Company | Industry | Company Size | Revenue |
---|---|---|---|
Woolworths Group Limited | Retail | 215,000 | A$63 billion |
Executive Overview
On a mission to deliver the best in convenience, value, and quality, Woolworths Group Limited operates a diverse group of retail businesses, some of which are among Australia's most recognized and trusted brands.On a multiyear journey to digitalize its operations, Woolworths sought to modernize its procurement business. The organization wanted to establish a strong foundation to simplify non-trade purchasing transactions. To get there, Woolworths needed an end-to-end procurement solution to help it deliver strategic value and ensure the buying process is compliant with procurement policies to minimize risk.
Before: Challenges and Opportunities
- Transform procurement operations to improve strategic capability and efficiency
- Orient procurement operations to stakeholders and significantly improve the user experience in line with its culture as a customer-first, team-first organization
- Eliminate inefficient processes and align purchasing decisions with procurement policies to minimize risk
Why SAP
- Part of a wider digital transformation using multiple SAP solutions
- One centralized platform to manage procurement activity and standardize non-trade purchasing processes using SAP Ariba solutions
- Future-focused cloud platform and ease of integration with other SAP solutions
After: Value-Driven Results
- Streamlined and standardized procurement processes, enhancing the user experience for stakeholders
- Realized efficiencies through automation, digitalization, and integration
- Deployed an intuitive guided buying capability to 1,050 stores across Australia, freeing team members to focus on contributing to a better experience for customers
- Improved payment terms for small suppliers, helping the organization support smaller supplier partners during the time of COVID-19
-
83.6%
Of non-trade purchasing transactions made against a catalog or contract
-
>4,000
Active users of SAP Ariba solutions supported
-
99.7%
Of non-trade suppliers paid on time
Success Story
Elevating the End-User Experience to Heighten Procurement Efficiency and Capability
Using SAP Ariba solutions to manage A$6 billion in spend, Woolworths Group Limited is paying its suppliers on time, increasing suppliers' confidence in Woolworths as a business partner, and helping the organization negotiate better deals. Even a significant majority of its small supplier partner invoices are being paid on time despite their varying levels of technology maturity. Given the impact of COVID-19 on small businesses, it has been particularly important for the organization to ensure small supplier partners are paid promptly.
In line with its customer-first, team-first mantra, the rollout of a guided buying capability across 1,100 stores in Australia is empowering team members to quickly and easily buy goods and services from preferred suppliers with minimal support from procurement teams. Within one month of the rollout, Woolworths achieved ordering channel compliance in excess of 90% and is on its way to reaching full compliance.
With a customer engagement executive helping Woolworths make the right deployment decisions and product management providing strategic guidance through design thinking sessions, the company is now focusing on deploying the SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance solution across the group.
Thanks to its intuitive, user-friendly interface, we successfully rolled out a guided buying capability to 1,050 stores across Australia, providing only a simple one-page user guide as support. As further testament to its ease of use, we have a large number of suppliers transacting with us over Ariba Network.Phil McDonald GM, Group Procurement, Woolworths Group Limited

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