New Case Study: Pharmaceutical Company Drives Savings from Accurate Supplier Data

Like most large firms that have grown by acquisition -- and hardly any haven't -- the supplier data floating around inside the organization reminds me of Samuel Johnson's quip about lies and the infernal side of statistics in that there is old data, missing data, or simply too much data. How would you answer these vendor-related questions?

• Are your records current, do you have all the important facts, have you managed to sift through the numerous redundant data points that are continuously being collected?
• Are you paying the right vendor, only once per PO, using the right payment terms -- without running afoul of internal compliance, IRS or other regulations?

Clear as these data challenges are, building a solid ROI business case can be challenging. The company in our new Accurate Supplier Data Creates Savings for Pharmaceutical Shared Service case study found that even though their supplier data issues were numerous, what clinched the deal was focusing their efforts on credit recovery with a contingency-based component as added solution provider incentive. A tangible and measurable effort was what won the finance department over.

In the case study, you can learn how the shared services arm of a major pharmaceutical firm's supply chain defined their primary data challenges in this area, and the steps they took to address them. The company relies on both SAP and legacy ERP solutions. Their chosen solution delivered on the credit recovery needs, with an immediate and significant ROI as added benefit, and also delivered much-needed supplier data quality to support broader P2P and sourcing initiatives.

Spend Matters thanks Lavante -- a provider of credit recovery and supplier data quality solutions and services -- and their client for letting us look at how this common vendor data problem area can quickly be turned around. Download Accurate Supplier Data Creates Savings for Pharmaceutical Shared Service for free today.

- Thomas Kase