iBuy - a customer journey

iBuy - a customer journey, National Grid
National Grid’s existing purchase to pay (P2P) system was outdated, slow and complex. It needed replacing and that, believed procurement, was an opportunity to seize. Cue a shared vision across IT, business services and global procurement to create the iBuy platform to revolutionise the user experience for colleagues and suppliers. With director sponsorship, the team held a customer immersion event to identify pain points and found three core customers: sporadic users, new starters and delegated professionals. By delving deeper into the challenges, it established “signature moments” for each customer persona and created user stories. By engaging colleagues from the start and using agile approaches, the team helped colleagues make the shift from seeing procurement as a transaction to viewing it as a service. The result? Active users of the P2P system increased four times, there was an 80% reduction is requisition order time, a 44% increase in fully automated contracts and customer satisfaction jumped to 8.6/10. National Grid expects to achieve £800,000 in bottom line operational benefits a year from iBuy in this game-changer for the business.

Judges’ comments: "Clear vision and a huge step forward on customer satisfaction. The team had to work collaboratively across a number of areas of business and we particularly liked the approach to seeking customer feedback. An excellent project with great execution and solid business delivery. Well done!"