BWPC selects SAP to drive digital procurement transformation programme

Bristol & Weston NHS Purchasing Consortium (BWPC) has announced it has selected SAP Ariba to drive its digital procurement transformation programme as it embraces a single modern procurement platform in the cloud.

The new partnership will streamline sourcing, contracts, supplier risk and procure to pay operations across two trusts, addressing its legacy technology deficits and risk. The move to SAP Ariba will help enable BWPC’s vision for procurement.

It will drive more efficiency and ultimately significant cost savings and will digitally transform BWPFC’s entire source to pay processes.

By implementing SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing, Supplier Risk and Procure to Pay, BWPC is looking to generate over £16 million savings over five years as part of a multi-trust initiative.

David Druett, director of procurement at BWPC, said: “The delivery of a comprehensive end to end procurement system will support our overarching vision to improve patient care through effective management of our supply chain.

“We look forward to partnering with SAP to help us meet our objectives and ultimately provide a better service to our customers and patients.”

BWPC is staffed by NHS employees hosted by North Bristol NHS Trust and its services include all aspects of clinical and non-clinical purchasing, supply chain management and capital equipping (CES).

The consortium currently supports two NHS trusts including North Bristol NHS Trust, last featured on Digital Health News when it fast-tracked the roll out of a series of digital tools to help its Covid-19 response, and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, representing over 23,000 employees.

Ellie Lamey, head of intelligent spend & business networks at SAP UK&I, said: “Today’s partnership with BWPC is further proof that we are the perfect scale and innovation partner for public sector organisations.

“With the speed, flexibility and agility of the cloud, organisations like BWPC can effectively manage costs and spend, while future-proofing their procurement operations against what challenges may come.

“We’re excited to help BWPC with its procurement transformation journey and ensure it continues to deliver the best possible patient care.