Delivery services have become somewhat of a science in many countries around the world, but what about regions that lack address systems?
Founded in Dubai in 2012, Fetchr is a delivery service app provider and delivery service, staffing over 3,500 employees. The app uses GPS to locate dropoff destinations for packages, a service targeted primarily at providing a delivery solution to geographical regions that lack identifiable street names and numbers.
An article by Supply Chain Digital further describes Fetchr’s role in advancing shipment and delivery solutions in the Middle East over the last several years.
As the regional head of procurement, Yasir Rizvi came across Tradogram while searching for a purchasing system that could accelerate Fetchr’s procurement process, and assist in identifying cost-saving opportunities over time.
CHALLENGES FACED IN A TRADITIONAL SHIPMENT AND DELIVERY PROCUREMENT PROCESS:
Yasir explains that using a paper-based purchasing process was causing delays when placing and approving internal orders:
“Managing piles of paper during the purchasing process was a burden. In many instances, finding the original requisition or a specific purchase order required for a quick reference took much longer than it needed to. While a proper approval process was in place, having to wait for physical papers to be signed caused further delays in the procedure.”
Replacing paper-based procedures and improving organization to reduce purchasing process time were the main priorities for Yasir at Fetchr. Additionally, improving supplier management and tracking expenditures with each supplier were both highly desirable features that Yasir was looking for, with the intent of being able to compile insightful spend reports.
Yasir Rizvi
Regional Head of Procurement
OBJECTIVES OF A NEW PROCUREMENT SYSTEM:
As a company operating with over 3,500 employees and a wide range of procurement needs – ranging from technology related orders to physical equipment required by delivery staff, Fetchr needed a procurement system that was easily able to categorise items and route orders for approval, from a well organised list of suppliers.
The system also needed to have enough flexibility to effectively add users to multiple branch offices located in different regions throughout the Middle East.
To meet these requirements, Yasir and his procurement department attended a demo to gauge Tradogram as a solution, followed by testing of the following workflows provided by the system:
The following challenges were identified as objectives for improving Fetchr’s operations, and traceable KPIs were established to determine whether Tradogram was successful as a solution:
- Reduce purchasing process time by structuring approvals on the system
- Improve document organisation, sharing, and communication to eliminate delays
- Track supplier performance and spend analytics to identify cost saving opportunities
- System is simple and structured enough to avoid a costly implementation process
RESULTING BENEFITS FROM IMPLEMENTING TRADOGRAM’S PROCUREMENT SYSTEM:
After implementing Tradogram, Yasir reported the following “before and after” findings from a mix of statistics provided by the system, as well as observable changes to employee workflows:
Purchase Order Processing Time
Including Creation, Approval, and Forwarding to Supplier
2-8 Hours
A few minutes
Cost Savings Realised and Attained
Through Detailed Custom Spend Report Generation
Limited spend visibility and capacity to pull detailed information.
15% cost savings attained, with additional improvements identified by using custom spend reports to improve supplier selection.
Supplier Profile Data and Effectiveness Tracked
Evaluation performed per-order, limited evaluation references made during the ordering process.
Supplier evaluations stored on-system and reviewed prior to placing new
purchase orders.
CLOSING REMARKS FROM YASIR:
With over 3,500 employees, deploying a new procurement system was a challenging concept to approach for Yasir at Fetchr. Tradogram’s adaptive design and simple interface played an important role in ensuring company adoption of the software would remain stable during implementation.
While Yasir’s particular branch only processes about 50 purchase orders per month, the performance increase since switching to Tradogram has been drastic.
Being able to issue purchase orders in minutes rather than hours is an extremely valuable asset, especially for couriers on the road who would otherwise be limited to submitting requisitions through paper, in-office channels.
In reporting a 15% reduction in average purchasing costs secured through efficient supplier selection and ordering processes, Yasir believes the cost of implementation has been well covered – with additional opportunities to further optimize the process being identified on a regular basis.
After implementing the base level of Tradogram at Fetchr, the available integration with Xero was also deployed, adding additional value by reducing invoice processing time throughout the organization.
Yasir also had this to share about his experience with Tradogram:
“Tradogram is all about doing less with ease – without compromising efficiency. The software has been very helpful in managing the procurement process. Being able to eliminate the use of paper from the purchasing process has saved us hours of time. Through digital requisitions, we’ve been able to reduce costs with better planning. All stakeholders have had their requirements fully met by the selection of this platform, including our mobile teams. We also integrated Tradogram with our accounting software, XERO, which has helped us to reduce invoice processing time. Tradogram is very simple and user-friendly, and I’d quickly recommend it to other companies in need of an answer to purchasing troubles.”
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