Source-to-Pay Transformation

Unifying a fragmented source-to-pay landscape across six business units

A diversified industrial group replaced disconnected sourcing, contracting and payables processes with a single, governed source-to-pay operating model supported by executive dashboards.

Sector: Industrial manufacturing (illustrative)
Scale: 6 business units, 4 countries
Annual addressable spend: USD 480M (illustrative)
Programme duration: 9 months

Illustrative scenario. This case study is a composite, fictional example created to demonstrate typical transformation approaches and outcomes. It does not represent, name or reference any actual client, and all metrics are illustrative.

Client challenge

Each business unit ran its own requisition, approval and supplier onboarding process, so group leadership had no single view of committed spend.
Contract terms were stored in local drives and shared mailboxes, making renewal dates and negotiated pricing effectively invisible.
Invoice exceptions were resolved manually, extending cycle times and eroding early-payment discounts.

Solution

Designed one group-wide source-to-pay process architecture with defined approval thresholds, category ownership and exception handling.
Consolidated master data — suppliers, categories, cost centres and payment terms — into a governed structure that existing ERP systems continue to own.
Layered executive dashboards over the existing systems so leadership could see committed spend, savings pipeline and payables health without replacing any ERP.

Implementation

1
Discovery and baseline
Process mapping across all six units, spend cube construction and a documented baseline for cycle time, compliance and pricing variance.
2
Target operating model
Agreed category ownership, delegation of authority, policy set and control points, signed off by finance and business-unit leadership.
3
Pilot
Two business units and three categories ran the new model end-to-end for eight weeks, with weekly steering reviews.
4
Scale and adoption
Role-based enablement, in-flow guidance for requisitioners and a governance cadence covering exception trends and savings realisation.

Results

1 view: Group-wide visibility of committed spend
-38%: Requisition-to-order cycle time
+21 pts: Purchase-order compliance
-45%: Manual invoice exceptions

Figures are illustrative and describe the composite scenario above.

Business benefits

Leadership decisions moved from monthly spreadsheets to a single, current source of truth.
Negotiated pricing became enforceable because contract terms were visible at the point of buying.
Finance gained a defensible forecast of committed spend and cash outflow.