b-pack case study: Idex Groupe

Generating 300,000 purchase orders a year – all manually – is laborious and laden with inherent margin for error. Idex Groupe*, one of France's largest private energy and environmental services companies, knew this approach presented myriad issues from supplier relations to employee productivity and cost containment.

A decentralized organization with more than 3,000 employees in 100 geographically-dispersed offices, Idex searched for a solution that would be robust enough to manage more than 100M Euros in annual purchases for up to 1,000 users, while streamlining supplier management and enabling quick reconciliation with accounts payable – a difficult and tedious task under the manual regime. They also needed software that would integrate with their existing Qualiac ERP, as well as with procurement processes and data. Further, quick and easy deployment across the organization was critical.

Antoine Michelet, head of the buying department for Idex Groupe, was pleased to find that b-pack fully addressed the company’s needs, covering the entire purchase-to-pay process, while delivering best practices, rule-enforcement and user-friendly implementation. The initial deployment  was focused on purchasing and procurement, soon followed by the second phase to encompass invoicing. b-pack’s contract management was incorporated in the third phase as well as b-pack's inventory management.

After the implementation, Idex acquired ISS France. More than 200 additional users from the acquisition were added in less than a month with no system re-parameterization required. Negotiated contracts from the two entities were merged in the system, enabling quick enforcement of contract usage across the entire user base. b-pack is credited with supporting team integration during the merger due to its collaborative features and process integration.

As a result of the easy and rapid implementation, the company’s purchase-to-pay process is paper-free and automated across the lifecycle. Purchase order collaboration is dramatically improved and the number of suppliers has been reduced to optimize quality and relationships. Case in point: suppliers with contracts have experienced an increase of approximately 300% on buys with Idex Groupe.

* Idex Groupe is one of France's largest private energy and environmental services companies. The company designs and implements solutions for the production and distribution of energy, and manages more than one million households across France.