Highly manual to no-touch<\/strong><\/p>\nAn almost entirely manual entry process with low volumes needed to move to full no-touch procurement automation, and scale to handle much larger quantities of requests.<\/p>\n
The team needed a solution that would receive the employee request, match it up with available item inventory, and automatically generate and approve a purchase order. Once the item was shipped to the employee\u2019s address, the receipt confirmation needed to be automated as well.<\/p>\n
So, the Purchase Order, Receipting, and Power Apps teams joined forces to solve the problem from end-to-end.<\/p>\n
They identified plenty of challenges during the design stage.<\/p>\n
For one, the pandemic had triggered wide fluctuations in hardware availability across global markets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe system is very dependent on the supplier,\u201d says Vijay Bandi, a senior software engineer for Microsoft Procurement. \u201cSo, it was very challenging, but critical, to make the system as configurable and flexible as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Using in-house tools such as Microsoft\u2019s rule engine framework helped the team create configurable rules that didn\u2019t require any code changes or deployments. Leveraging the microservices architecture of MyOrder (the company\u2019s internal ordering application) and Microsoft\u2019s Enterprise Integration Service also helped integrate these signals to communicate with the Power App at scale.<\/p>\n
Another challenge in the procurement automation was maintaining accountability at the end of the process. When an employee receives a device in the office, it\u2019s tracked through campus mailrooms. Shipping to someone\u2019s home is another story.<\/p>\n
\u201cEngineering and business teams had to think out of the box\u2014and quickly\u2014to save users time while confirming their goods were received,\u201d says Ratna Rekha Koukuntla, principal software engineering manager for Microsoft Procurement.<\/p>\n
They investigated various delivery carriers to determine which could best integrate via existing APIs, ultimately identifying FedEx and UPS as the top carriers who could integrate the most effectively and swiftly to make sure goods were tracked and accounted for to their final destinations.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nThe procurement automation project used greater integration and automation to handle the much higher volume of accessory requests.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSolutions for the new hybrid world<\/strong><\/p>\nInnovation is born out of crisis. It\u2019s a big showcase of how agile and adaptable Procurement and Microsoft Digital can be in meeting business needs and delivering the outcomes needed with a sense of urgency and clear focus.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Timish Garg, operations manager, Microsoft Procurement<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Now active in 20 countries and regions globally, the automated procurement system is handling 70 percent of all device requests at the company. The processing time has been reduced from nine to two days. And the touchless system is projected to save $200,000 to $300,000 in annual operational costs over the next few months.<\/p>\n
For the people involved, the new procurement automation has enabled the Procurement team to go back to working normal hours and at normal staffing levels. As for employees working at home, they\u2019re getting the hardware they need in a timely fashion.<\/p>\n
\u201cInnovation is born out of crisis,\u201d Garg says. \u201cIt\u2019s a big showcase of how agile and adaptable Procurement and Microsoft Digital can be in meeting business needs and delivering the outcomes needed with a sense of urgency and clear focus.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the pandemic crisis eases, the automated ordering system will be well-positioned to support the future of work in an altered world.<\/p>\n
Throughout the process of such rapid modernization, the Procurement team gained valuable experiences and learnings, such as the importance of rigorous end-to-end monitoring and testing, to make sure the system is functioning properly.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, we now have the tools and systems which can support and scale once we\u2019re back to normal,\u201d Garg says. \u201cAs more employees have the choice to work from home in the future, we can leverage it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Procurement team is now focusing on taking these learnings to improve the experience of various employee hardware purchases.<\/p>\n
Koukuntla adds that the procurement automation program also offers a strong example of Microsoft\u2019s customer obsession\u2014with its own employees as its first and best customer. \u201cWe were customer-obsessed to help our employees in this situation,\u201d Koukuntla says. \u201cAt the same time, we\u2019re creating automated and touchless experiences to increase user productivity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Learn how Microsoft automated revenue processing with Power Automate.<\/a><\/p>\nFind out how Microsoft is enabling remote work with cloud-first file management and collaboration.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This content has been archived, and while it was correct at time of publication, it may no longer be accurate or reflect the current situation at Microsoft. Thanks to a procurement automation effort being underway at Microsoft when the COVID-19 hit, the company was able to smoothly supply its employees with the equipment they needed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":6264,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"_hide_featured_on_single":false,"_show_featured_caption_on_single":true,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[674],"class_list":["post-6261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","m-blog-post"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Procurement automation enables Microsoft to outfit employee home offices - Inside Track Blog % %<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n