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At a glance:
Organization
British Transport Police
Location
London,
United Kingdom
Industry
Governmental services
Challenges
Gain visibility into contracts; assess supplier performance; and control spending
Previous Solution
None
Ketera Solution
Contract Management and Spend Analysis
Results with Ketera
Significant time and cost savings, ease of use for a wide array of users, and ongoing support for the changing needs of the organization |
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 Not only does Ketera provide innovative solutions for spend management, they also offer high quality professional services that let you get the most from their solutions. Working with Ketera is like a breath of fresh air.
– Nick Walker, Procurement Manager, BTP |
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The Challenge: Tracking Spending and Contracts
British Transport Police (BTP) is the national police force for the railways throughout England, Wales and Scotland. This includes responsibility for policing the London Underground system, the Docklands Light Railway, the Midland Metro Tram System and Croydon Tramlink. Between them, these rail businesses move approximately five million people every day.
Until recently, BTP had no organized, automated spend management system by which to manage its spending or contracts. As a result, BTP found it difficult to assess its spending, mainly due to the amount of data involved. Moreover, BTP had no way to manage, renew or optimize its contracts. Nor did the organization have a consistent means by which to evaluate the performance of its suppliers.
"We knew it was imperative to implement a central repository of contractual information. Without it, we′d continue to have no visibility into contracts or supplier performance," said Nick Walker, Procurement Manager with BTP.
The Solution: Ketera Spend Analysis and Ketera Contract Management
While BTP evaluated several solutions, Ketera quickly emerged as the hands–down leader for spend management solutions.
"When we were shown demos by other vendors, it was clear that they were only in the conceptual stage," said Laraine Jackett, Contract Manager with BTP. "Ketera, on the other hand, had a proven track record as a company, as well as unmatched functionality in the area of contract and spend management."
The Ketera Contract Management solution will enable BTP to meet three essential goals: leverage a central data repository, author contracts based on specific BTP terms and conditions, and manage the lifecycle of all contracts to assess how suppliers are performing against those contracts.
The Ketera Spend Analysis solution, which is an integral part of the Ketera Spend Management suite, uses advanced technology to classify spend data from various BTP sources, thereby providing a new level of visibility into BTP′s total spending.
Ketera Spend Analysis also uses a "closed loop" process to ensure that no detail – no matter how small – is overlooked. The process follows the below steps:
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BTP prepares the spend data file and uses the Ketera Content Request as a guide. |
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BTP sends the file to Ketera via e–mail or an FTP site. |
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Ketera imports the data into the inferencing engine. |
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Ketera manages the data cleansing, categorization and exception handling. |
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Finally, Ketera imports the data to the Reporting Dashboard, which provides BTP full visibility into all spending, changes, and other critical data. |
In addition to its market–leading software solutions, Ketera′s Professional Services have also proven critical. "Ketera provided not only excellent software, but also the vital human interaction piece," said Walker. "Having a full level of service was enormously helpful to us. "Though the Ketera solutions are relatively simple to implement – requiring only 35 days from start to finish – BTP found the input of Ketera consultants invaluable. That′s because Ketera was able to accommodate the unique needs of BTP, which was vital to the success of the implementation.
The Result: Time Savings and Greater Efficiency
BTP will save countless hours each year by automating its contract management processes with Ketera.
"The Ketera Contract Management solution will enable me to be more efficient in how I manage not only BTP′s many contracts, but also my own time," said Jackett. Without Ketera, it′s likely that BTP would′ve had to hire several other contract managers to support Jackett in her everyday tasks.
Additionally, the Ketera Spend Analysis solution allows BTP to gain unprecedented visibility and to control spending as never before.
Ketera also gives BTP another important edge, added Walker. "There′s lots of pressure for governmental organizations to perform at higher standards these days. It′s no longer about doing what′s sufficient. It′s about optimizing your operations and creating excellence around contract and spend management, which is exactly what Ketera will allow us to do."
Going forward, the Ketera Contract Management system will support a total of 20 BTP users and will host over 1,000 contracts. Additionally, the contract–authoring capability makes it easier for users to create new contracts. The central data repository also enables users to generate detailed reports, which can then be leveraged by other governmental agencies.
And since Ketera offers its spend management solutions as on demand software services, BTP can count on innovative new services and functionality in the future, said Jackett. "The solutions – as well as our needs – will continue to evolve, but Ketera will always keep us operating at a best–practices level. After all, to buy a piece of software that only addresses your challenges today is quite limiting. Who knows what your challenges will be tomorrow?" |
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