much-needed edge is found in the cloud with SAP Ariba solutions. And some of them are benefiting from the guidance and support of the SAP Preferred Success offering as they become faster, leaner, and more flexible when tackling disruptions with valuable outcomes.
Disruption Redefined
User adoption and consumption are critical factors for successful cloud implementations. SAP Ariba solutions are no exception, especially as procurement functions strategically guide the business through any crisis. But more importantly, the flexibility to pivot as quickly and drastically as needed is tremendously critical.
With SAP Preferred Success, our customers can achieve the best of both worlds. Our portfolio of SAP Ariba solutions is tremendously comprehensive – covering all aspects of sourcing and procurement, including payment. However, few companies need to consume every capability all at once. Instead, our companies gain the greatest value from the solutions by taking a targeted, phased approach.
As the underlying foundation of incrementally deploying SAP Ariba solutions, SAP Preferred Success offers insight-driven, prescriptive guidance and support for adopting capabilities that address present requirements, scaling as circumstances evolve, and turning on new features as businesses grow. These success plans also detail how the customer, its partner, and SAP should work together to maximize the value of the digital investment.
At SAP, we also understand that fully digitalizing procurement operations in the cloud is best supported by a change management process that is clear and measurable. A dedicated customer success manager works directly and regularly with the customer to help ensure all objectives for implementing and using SAP Ariba solutions are achieved and scaled optimally. During this time, we modify the success plan to match current and future use of the cloud solutions to the business’s uniquely evolving nature.
From Tactical Operations to Strategic Protectors
With SAP Preferred Success, growth priorities, innovation cycle times, and supplier risk management no longer get lost in the minutia of navigating disruption. Now, they can be aligned with evolving economic, marketing, and business dynamics so that ordered goods and services meet every customer’s needs – no matter how disruptive the market landscape.
Get more real-life insights on SAP Preferred Success in this weekly series, Heading to the Cloud with SAP Preferred Success, and learn how various parts of your company – from HR and finance to sales, marketing, and the supply chain – can accelerate cloud adoption and business outcomes with insight-driven, prescriptive, and personalized guidance and support.
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Alex Orosz is a business development and go-to-market lead for SAP Preferred Success.
John Wagner Jr. is a global practice lead for SAP Preferred Success at SAP.
