Since November 2000 the international pharmaceutical and chemical company Bayer has been using the communication platform myFUTURA for the procurement of construction and other services. Not only have the procurement processes been optimized and accelerated through the use of myFUTURA; there has also been a considerable cost saving in the two-digit percentage range.
Bayer AG has a considerable purchasing volume. The bidding volume for building works alone amounts to several hundred million Euros. The Purchasing Department Technics and Services is responsible for this task. At the beginning of 2000, when Bayer was looking for a new, modern AVA system, they discovered the tendering platform myFUTURA. Claus Wagner, procurement manager, Purchasing Technics and Services at Bayer explains: “myFUTURA stands out due to high usability, an intelligent software approach and because it supports the business processes we require. Moreover, Futura Solutions was absolutely customer-oriented – they were also willing to take change requests for the online tendering process into consideration”. After the initial project duration of only one month, myFUTURA went live in November 2000 as planned. The training of about 20 users took only one hour.
Thanks to myFutura our bidding processes have become more and more efficient. By using this flexible, innovative and easily manageable communication platform we have made considerable cost savings.
The Procurement Manager at Bayer calculates that costs have been reduced by about 90 % compared to the standard procedures. In addition, according to Bayer “there has been a time saving of more than 30 %”. With only a few mouse clicks it is possible to convert a tender into an auction. myFUTURA is multilingual and can be applied internationally. About 1000 suppliers submit quotes online. On average six bids are placed per tender.
Before myFutura was used there was a lot of manual work involved in the bidding process for building services and materials which took a disproportionate amount of time. At Bayer this is now a thing of the past. Tenders are now directly transferred from Futura-AVA to myFutura. Bayer introduced Futura-AVA in the summer of 2001 independently from myFutura. Only a few mouse clicks or entries in “optional fields” are necessary to start an online bid.
Once the submission is over, the most favorable bidders can be selected and displayed in a price comparison list. myFUTURA is designed in a way that has allowed Bayer to organize their line of communication in an ongoing and ideal manner within its projects – including the complete supplier/bidder and planning administration. In addition, Bayer is planning to integrate the application into their existing SAP environment so that project messages, purchase requisitions and billing can be carried out via SAP. It goes without saying that myFUTURA supports all data exchange formats, e.g. the GAEB standard.
myFUTURA is also easy to use for suppliers. They simply log on via internet. Suppliers can download the tendering information or edit the bid online and submit an offer. They get informed in good time about tenders via e-mail or by their own choice via short message services. Thanks to myFutura, situations like having to contact the supplier several times due to a faulty disk are a thing of the past at Bayer.
Acceleration of procurement and significant cost savings
Planners and purchasers are working seamlessly within one application
Broad user acceptance and user friendly workflows
