Samancor implements Coupa

Samancor Chrome, the world’s largest integrated ferrochrome producer, went live with Coupa’s cloud-based Business Spend Management Platform on 1 March 2021. Coupa’s market-leading platform will provide substantial efficiencies to the way in which Samancor procures goods and services for its significant operations.

Samancor has collaborated with Supply Chain Partner (SCP), a niche business spend management consulting company and a certified Coupa implementation partner for their deployment.

“As a progressive company we are committed to developing and implementing best practice in all areas of operation. Cost consciousness is a core company value and we are always exploring ways to streamline processes in order to be more cost effective. We are excited to go live with the Coupa Business Spend Management Platform, which we believe will ultimately make it much easier for employees to request the goods and services they need and enhance the quality and efficiency of procurement services across the group,” says Samancor Chrome CEO Desmond McManus.

According to Samancor, they chose to partner with Coupa and SCP because of the useability and intuition of the platform, the technical capability of SCP, price, the positive customer feedback they had received and ultimately the ability to drive value. Samancor’s implementation started in August 2020 and they are ready to go live in just six months. SCP will continue to assist Samancor with their business transformation process following the go live on 1 March 2021. 

Coupa’s industry-leading Business Spend Management (BSM) platform helps companies around the world like Samancor to gain visibility and control over all spend to increase efficiency, reduce risks, and improve the bottom line. Coupa works relentlessly with their customers to ensure business success and drive measurable spend outcomes.

With Coupa’s cloud-based procurement system, Samancor will be able to standardise and automate their sourcing process across a single, intuitive user interface. This platform will enable them to eliminate manual activities and reduce inefficiencies and associated risks. As a result, Samancor will be able to easily establish whether an auditable sourcing process was run by providing an efficient audit trail. They will also be able to manage the full lifecycle of a contract, including compliance, and eliminate their manual supplier database processes. Additional benefits of the Coupa platform include creating accurate items and prices, managing catalogues and automating invoices. Overall, the Coupa Business Spend Management Platform will ensure better compliance with the source-to-pay process.

“Coupa’s Business Spend Management Platform is designed to enhance the quality and efficiency of procurement services for companies like Samancor, and to help realise significant value across their organization,” says David Hamilton, VP of Sales for Middle East and Africa at Coupa.  

 “SCP is a certified Coupa implementation partner and a regional specialist in automating complex procurement processes in asset-intensive industries. We are proud that Samancor has chosen Coupa as their business spend management partner and that their expectations in terms of delivery and business transformation have been met through their work with SCP,” adds Hamilton.

 “We are delighted to have walked the journey to a more efficient procurement process with Samancor, a company whose commitment to innovation and to finding best-of-breed solutions was clear from the outset. We look forward to this company realizing the efficiencies, cost savings and improved governance that come with automation,” says SCP director Chimae Goncalves.

Anticipated measurable benefits for Samancor as a result of implementing the Coupa Business Spend Management Platform, which provides over 40 real-time spend metrics, include:

• improved governance and control, given that Coupa provides full visibility and control of every transaction, ensuring full auditability of spend;
• increased catalogue and contract visibility, meaning goods and services can be procured in much shorter cycle times and the right goods and services are delivered when required, reducing production downtime;
• visibility to budgets and optimised approval workflows to reduce unnecessary expenditure;
• easy onboarding and management of suppliers;
• negotiated savings applied to each requisition and lower savings leakage through direct links to contracts.

About Supply Chain Partner

SCP is a niche, Coupa-certified spend management consulting company. We are specialists in automating heavy-asset intensive, complex procurement processes. We solve procurement challenges by automating and integrating disparate systems and processes into strategic business leverage. Our team of consultants work with organisations across sectors in North America, EMEA, APAC and Africa to assist organisations transform the way that they source goods and services.

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