DSM is pleased to announce that the first phase of the buy.SMART digitalization program for Indirect Procurement is now live and successfully operational in Brazil and Village-Neuf, France. In 2021, the program will continue to be rolled out to over 60 sites and offices globally.
As a Nutrition, Health and Sustainable Living company, DSM believes in collaborating and creating value with all its stakeholders – including customers, employees, shareholders, society at large as well as its suppliers. DSM’s suppliers contribute to the ambition to be a Purpose-led, Performance-driven organization and are an intrinsic and vital part of global operations. Over 20,000 suppliers deliver indirect goods and services to DSM worldwide, so a digital platform for seamless interactions with suppliers is critical to efficiency and being easy to do business with.
Martha Buffington, Chief Procurement Officer, says, “DSM works with a broad spectrum of suppliers to drive innovation and our growth agenda. It is our ambition to be the client of choice for our suppliers and to develop strong partnerships based on mutual benefits. In order to do so, we also need to make transacting with DSM as easy as possible.”
The buy.SMART program enhances the collaboration and connectivity with suppliers by:
In order to realize these objectives, DSM is deploying SAP Ariba worldwide for its indirect goods and services.
Global Director Procurement Transformation and Program Director buy.SMART, Andries Feikema, explains, “To elevate the impact of procurement, we needed to make a step change of our procurement processes and systems. buy.SMART is not just a tool implementation, but a full business transformation and new way of working. In phase 1, we collaborated with our stakeholders to design and implement the new processes and system functionality. We are now successfully live in our pilot markets of Brazil and Village-Neuf, France, and are reaping the benefits of this transformation.”
The results to date are positive. Over 70% of all transactions are already fully automated, which has reduced throughput time and eliminated errors. In addition, internal and external user experience surveys show significant improvement versus the prior system.
Mauricio Adade, President DSM Latin America concurs, “We had the honor of being part of phase 1 of the buy.SMART program. The digital solution will support us in finding the right suppliers for our needs, setting up online catalogues, and making it quick and easy to order goods and services.”
Pierre-Yves Hardy, Site Director of Village-Neuf adds, “Suppliers play an important role in operating our plants. The deployment of buy.SMART in Village-Neuf has improved our ability to swiftly interact and transact with our strategic suppliers who support our operational processes on a daily basis.”
Based on the success of phase 1, DSM recently launched the next phase of the program, which will be the global deployment of buy.SMART to an additional 60 sites and offices. “This year buy.SMART will scale up at speed, positively impacting our employees and suppliers worldwide,” says Andries Feikema. The program continues to be supported by the DSM IT organization, DSM Purchasing Shared Services, Deloitte Consulting, and McCoy & Partners.
