• Headquartered in Aberdeen, UK
• Three decades of SAP experience
• Implementations and project delivery across 40 countries
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• Neptune Software Silver Partner

Decentralized, manual processes have long been a sticking point for organizations around the globe, especially when it comes to procurement.

Managing indirect material and service procurement, while ensuring compliance with the approval processes and controlling spend, isn’t easy when users and suppliers are in various locations and purchase requests and receipts are scattered across the organization. And those who have been using older versions of SAP Supplier Relationship Management need a simple, clear upgrade path to take their processes mobile and provide a superior user experience now.

“We see customers who have been using SAP SRM5 and SAP ECC6 looking to evolve their self-service procurement strategies. That need typically includes the ability to go paperless, while reducing bottlenecks and better controlling costs,” says Björn Harzer, Solution Architect at Absoft. “They would like to gain digital transformation benefits quickly, without having to invest in an S/4HANA conversion right now.”

When a local railway company sought to replace its out-of-support SAP SRM5 solution and improve the SRM5 ‘classic’ shopping cart processes with a cost-effective self-service model, Absoft sprang into action.

“We looked at multiple solutions to this challenge, many of which were over the top, expensive and complicated, while not fully solving the problem,” says Björn. “With Neptune Software, within a week, we had a draft of the first app ready.”

First, they recreated the core procurement functionality, which included shopping cart capabilities, as well as internal catalogue management, approvals and receipts.

Using Neptune Software, Absoft developers had the power to use the same libraries for the user interface as Fiori, while taking advantage of agile, standard app templates, to finetune the user experience to every field the user sees.

The result was reports delivered through a modern dashboard set up to manage housekeeping efforts including:

• timely shopping cart approval
• accurate spend reporting
• outstanding deliveries instant checks and more

Consequently, users were able to access the apps from desktop, tablet or phone, using any browser.

Absoft Partner Solution, Absoft SSP, offers a cost-effective solution for self-service procurement as a standard add-on solution that’s built on the Neptune DX Platform and embedded in ECC6. That means fewer servers, and no interfaces, all while offering flexibility in approval workflow and customer requirements. Perhaps most importantly, it provides a user-friendly experience on web and mobile, giving employees the tools they need to simplify how work gets done.

Typically, users within these spaces don’t log on to SAP, and their workplace isn’t a desktop. And while many shoppers, managers and workers are not IT savvy, most of them use a smartphone in their personal lives.

“We created a best-practice-based solution that uses the same look and feel that users are used to and automated processes across the procurement lifecycle,” said Björn. “That includes the internal catalog, punchout catalog, free text and shop with limit, approvals, receipts and housekeeping reports, and even a vendor portal to expedite invoicing. And it’s all developed in a future-proof offering to support customers should they decide to make the switch to S/4HANA.”

“Ultimately, we sought to help our customers make procurement as simple as possible, giving them stronger negotiating competency/capacity in the process. With information instantly available in one place, they can funnel their procurement power for a given commodity in a way that drives higher cost-efficiency.”

“Neptune Software gives us the ability to build beautiful apps, taking away the grind of app building so we can focus on the business logic and speed development,” says Björn. “We don’t have to worry about how to deploy apps or manage versions. We just focus on designing the screen and putting the logic in the events.”

With Absoft Partner Solution, Absoft SSP, organizations can now manage the complete procurement process through modern, mobile processes – including requests, orders, approvals, invoicing and payment. This provides clearer, immediate insights on how and where they’re spending money.

Automated processes not only eliminate paper, but they also make it simple to access the tool from anywhere while improving the ability to standardize and enforce procurement processes without extending the turnaround times from requisition to order. For example – ensuring that approved or preferred vendors are chosen.

Mobile approvals and capture of delivery notes streamline efforts and help improve match rates for invoice receipts. Reporting and training are also easier because mobile access enables immediate visibility anytime, anywhere.

“Customers can be trained right in the production system. Training staff can simply show users how the self-service apps work and help them get logged in, and in less than two hours, they can post their first receipt,” says Björn. “Training can also be handled remotely, which is important with today’s dispersed workforce.”

“At Absoft, our unrivalled consultant knowledge and expertise, combined with Neptune Software’s template solutions and accelerators, uniquely position us to help our customers optimize operational processes, while maximizing the return on investment in SAP ERP,” says Björn.

“Neptune Software is the go-to solution for mobile enterprise apps for SAP-centric operations such as ECC6 and S/4HANA – it is quicker, cheaper, and simpler than any other solution. An in-house ABAP team can build apps for the business, without much additional effort, and use the features in SAP we all love, without having to deploy additional infrastructure, more interfaces, or more databases.”