Assisted a Pharmaceutical Company in Designing, Launching and Monitoring a Procure-to-Pay Process Enabled :: Thought Leadership

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Assisted a Pharmaceutical Company in Designing, Launching and Monitoring a Procure-to-Pay Process Enabled
by SAP

A mid-sized pharmaceutical company was preparing for a company-wide launch of SAP procure-to-pay (P2P). The organization had minimal experience managing a major process redesign and a technology implementation. After the Go-Live date was repeatedly pushed back, the client engaged Archstone Consulting to provide support for procurement process redesign, project management and change management. The goal of Archstone’s work was to ensure the on-time, within budget launch of a basic, standardized and efficient p2p process that met business needs and facilitated compliance with SOX regulation and corporate policies.

The Client
Multi-billion dollar US pharmaceutical firm

The Challenge
The client had repeatedly pushed back the Go-Live date due to a number of challenges:

Business Requirements and Process Design: Initial stated requirements did not align with the needs of the business, which did not operate with a standard procurement process. Moreover, the project’s impact on other areas, (contract management, accounting, etc.) was not considered or well understood.
Project Management: Cross functional client teams and multiple outside consultant teams complicated ongoing project management. A formal Program Management Office (PMO) with clearly defined responsibilities and rules for escalation and issues management was not established.
Change Management: Lack of active support from executives coupled with the delayed timelines and failure to properly inform and engage the business, resulted in skepticism across the organization about the changes being implemented.

The Solution
Archstone course corrected the overall SAP implementation program by addressing these challenges with the following approach:

Business Requirements and Process Design: Developed standardized P2P process leveraging internal and external best practices and supported by technology to meet the functional requirements of the business (including associated roles and responsibilities)
Project Management: Established PMO with reporting workstream leads to ensure accountability of team, alignment to the project plan identifying key dependencies and associated risks, availability of resources, proper issue escalation, and facilitation of executive decision making. Developed governance model to measure compliance to process.
Change Management: Assessed the organization’s readiness for change through stakeholder interviews to develop a change management program. Implemented the program, which included communications planning, training, and post Go-Live support, to ensure acceptance of project goals, end-user adoption of changes and a smooth transition

The Results
The client successfully launched a standard and more efficient P2P process with proper controls and accountability. The project was completed on-time and on-budget and was viewed as a major success across the organization because the process:

Met the functional needs of the business
Provided controls to facilitate compliance with SOX and corporate policies
Improved efficiencies (automated and centralized certain manual processes, decreased number of transactions, automated notification, simplified invoice approval process, etc.)
Lowered P2P transaction costs