More time for members: ÖAMTC deliberately digitizes its purchasing with SAP Ariba

The challenge: Complex processes and high manual effort

ÖAMTC employs around 4,500 people across the country in various areas: Breakdown assistance, driving technique centers, air rescue, member service and many more. The procurement process was characterized by manual steps, multiple systems and high administrative costs.

• Media disruptions lead to errors
• Approvals took too long
• Suppliers had to obtain information themselves

The result: valuable time was lost – from the selection of items, in purchasing and in accounting.

The solution: SAP Ariba as a new procurement platform

Together with Axians, ÖAMTC relied on SAP Ariba Buying and SAP Ariba Guided Sourcing for what would soon be four national organizations to create a modern digital purchasing system. The project involved much more than the technical introduction of a system: Axians took on the revision of an existing specification sheet and provided support in data cleansing and the creation of structured supplier catalogs.

Close collaboration with the automobile club’s core team was a key success factor. Around 50 key users from various departments tested the new processes intensively and provided valuable feedback. This close collaboration ensured that the solution reflects realistic requirements and is widely accepted.

The result: purchasing that saves time and relieves employees

After the go-live, the system went live. In the first few weeks, the focus was on stabilizing and fine-tuning individual functions. Optimizations were implemented step by step and prioritized together with the specialist departments.

A clear added value in terms of transparency became apparent early on: orders and process steps are now centralized and consistently traceable. At the same time, the switch to the new platform naturally led to an increased need for coordination, as the users first had to familiarize themselves with the new processes.

With increasing routine in using the system and continuous support, the solution will gradually develop its full potential. Digitalization thus not only creates efficiency gains through faster processes, but also strengthens the quality of service that ÖAMTC members experience every day in the long term.

Why Axians was the right partner for the SAP Ariba implementation at ÖAMTC

The decision to choose Axians as the implementation partner was not made by chance. The automobile club was looking for a team that not only had in-depth SAP expertise, but also the ability to structure complex procurement processes in a practical manner and efficiently support cross-functional teams. Axians impressed with its extensive experience in the field of digital procurement, its expertise in cloud-based SAP solutions and its ability to manage projects reliably, even in challenging phases.

It was particularly valuable for the customer that Axians was able to familiarize itself quickly with the project status and did not simply implement a system, but instead developed a common, future-proof purchase-to-pay standard together with the users, purchasing, IT and accounting departments.

Axians also brought with it a deep understanding of change management issues – a crucial factor when hundreds of employees at bases, in the emergency services or in administration have to adopt new digital processes. The fact that Axians also continuously evaluates new cloud functions and makes recommendations strengthens the long-term future security of the solution. It is precisely this combination of technical expertise, process understanding and a partnership-based approach that makes Axians the ideal partner for modern SAP projects such as those at ÖAMTC.