Vodafone Orders Up Process Mining to Make Procurement More Efficient

• Analytics & Modeling - Process Analytics
• Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
• Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)

• Telecommunications

• Business Operation
• Procurement

• Predictive Quality Analytics
• Process Control & Optimization
• Regulatory Compliance Monitoring

• Data Science Services
• System Integration
• Training

Vodafone, one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world, faced significant inefficiencies in its massive purchasing operations. The company annually manages over 800,000 purchase orders, 5 million invoices, and 40 million assets, resulting in more than 10 terabytes of data stored across various systems. The challenge was to quickly identify and eliminate inefficiencies and deviations in the procurement process that were driving up costs and delivery times. Vodafone needed a solution that could provide real-time big data analytics with 100% transparency to all users, ensuring 'one version of the truth.' The goal was to streamline the source-to-pay process, improve regulatory compliance, and enhance process automation.

Vodafone is one of the largest telecommunications companies globally, providing a range of services including voice, messaging, data, and fixed communications. The company operates mobile services in 26 countries, has partnerships with mobile networks in 49 additional countries, and runs fixed broadband operations in 17 markets. As of September 2016, Vodafone served 470 million mobile and 14 million fixed broadband customers. To support this vast customer base, Vodafone relies on a diverse array of equipment and services from suppliers worldwide. The company's procurement activities are managed through a source-to-pay process, which now leverages process mining technology to identify and address inefficiencies.

Vodafone's big data team turned to Celonis Process Mining software to address inefficiencies in its procurement activities. The software reconstructs business activities, such as creating purchase orders, to learn how operations work and detect hidden vulnerabilities. This allows managers to quickly determine the root cause of issues and take immediate corrective actions. The Celonis technology provides real-time analytics with 100% transparency, ensuring 'one version of the truth.' By eliminating errors in procurement, Vodafone can maximize catalogue buying and speed up the release of purchase orders to suppliers. The Perfect Purchase Order (PO) initiative, one of over 20 big data projects in the source-to-pay area, aimed to produce 80% of purchase orders without errors. Within six months, Vodafone exceeded this target, achieving an 85% error-free rate. The Celonis technology also alerts the department to data issues at the source and identifies areas with low automated transactions, enabling improvements through robotic process automation.

• Vodafone's Perfect Purchase Order (PO) initiative achieved an 85% error-free rate within six months, surpassing the initial target of 80%.
• The Celonis technology enabled real-time root cause analysis, reducing the time required for this process from two days to on-the-fly.
• The process mining initiative provided 100% transparency, ensuring 'one version of the truth' and enabling data-driven decision-making.

• Vodafone reduced the cost of each purchase order from $3.22 to $2.85, resulting in an 11% cost-savings improvement.
• The Perfect Purchase Order (PO) initiative increased the error-free rate from 73% to 85%.
• Time to market improved by 20%.