Media giant saves money by increasing on-contract spending more than 80%

08.11.2022

by Varis

Media giant saves money by increasing on-contract spending more than 80%

Number of Requisitioners

Approx. 30,000

Number of Approvers

Approx. 3,500

Core Financial System

SAP

Integrations

SAP SRM

Service Categories Enabled

25+

Company Background

For generations people have counted on this Varis client to meet their media and entertainment needs. The client’s focus on delighting audiences makes it vitally important that they are not wasting resources that could be used to support their core mission. Employing tens of thousands of people, this Varis client has more than 40,000 separate supply vendors for their diverse portfolio of physical and digital properties. Annually, they spend more than $4 billion dollars globally across all their preferred suppliers.

Challenge

With such buying power, the client is able to negotiate top-notch pricing contracts. But with more than 30,000 employees requesting purchases (along with 3,500+ approvers), educating and updating all those employees was taxing. In addition, their existing indirect purchasing system was based on old technology. It was inflexible, rife with inefficiencies, and offered no direct connection between purchasers and approvers. This caused limited adoption and sparse category coverage. Too many departments had to create their own ad-hoc procurement systems specifically focusing on their own purchasing needs. With limited interdepartmental communication, these siloed systems were inefficient as well as wasting money and resources.

What they needed was a centralized system for all employees that was easy-to-use, utilized pre-negotiated pricing, and provided a clear workflow between purchaser and approver. Enter Varis.

Solution

In less than four months, Varis™ (formerly BuyersQuest®) delivered a powerful, yet familiar, purchasing system that was instantly intuitive for anyone who buys online. The client’s employees can search products, check pricing, and add required items to their shopping carts. Once ordered, purchase requests are sent for approvals (if required) or instantly to vendors for shipment.

It’s amazing. Nobody on my staff needed any training,” says one procurement team member “They just started using it with no problems!

And Varis integrated fully with the client’s existing SAP supplier relationship management (SRM).

The easy-to-use interface is only the outward face of Varis’ robust purchasing technology. All vendor items can be chosen by category, price, department, etc. Pictures/diagrams can also be included so that buyers choose the correct item every time.

The way the search box actually tells you what you are searching for while you are typing is really cool,” commented one user.

Purchasing can also be customized for each department, so they can each have their own unique self-service shopping experience. Each user can purchase the items they need at their lowest contract price every time.

“Getting orders processed through approvals is much faster. We just set the rules up and Varis automates everything.”

Procurement team member

Results

The company’s curated private marketplace went live across multiple business units without the need for any end user training. Within the first seven days user adoption metrics passed an all-time high for this client. Within 30 days, more than 15,000 active users made purchases, and in less than a year, on-contract spending increased from 48% to 98%. Since then, user adoption and the number of purchasing transactions have continued to grow at a brisk pace Within six months, the client achieved their full year cost savings and rebate targets.