Landscape
Heathrow is the busiest airport in Europe for passenger traffic. The airport is undergoing one of Europe’s largest infrastructure projects; a significant expansion in order to be fit for the future of air travel. Part of this expansion was a major systems upgrade.
Challenge
Having not taken advantage of historic systems updates, the client’s ERP was outdated, unsupported and misaligned with the cloud first future IT strategy. Leadership understood the opportunity that a systems upgrade offered and Proxima was appointed as part of a best of breed consortium to conduct a full review of the end to end procurement process for a fully cloud based ERP solution and System Integrator selection to include Finance, HR, Commercial and Procurement modules.
Approach
With some initial data already gathered by Heathrow, we kicked off the project with a comprehensive process and data review, looking at e2e processes, customer journeys, system complexities and future requirements. Following this we ran over 20 workshops with various customer groups including AP, Vendor Master Data, Commercial, HR, Supplier Relationship Management, Contract Management and Procurement. This enabled us to build a picture of current successes, pain points, and future requirements. Concurrently we worked with suppliers to scope up the art of the possible. The outcome was a management report summarising the future requirements vs market capability and corresponding go to market strategy recommendations.
Using BPMN 2.0 we mapped out relevant customer journeys highlighting over 3,000 functional requirements which Heathrow “would like to have”. We mapped these against off the shelf SaaS offerings highlighting where requirements could be met off the shelf, and where customization would likely be required. This enabled us to have proactive discussions about the quantum of cost/ effort involved in customization and reframe the key requirements in the face of likely change control.
Specification complete and project team formed, we drafted the tender to determine the preferred technology and service integration partner, and asked the potential suppliers specific questions on the top rated pain points (determined by a RAG status) to ensure these were addressed and clearly understood by Heathrow stakeholders. We developed complex commercial templates, conducted full analysis of the responses and led all negotiations with top-tier vendors.
Outcomes
Following the tender, Oracle was selected as the preferred supplier. Through market knowledge and negotiation we ensured the client received best in class commercial terms and contract provisions. We also leveraged the outcome to improve overall business terms with the provider. Post selection, we also completed a tender to select a suitable systems integrator who was capable of work with Oracle, at speed and scale as well as matching the clients values and ways of working.
Click here, to find out more about Proxima’s Digital Procurement Service Line.
