JAGGAER Helps Attijariwafa Bank Maintain Business Continuity Through COVID-19

Attijariwafa bank has successfully implemented a source-to contract solution with the JAGGAER ONE platform. The bank has reported that the SaaS solution was implemented just at the right time to enable it to maintain continuity of service throughout the pandemic while efficiently sourcing protective equipment for its staff at short notice. Attijariwafa bank is the largest bank in Morocco and the seventh largest on the African continent, and with 5,265 branches, Africa’s largest branch network, it is mainly focused on retail banking. It also has subsidiaries in Europe and in Egypt.

Before implementing JAGGAER, Attijariwafa bank had a paper-based and manual approach to issuing RFPs and RFQs, which were then received in sealed envelopes. Purchase orders were issued through the ERP system, but with no link to the approvals workflow and procurement decisions. Moreover, the bank lacked any collaborative supplier relationship management or sourcing tool. Sourcing relied on web searches and records kept in Excel or on paper, which meant there was no comprehensive data on spend. “This situation was becoming untenable, not least with the growing regulatory compliance burden and GDPR in particular,” according to Youness Taghrichte, Head of Procurement. Taghrichte, who has been with Attijariwafa bank since 2005, and was speaking at a webinar hosted by JAGGAER Europe on October 8, 2020.

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“Like all companies, we were unprepared for the pandemic, but the decision to implement a cloud-based sourcing solution and its successful rollout made it very easy for all employees to connect remotely from our homes, starting on day one of the lockdown, without any interruption to the sourcing and procurement process,” Taghrichte said. “For me, the biggest benefits of JAGGAER so far have been the ability to ensure continuity of service through the crisis, together with the speed with which we could meet exceptional demands such as the provision of facemasks, hand sanitizer and protective equipment to our colleagues on time, without any delays and without any need for paper-based approvals and signatures,” he added.

Richard Hogg, Vice President JAGGAER Northern Europe, said that business continuity and supplier risk had become major challenges for organizations across multiple sectors during the Covid-19 pandemic. “With their textbook approach to change management and successful implementation of the JAGGAER platform, Youness Taghrichte and the procurement team at Attijariwafa bank have shown how to leverage technology to overcome these challenges,” Hogg said.

Attijariwafa bank’s senior leadership had asked Taghrichte to put together a business case for the implementation of an electronic procurement solution. “This was a difficult task as you cannot quantify return on investment in terms of revenue growth from such a project. But we set out four objectives that would drive benefits: the dematerialization of the complete end-to-end process from expression of need to contract; implementation of interfaces to ensure continuity between sourcing and purchasing; a 360o view of all suppliers from qualification, with reliable management of their administrative records and performance, and a reporting function providing a strategic and multidimensional view of purchasing activity,” Taghrichte said.

By spring 2019 Attijariwafa bank had implemented a source-to-contract solution with JAGGAER, aiming to achieve maximum automation, best practices in process simplification and enhanced agility for all buyers.

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Attijariwafa bank has also reported a variety of longer-term benefits of the implementation, including a 10% reduction in time spent on the RFQ process as a result of automation, and an improvement in data quality (100% accuracy on data relating to vendors, pricing and contracts) and availability (the data is now centrally managed). Having visibility over spend data has provided a basis for achieving savings. To date, Attijariwafa bank has achieved an average five percent saving on B and C category spend. Vendor self-service has further saved time, while greater transparency into vendor ownership, finances and where they operate has enabled better risk monitoring. “Finally, by having contracts in the system and alerts when it is time for renewals, we are avoiding costs by renegotiating on a regular basis,” Taghrichte said.

He emphasized that frequent and comprehensive communication, including newsletters outlining the progress towards the go-live, was of critical importance to the successful implementation of the solution. Attijariwafa bank trained all users (buyers, authorizers etc.) in the system and updated key stakeholders (e.g. internal auditors) on the new procedures. Following the successful implementation and the proven benefits, management aim to extend the system to subsidiaries in 2021.

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