Our previous process of contract routing and lifecycle management was manual with many bottlenecks. SAP® Ariba® acted as the finished contract repository, with one contract administrator creating the contract request, gathering the documents, and walking the paperwork through the approvals before final signoff and upload. This method was slow and open to errors and missing paperwork.
Approval workflows for new procurement contracts and amendments are now automated in SAP Ariba. Contracts are also routed to all approvers simultaneously, not being delayed by the upstream approver’s signature, and ad hoc approvers can be added during the approval workflow. We are using DocuSign, an e-signature system that integrates with SAP Ariba, to allow digital signatures on the final contract, and via their mobile app for those approvers that travel frequently.
Contract lifecycle time was reduced, and marked improvement was seen in early results after go-live.
