Transforming Procurement Processes in BT

At BT we are continually making our business more agile and efficient by the introduction of new technology and the rationalisation of order channels across BT Group. This will enable us to streamline our processes and improve our interfaces with suppliers.

April 08 will see the introduction of a new Oracle application which will replace the existing Purchase Order systems within the UK and progressively over time replace other commodity specific order channels. The new application will enable BT UK based people to order goods and services from you via a single purchasing tool called 'iBuy'. Initially you'll see little change. If you receive paper Purchase Orders (PO's) then this will continue. Those receiving PO's via email will see a small change to the email format with the PO being sent as a PDF attachment.

One of the key elements of iBuy will be to present on-line catalogues for the goods and services you supply to our end users. This will make their ordering process much easier, ensuring that agreed items are selected, as well as correct pricing, and that our agreements with you are used correctly. It also eliminates quoting processes and ensures our agreements are available to those that need to access them. In essence, wherever we can present our agreements in catalogues then we should work together to seek to do so.

The new technology will also deliver significant benefits for yourselves with the introduction of 'iSupplier' enabling you to:

interact directly with BT over the Internet
receive orders through a robust Internet portal
view invoices on line
track payments on line

This will become BT's best practice for all our contracted suppliers during 08/09 and will help us to work more effectively together. For those suppliers who have high transactional volumes or are strategic partners there will also be functionality to move to a single electronic ordering and invoicing interface.

If you have arrangements with BT that are bespoke and do not involve formal PO's then these will continue until those commodities are migrated to the new systems.

We are basing our strategy on the uniform use of the eBusiness suite of applications from ORACLE. This will provide greater functionality to our end users, a single BT process, full visibility of spend as well as consistent processes between ourselves and our suppliers.

We look forward to working with you over the coming year. We will be writing separately to those suppliers that have been proposed for the first wave of implementations of catalogues or iSupplier over the next few weeks.

In addition, we will be providing you with contact details for any questions you may have in future briefings.

With kind regards,

Neil Rogers
BT, Chief Procurement Officer

Further guidance can be located within the BT Procurement & Supply Chain Strategy relating to:

Overview
Invoicing
Catalogues

Further specifications will be made available depending on what options are required and in detailed discussions with BT.