Outcome Driven Solutions

Procurement Request Operations

Streamline request to delivery processes,
lower costs, and reduce maverick spend

Procurement Request Operations (PRO) are the processes from request initiation to fulfillment. This includes a guided shopping experience, streamlined catalog strategies, optimized approval processes, delivery, and receipt confirmation.

‘Best Practice’ PRO are integrated with Purchasing Solutions such as Ariba and Coupa, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platforms, and supply chain management tools. These connections enhance operational efficiency, unlock new insights, improve employee satisfaction, and eliminate overhead associated with downstream efforts.

ODS uses Procurement Request workflows to cut delivery times by as much as 80%, provide ‘Touchless’ request-to-delivery, reduce maverick spend, and reduce costs and overhead.

Case Study: Procurement Request Operations
with ServiceNow Source-to-Pay

A Global Research & Information Company faced significant inefficiencies in its request operations, which led to uncontrolled spending, compliance risks, and operational bottlenecks. The company struggled with manual workflows, tribal knowledge dependencies, and a lack of visibility in its request processes. Employees frequently bypassed procurement channels, leading to increased “maverick spending,” requests often suffered from unnecessary delays due to cumbersome approval processes.

Challenges Before ServiceNow Source-to-Pay

  1. Disorganized Request Processes: Requests were submitted through various channels, including emails, portals, phone calls, and in-person requests, making it difficult to track, prioritize, and manage the work.
  2. Approval Inefficiencies: Approvals contributed significantly to the overall request cycle duration, with some requests requiring multiple and/or unnecessary approvals and others experiencing delays waiting for “rubber-stamp” approvals.
  3. “Maverick Spend”: Users frequently bypassed official procurement channels, contributing to unmanaged spend and higher goods and services costs with greater risk exposure.
  4. Limited Visibility and Tracking: The lack of integrated workflows resulted in a loss of visibility and accountability.
  5. Dependency on Tribal Knowledge: Request processes depended on individuals’ experience and training. Gaps in knowledge created delays, compliance risks, and higher costs.
  6. Inventory Shrinkage: Ineffective and limited receiving processes led to lost inventory and redundant purchases.

Why They Chose ServiceNow Source-to-Pay

After considering several options, they chose ServiceNow Source-to-Pay because it offered the right balance of capabilities for their requirements:

  1. ShoppingHub: An end-user portal centralized requests for new product inquiries, purchase requests, and returns.
  2. Procurement Workspace: “A single pane of glass” provides an organized and prioritized view to simplify work management for each procurement team member and the procurement team as a whole.
  3. Request Automation: Replacing manual activities with process automation and mobile accessibility streamlined request submissions and approvals.
  4. Touchless Request-to-Delivery: Select high-volume, low-risk products were identified for the “touchless” process. Negotiated pricing with selected vendors allows products to move from request to purchase order (PO) without manual touchpoints.
  5. Improved Spend Management: Simplified intake processes encourage placing requests through proper channels, while enhanced visibility provides the accountability to corral Maverick spend.
  6. Playbook Automation: Playbooks lead team members through procurement activities, minimizing the requirements for training, reducing potential errors, and increasing adherence to policies.
  7. Guided Shopping Experience: Employees experience a seamless ordering experience, similar to popular e-commerce platforms, including the progress of their order from request through delivery.
  8. Automated Inventory Management: Intelligent algorithms dynamically adjust thresholds and place requests for inventory replenishment, reducing the effort to manage inventory levels closely.
  9. Simplified Receiving: End users quickly acknowledge receipt of products and services from their computer or mobile device through the ShoppingHub or email. Better receiving reduced inventory losses and redundant purchases.
  10. Enhanced IT Oversight: Approval decision tables trigger IT review and approval on new models and certain classes of IT products to ensure requests align with organizational standards.

Measured Results from First Year in Production

1st Year Spend Recovered: $2.7 million

1st Year Time Recovered: 7,452 hours

Go Live: 4 Months

Days to Break Even*: 86

These metrics underscore the rapid ROI and tangible value that you can unlock using ServiceNow Source-to-Pay.
Customers typically ramp up to even greater savings in years 2 and 3.

Outcomes Delivered After Source-to-Pay

Benefits To the Procurement Team

Overall Benefits
  1. Enhanced Spend Management: Simplified requested processes and enhanced accountability enabled Procurement to increase spending under management by reining a significant amount of bypass spend.
  2. Improved Compliance and Accountability: Enhanced visibility enabled management to drive compliance with corporate procurement and contracting policies.
  3. Foundation for Advanced Analytics: Harmonized spend data in a single platform provides the structure needed for advanced analytics and better decision-making.
  4. Empowered Request Teams: Streamlined workflows and eliminating menial tasks enable team members to manage growing request volume while increasing their focus on strategic initiatives.
  5. Efficient Inventory Management: Intelligent algorithms replaced manual processes for optimized inventory control and minimized waste.
  6. Proactive IT Involvement: Ensured early IT involvement during request approvals to control complexity and minimize downstream support costs.
Benefits to Procurement Team
  1. Workflow Automation: Streamlined workflows and automation of manual processes allowed procurement teams to focus on high-value tasks.
  2. Process Transparency: Enhanced visibility into the request process along with management reporting drove accountability, resulting in a reduction of uncontrolled spend.
  3. Documented Compliance: Auditable workflow processes ensure compliance with corporate procurement and contracting policies.
Benefits to Technology Team
  1. Proactive IT Involvement: Ensured early IT involvement during request approvals to control complexity and minimize downstream support costs.
  2. Incident Integration: Allows IT support teams to initiate requests for replacement equipment from incidents directly.
  3. Proactive Project Notifications: Status changes on project procurement requests can automatically trigger notifications for Project Managers to simplify project management.
  4. Reduced Support Costs: Early engagement facilitates IT management of technology standards for reduced complexity and lower downstream support costs.

Benefits to the Technology Team

  1. Adherence to Risk Policies
    • Outsourced technology partners fully aligned with IT security and data privacy requirements
  2. Faster Access to New Technologies
    • Streamlined onboarding accelerates proof-of-concept and go-to-market timelines
  3. Real-Time Performance Tracking
    • Live dashboards instill confidence in vendor performance and reliability
  4. Structured Backup Plans
    • Clear supply chain resiliency measures reduce downtime during disruptions
  5. Early Access to Emerging Technologies
    • Stronger relationships with key vendors secured first-look opportunities and market differentiation

Conclusion

Procurement request operations have improved efficiency and accountability across our organization.

With streamlined workflows, enhanced automation, and greater coordination between Procurement and IT, the company is well-positioned for growth and scalability in its request operations.

Customer Testimonial

“ServiceNow source-to-pay has completely transformed the way we handle requests. Automation and streamlined processes have reduced costs and improved operational efficiency. Our teams now have better visibility and control. With improved compliance with procurement policy, we manage more of the organization’s spending and can focus on strategic initiatives. It’s been a game-changer for our organization.”

Key Takeaways & Next Steps

  • Actionable Tip: Start with an ROI analysis to establish benchmarks for tracking your results. If you need assistance, ODS has calculators that provide ROI estimates based on standardized practices and decades of previous experience.
  • Benchmarking: Regularly assess your progress with BI Analytics to track project alignment with expectations, avoid surprises, and optimize return on investments.

With the right technology and a clear, outcome-focused roadmap, organizations can achieve rapid, sustainable gains in procurement efficiency and ROI using ServiceNow Supplier Lifecycle operations.

Some incremental outcomes delivered ODS:

Lower Processing Costs by
25-40%
Accelerate Delivery Times by
40-50%
Streamlined Request-to-Delivery
ODS can help you transform your request-to-delivery process into a seamless experience through automated workflows, which minimizes the need for manual intervention and speeds up delivery times. By enhancing transparency, your employees can easily track their requests and orders through user-friendly self-service portals and mobile devices, fostering a sense of trust and reliability in the process. Implementing standardization for products and services simplifies vendor management and alleviates common inventory issues, leading to streamlined operations. With instant access to crucial information at their fingertips, your organization has command of the process, driving your teams toward improved efficiencies and effectiveness in its operations.
Realize savings
of 5% to 16%
Enhanced Spend Under Management
Spend Under Management refers to the proportion of an organization’s total expenditure that is actively overseen by the procurement function in accordance with company principles. A recent survey shows that over 20% of corporate spend is not managed by the Procurement team. Reasons for this include fragmented systems, clunky workflows, and slow (often manual) communications. ODS extends ServiceNow capabilities to ensure procurement policy compliance, enhance spending patterns visibility, and strengthen supplier relationships. By increasing SUM, organizations can mitigate unauthorized or ‘maverick’ spending, leading to better pricing, more favorable contract terms, and overall cost savings.
 

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We are so happy we picked ODS as our partner. Their Procurement and Sourcing experience allowed us to understand the downstream effects of our decisions and corralled a lot of people to get on board.

They also brought their own prebuilt configurations that allowed us to accelerate delivery times by 40% and cut processing costs across the board by 30%!

William D, Healthcare Procurement Manager

TESTIMONIALS

What Clients Say About Us

  • 200% Return on Investment
Disconnected visibility prevented us from taking advantage of volume purchase opportunities. Our team was also wasting 20% of their time on unfunded requests. On top of that, we were paying maintenance on expired infrastructure. We identified savings in the first 12 months that provided us with over 200% Return on Investment!
  • Reduced Efforts by 80%
We no longer blindly overspend our budgets because we have current information at our fingertips; we know what was approved, what has been committed, and our actual spend. After having the solution in place, our tracking efforts have been reduced by over 80%. In total, we've recovered the equivalent of 3 FTEs.
  • Doubled Team Productivity
We have a self-service portal so our consumers can view current status on-demand and make requests with real-time updates.
The level of trust between IT and the rest of the University increased overnight. Doubling the productivity of our teams while making our consumers happier made this a no-brainer.

Want to know your potential savings?

Only ODS has pre-built ROI estimators for the some of the strongest Source-to-Pay. savings categories

We provide our estimates free of charge with no strings attached to every ServiceNow customer.

We want to help them see why we believe Source-to-Pay is one of the smartest ways to maximize the value of ServiceNow