Case study
Digital transformation,in procurement.
Accor runs one of the largest hotel networks in the world. Nathan Gyaneshwar, founder of Marketboomer and PurchasePlus, spoke to Daniel Mooney, Digital and Financial Controller for the Accor group.
01
A group large enough to need one way to buy
At Accor, with the procurement team, I work with a lot of our suppliers and a lot of our hotels. We get all the deals in place with the suppliers, particularly on the financial side. That is what I look after, along with the rollout of PurchasePlus for our hotels.
With so many hotels, we need a tool that creates efficiencies for us and gives us that level of control and visibility over what we are spending money on.
It is a great tool that enables us to do that, and it gives the hotels easy access to the deals that we put in place.
Daniel Mooney, Digital and Financial Controller, Accor
02
A mountain of paper on the desk
I remember when I was in the finance department at one of our hotels. In a day you would have stacks of papers, a mountain of papers on your desk to process.
To remove that and have it all digitalised is a massive benefit to the hotels. Rather than manually inputting what you have got on paper into the system, it is all done for you. That alone is a benefit, on top of the environmental benefits of getting rid of the paper.
Paperless invoicing was a massive efficiency gain for us in terms of processing invoices, and we use it across the entire portfolio.
That was a massive efficiency gain for us in terms of processing invoices.
Daniel Mooney, Digital and Financial Controller, Accor
03
The deals we negotiate, available to every hotel
Once the deals are in place, that is the benefit of the control that we have through PurchasePlus. We can make sure that the catalogues the suppliers are loading carry the preferred pricing we have got in place.
It makes it easily available for the hotels, which also helps keep brand standards in place and makes sure we are getting the best price.
We can make sure that the catalogues the suppliers are loading are the preferred pricing that we have got in place.
Daniel Mooney, Digital and Financial Controller, Accor
04
Line-level data, down to the SKU
It is great to have visibility of what we are spending on. Without knowing that, we cannot get deals in place.
The data in PurchasePlus is very detailed. We get line-level data, and that allows us to really drill into specific SKUs that we are purchasing.
Without knowing what we are spending on, we really cannot get good deals in place. It really enables us to see what we are spending on, and then target those deals.
Daniel Mooney, Digital and Financial Controller, Accor
05
A simpler way in, alongside the full platform
The concept of AStore came from our head office in France. It was launched in Europe initially, and the success of that led to it coming to Australia. We launched it here and partnered with PurchasePlus to get the shop up and running.
PurchasePlus has so much to offer that for a simple user it can be quite overwhelming. AStore shop is like a B2C website, but essentially for B2B. It is a better way for operational staff to transact, and it is much easier to use.
You can access all the deals. You know that that is the validated pricing. It will validate the rebates for the properties.
Daniel Mooney, Digital and Financial Controller, Accor
06
Controls, approval workflows and the audit team
With the controls that PurchasePlus has and the approval workflows in the system, the audit team can go into the system when they are doing their audits.
They definitely use it for that purpose, so it has been a benefit to them as well. Having all of our procurement in one place, and the digital transformation happening alongside it, has had that flow-on effect.
The audit team can go into the system when they are doing their audits, and they definitely use it for that purpose.
Daniel Mooney, Digital and Financial Controller, Accor
07
Getting every hotel online
With digital transformation, the goal is to have every hotel online. Having AStore shop as another option to get them transacting through the system in an efficient way is a great opportunity to get some of the smaller sites on board as well.
The larger sites will need the full solution, but smaller sites might not necessarily, so it is another option that suits the hotels in our network. If you are talking about the full suite of PurchasePlus, you have got the controls and the efficiency gains there with the invoicing and inventory management. Even AStore shop, just as an appetiser, is really great. It is a great way to get started on a digital solution.
PurchasePlus has been great for us because the key focus for Accor has been the digital transformation, particularly in the procurement space.
Having PurchasePlus rolled out to the hotels has really enabled us to get accustomed with the digital economy and really support that.
Daniel Mooney, Digital and Financial Controller, Accor
Quotes are Daniel Mooney’s own words, taken from filmed interviews with PurchasePlus. Photography courtesy of Accor.
Watch the interview
Daniel Mooney on what PurchasePlus changed for Accor
Daniel Mooney, Digital and Financial Controller at Accor, sits down with Nathan Gyaneshwar, founder of PurchasePlus, to talk through how a group this size buys.
He covers the deals the procurement team negotiates, getting them in front of every hotel, the move off paper invoicing, and the line-level view of spend that came with it.
Daniel MooneyDigital and Financial Controller, AccorReady to control every purchase, before it happens?
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