Transforming procurement for reliable resourcing

Nomura Research Institute (NRI) is a leading Japanese think tank and systems integrator. It believes in solving social issues through co-creation, a model that incorporates consumer input into product and service design.

It drives business change through a process called ‘ConSolution’, which is a combination of consultancy and IT services. The company uses its knowledge and expertise to lead by example. It’s currently reforming its complex procurement process and improving supply chain management, leveraging ServiceNow to simplify and standardize on a single platform.

As an innovative company that provides long term value to customers by combining consultancy with IT solutions, its ‘ConSolutions’ help companies to identify their business challenges and find the right solutions to fit their needs, using advanced technologies alongside system or operational development to address these challenges.

NRI takes a holistic approach to transformation. Its IT solutions are supported by ‘people’ with the right skills, ‘hardware’ such as servers, and cloud ‘services’. This aligns with ServiceNow’s ethos of optimizing work across people, places, processes, and systems.

The company offers bespoke solutions that are optimized for each customer and handles the internal and external procurement process to get them in place. However, these complex procurement processes needed major reforms to meet rising pressure for faster delivery times and demands for responsible sourcing. NRI kicked off a full-scale process redesign three years ago to simplify and standardize work on a single platform to control costs and get better value from its IT spend. 

Uplifting productivity with best-in-class SaaS solutions

NRI’s transformation was based on two pillars: improving supply chain management and rationalizing the procurement process onto one platform. This involved modernizing procurement in line with changing and diversifying demands, globalization, and shifting from procuring goods to procuring services.

“After a lot of consideration, we decided to adopt ServiceNow as the best-in-class, purpose-built SaaS platform to modernize our processes and standardize the way we do business,” explains Hideki Yamamoto, General Manager, Cloud DX Solution Promotion Department, DX Platform Division at NRI. “ServiceNow Source-to-Pay Operations makes great features accessible via the cloud and it’s a single platform we can build on in the future.”

NRI selected Source-to-Pay Operations (S2P) to improve supply chain management. This involved strengthening information-sharing and communications with the primary and sub-suppliers the company transacts with during the procurement process. To satisfy the requirements for responsible procurement and sustainability, it was vital to extend these changes consistently across the entire supply chain.

Centralizing supplier management and data on one portal

ServiceNow S2P, with its excellent portal functionality, was rolled out in late 2022 to give suppliers a frictionless and efficient experience.

“Sharing the right data is particularly important for sustainable procurement. And in addition to compiling the right information for transactions, suppliers need to follow our code of business conduct and apply it without violating compliance regulations,” says Yamamoto. “Previously, we had multiple supplier master lists depending on what type of products were being procured. We integrated that data into a single source of truth on S2P and launched a new NRI group supplier portal, which makes it easier to prioritize and manage our suppliers.”

NRI had previously introduced a combination of several SaaS solutions with various strengths and functionalities to transform its procurement operation. But standardizing on ServiceNow, with its excellent portal features and purpose-built resources, was the right choice for the company.

Improving the efficiency of supplier onboarding

Collaboration with suppliers isn’t the only process to become more efficient with S2P. Supplier onboarding—which involves registering the supplier and completing the steps prior to signing the contract—has also improved thanks to self-service and workflow automation. The Now Platform enables automation at scale, removing barriers between processes and systems on an enterprise level.

When NRI started working with a new supplier, the registration and onboarding process was handled via email and post, which was time-consuming and repetitive manual work. It was difficult to track the progress of each supplier’s registration and there was no central visibility of which steps in the process had been completed. Getting contracts signed could, therefore, take a considerable amount of time.

“Suppliers often got confused during onboarding. They didn’t know which information we required or what was missing,” recalls Takuro Hiro, General Manager, Operations & Procurement Management Department at Nomura Research Institute. “We decided to use the standard supplier onboarding function in S2P to make the process more efficient for everyone.”

The S2P portal uses an integrated workflow to guide suppliers through every step of the onboarding process. Users are prompted to enter the correct information, and when they complete a step, the system automatically tells them what to do next. This gives suppliers a smoother onboarding experience and reduces the time they spend on procurement tasks.

“Suppliers can use the chat function to get help if there’s anything they don’t understand. We collect frequently asked questions (FAQs) and use them to train our support staff,” explains Hiro. “Suppliers can also browse the FAQ page to resolve their own issues, which is a better experience for both staff and suppliers.”

Taking the next steps into procurement process reform

The supplier onboarding process has significantly sped up signing new contracts. As Hiro explains, “It takes half as long to sign a contract as it did when we used paper forms and emails. And using electronic signatures saves even more time.”

Making manuals and FAQs available in the portal has helped both staff and suppliers—reducing the procurement case volume workload and the time it takes to respond to inquiries by half.

“ServiceNow is a highly flexible low-code platform that’s easy to develop. We enhanced the standard functionality and plan to roll out new features to make the user experience even more convenient,” says Yamamoto. “Managing procurement applications through a central gateway will improve both operational efficiency and supplier management.”

In the future, NRI plans to connect procurement plans, income and expenditure reports, personnel data, and other insights with S2P to improve governance, prevent fraudulent orders, and make it easier to visualize profits. And that’s just one of the plans in the pipeline to continue improving procurement with ServiceNow. NRI is also launching a procurement site for goods and services on S2P that will be called ‘Shopping Hub’, bringing everything the company needs to create customer-centric solutions onto the Now Platform.