How Favor AS freed up 50% of its procurement team's working time

Favor AS is an Estonian metalworking company that’s specialized in thin sheet metalworking. The company has nearly 200 employees and processes 35,000 tons of steel annually, which makes them the undisputed market leader in the region. As their competitive advantages, they highlight quick adaptability to market changes and production efficiency exceeding that of their competitors.

Challenge: managing procurement with paper and pencil began to hinder the company's growth

Previously, Favor used various tools to prepare and manage procurement requests, from e-mail and Excel to paper, pen, and phone. "Everyone used what they could to get the job done," describes the Favor team. However, in a developing company, the procurement volume grew so large that it was difficult to manage the process - there was no overview and things tended to get forgotten or overlooked. Previous requests and offers were very tedious and difficult to find.

Solution: ProcurementFlow eSourcing module integrated with BI

At first, Favor tried to build its own solution on Excel. "We were afraid that a designated platform wouldn’t support our daily work, but rather inhibit it and remain a "nice to have" gadget," describes the Favor team their main hesitations. Today, however, they say with conviction that they can longer imagine their day-to-day life without ProcurementFlow.

What became decisive in the choice of software was ProcurementFlow's responsiveness, know-how, and flexibility in developing precisely those features that supported Favor's work processes. The Favor team was most positively surprised by how fast and accommodating the software implementation was:

"Setting up the solution was very fast, data was easy to upload, and the ProcurementFlow people were always only a phone call away - and always ready to come along with our crazy ideas. We initially tested the solution for 6 months, after which we made some more changes in cooperation with the developers. All in all, we achieved a very user-friendly solution that suits us 100%."

‍

For other companies, Favor’s team recommends mapping out the company's exact needs before choosing a procurement solution: "Basically, you should imagine what your company's ideal workflow would look like and draw it out. It is also worth remembering that change management takes at least 6 months."

‍

‍

Results: the procurement team cut their working time in half

• The procurement team freed up 50% of their working time
• Sending requests is quick and easy
• Procurement information is centralized, transparent, and accessible
• There is a clear log of suppliers and requests 
• Easy data export to Excel or BI
• Convenient analyzing and summarizing

‍

Thanks to ProcurementFlow, Favor gained transparency in procurement and freed up 50% of their procurement team’s working time. Time which they can use for other activities:

"Sending requests is quick and easy! Also, all information is in one place. You no longer have to remember all the suppliers who offer products of the same category - you can simply group them together. In addition, all request management is in one place and available to all the necessary people. For example, if an employee falls ill, anyone can "take the wheel” and work continues uninterrupted."

‍

Compatibility with BI and easy data export also provide great added value: "All data can be pulled into Excel, where it’s easy to analyze and summarize the results."

Today, Favor recommends the ProcurementFlow solution to everyone: "A procurement platform is a must-have for every company dealing with procurements. ProcurementFlow is suitable for all companies that want to analyze offers in order to find the best offer on the market and make consequent business decisions."