PROJECT BACKGROUND

Taking Sky’s procurement capability into the cloud

Following the merger of Sky UK with Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland, Sky’s Group Procurement team, under the leadership of Fabio Francalancia, Chief Procurement Officer, set out a bold vision: to create a next generation commercial purchasing function, building on a robust and digital focussed capability, by providing leading class tools and processes.

Accenture was asked to deliver a digitally transformed approach to Sourcing and Procurement that would enable efficiencies, drive compliance, and empower Sky’s procurement stakeholders to work more effectively and intuitively.

With user experience for the more than 10,000 users at the heart of the solution, SAP Ariba was chosen as the Procurement solution to enable Source to Goods Receipt processes in the cloud. A transformation was required to replace the legacy systems and processes in Italy, Germany and the UK with SAP Ariba as the common digital Sourcing and Procurement solution.

In order to truly set Sky’s Procurement function apart, the project needed to implement cutting edge tools such as the SAP Guided Buying solution - one of the first global deployments of this capability.

CLIENT PROFILE

Sky is one of the leading entertainment companies in Europe. In business for 27 years, the company now serves 22.9 million subscribers across Italy, Germany, Austria, the UK, Ireland and, most recently, Spain.

Offering its customers some of the best TV and film content available on the market, Sky is deeply committed to innovation. The company’s ethos of ‘Believe in Better’ reflects this commitment and is at the heart of its ongoing efforts to provide compelling customer experiences and more efficient business operations.

What’s more, the company believes that its people are fundamental to success. As a result, it is always looking at ways in which it can help employees do their best work, fulfil their potential and achieve great things.

Taking Sky’s procurement capability into the cloud

BUSINESS CHALLENGE

In 2014, Sky completed the acquisition of Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland. Merged with Sky UK, the larger businesses provided Sky with a broader customer base and a unified brand across Europe.

Fabio and his leadership team set out a bold ambition: to provide a world-leading procurement function, supported by leading edge digital tools, standardised processes and the best people, in order to help the newly formed group accelerate key merge synergies.

To ensure the businesses could come together effectively as a single organisation, Sky and Accenture designed a single, future procurement operating model.

This model demanded a joined-up approach to Sourcing and Procurement across all of Sky’s geographical operations with the aim of driving savings, increasing service quality, enabling compliance, and freeing Procurement to contribute to innovation. Sky also hoped to reduce duplication in the Procurement function through synergies and allow Sky’s people to focus on working with their business counterparts across geographies to drive increased value in their supply chain.

Additionally, Sky was looking to enable a Procurement function that is easy to do business with. The company therefore needed a system that would reduce complexity and enable seamless collaboration between internal customers, regardless of their office location, and the single pan-European Procurement team.

Finally, Sky hoped to put in place systems that were user-friendly; intuitive Procurement and Sourcing tools that would empower its Procurement team and users to work more effectively by providing easy access to the information needed to improve decision making and value generation. As a media and entertainment business, Sky well understands the power of user-enablement in making customer services more efficient and compelling; the challenge was to apply this same ethos to its Procurement tools.

Taking Sky’s procurement capability into the cloud

HOW ACCENTURE HELPED Sky selected Accenture based on its multiple-award-winning leadership in SAP Ariba - Sky’s chosen platform for Sourcing and Procurement - and Accenture’s credibility in driving business change in the fast-paced environment of a leading media organisation

Accenture was asked to devise a three-phase integration plan.

In the first phase, SAP Ariba Sourcing and Supplier Management was implemented for all three countries to create a single European platform for strategic sourcing.

In the second phase, SAP Ariba Contracts was deployed for all three countries, extending the already deployed strategic sourcing capabilities. SAP Ariba Buying and Guided Buying were also integrated with Sky’s existing ERP solutions in Germany and Italy to create a simple user-centric and common European Procurement solution that guides the users to the right buying channels and suppliers to achieve process, policy and contract compliance.

The third phase saw Accenture integrate the SAP Ariba applications with Sky’s new SAP ERP on HANA backend system for a streamlined end-to-end Procure to Pay solution, with the first deployment of the new end-to-end Procurement solution in the UK, followed by redeployments to Italy and Germany.

Critically, Sky wanted to realise benefits from the project from the outset and right across all three phases.

This wide-ranging project drew on all five of Accenture’s core business functions – Strategy, Consulting, Digital, Technology and Operations – as the company worked as a true strategic partner in realising Sky’s ambitions. When it came to the technical deployment of the project, Sky benefitted from three core elements of Accenture’s world-class delivery platform:

Taking Sky’s procurement capability into the cloud

Accenture’s knowledge of SAP’s product roadmap for SAP Ariba and its highly collaborative relationship with SAP proved particularly beneficial over the course of this project. Accenture encouraged Sky’s design partnership for SAP Ariba Guided Buying and thus helped Sky to influence the development of the capability and become one of the first organisations globally to implement this new solution. Guided Buying is designed to guide end users to the right items, preferred suppliers, and compliant policies to deliver consumer-like buying experiences in the enterprise.

Finally, Accenture devised and oversaw an engaging change management programme to acclimatise Sky’s employees to their new Procurement tools and ensure they can use them optimally. The programme included 45 videos, 90 quick reference guides and 2 weeks’ worth of training delivery; with supporting content in local languages across the UK, Germany and Italy over the course of a year. Accenture’s training team worked hand-in-hand with Accenture’s delivery team, Sky’s Change Team, and Sky’s ERP technology partners to create the content, which was delivered well ahead of Sky’s deadline.

• SAP Ariba Solution Factory As a key SAP partner, Accenture was able to provide the deepest level of expertise around SAP Ariba and proactively help guide Sky’s Procurement roadmap

• Hybrid agile packaged cloud methodology To ensure increased agility and user-centricity, Accenture deployed SAP Ariba using a hybrid agile methodology, which is focused on iterative prototyping to ensure effective business engagement and buy-in from the outset

• Intelligent Sourcing and Procurement (part of the Accenture Intelligent Enterprise Platform) Using ready-made deliverables across the project lifecycle - from work plans, design workshop materials, comprehensive test scenarios and scripts to stabilisation reports - as well as delivery tools for SAP Ariba requirements generation, data migration and testing to accelerate and de-risk the deployment.

Taking Sky’s procurement capability into the cloud

LEADING IN THE NEWThanks to Accenture’s rapid and effective delivery of SAP Ariba in Sky’s operations, the company’s Procurement function is leading-edge and low cost. Its 10,000+ Procurement users are empowered with tools that are simple and satisfying to use, have compliance built-in, and help them serve internal customers much more easily.

Sky’s transformed Procurement function comprises:• A modern, simple, and effective experience:

enabling an end-to-end digital native buying process with the ‘requisitioner’ at the centre, designed to foster compliance and transparency across in-scope countries

• Visibility, control and insight: for sourcing, contract management and operational Procurement to support evolving Sky business needs

• A cloud-enabled, scalable business platform: the Ariba on-demand solution enables flexibility, ready access to future SAP innovations, and the agility to allow a common European operating model and future Sky businesses to adopt the platform

• A simple Procurement process: allowing clarity and easiness of interaction between internal customers and the Procurement team.

Key benefits of the solution include:• End-to-end supplier information and

performance management, all in one place

• Accelerated sourcing cycles, and the ability to create competitive, best-value agreements for sustainable savings

• Compliance and control combined with a compelling buying experience and innovative capabilities

• Content enablement via digital catalogues, enabling the business to successfully implement Guided Buying to work more effectively with their suppliers.

Today, Sky is benefitting from a completely transformed experience that brings together its Procurement and Sourcing functions in a single European solution that facilitates a simple, smart and elegant buying experience, increases user engagement and drives process, contract and policy compliance.

Taking Sky’s procurement capability into the cloud

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