Business Problem: Our manual RFP process for buying energy was exceedingly expensive. All pre-bid, bid, and award activities involved extensive use of phone, email, fax, and spreadsheets. We lacked readily available reports to provide visibility into the process for auditors and appointed energy supply supervisors. The process was error prone; procurement teams spent long hours managing and tracking procurement-related documentation.
Process Players: Procurement coordinators and teams, Legal/Compliance team, System Administrators, Senior Management
Process Steps: Our BPM Energy Procurement System is a web based application covering our expression of interest process (EOI) process, our pre-bid qualification process, our bid process, and our award process. Based on the jurisdiction of the RFP, the system automatically sends tasks to the appropriate Coordinator Group. All users belonging to that group see these tasks appear in the task list of their dashboard. The first user to accept a task becomes the task owner. The task then disappears from the other user’s task lists. The tasks are forms-driven, with the system coordinating workflow across teams based on particular events in the process. Automated email alerts enforce time thresholds.
Process Benefits: With the implementation of our BPM Energy Procurement System, the process of procurement has become greatly simplified and automated. The simple and interactive user interface made adoption of the new system easy and fast. Tasks are now more efficiently distributed and carried out thanks to workflow and policy enforcement. Employee productivity has increased.
*Sources and References:
Appian