Now it all adds up for ScanSource
From manual mayhem to automated efficiency: Leading tech distributor leverages SAP margin optimization solutions by Vistex for data cleansing and streamlined SPA management
“Managing special pricing approvals through a sea of Excel spreadsheets was a major bottleneck for our team. The sheer volume of price adjustments and an ever-growing number of SPA revisions, all handled manually, was overwhelming. Collaborating with Vistex on data cleansing was a game-changer.”
Crystal Selfridge
SAP Business Process Solutions, ScanSource Inc.
Overview
ScanSource sought to optimize and automate its special pricing agreement (SPA) contract creation, supplier payment settlement reconciliation and membership management processes. Identifying suppliers that could provide the necessary data for automation proved challenging. Extracting data required time-consuming and labor-intensive manual retrieval, which impacted the timely fulfillment of supplier requests and created bottlenecks.
In 2021, the pricing team created over 45,000 manual price concession agreements for its targeted supplier group. The large volume of SPAs slowed the sales team and the supply chain, hindered customer service and impacted the accuracy and reconciliation of payment settlements with suppliers.
The company needed to read supplier SPAs and import them into SAP automatically. ScanSource sought to optimize and automate SPA contract creation, supplier payment settlement reconciliation and membership management.
Solution
Determined to break free from bottlenecks, ScanSource wanted to automate its manual request process, expedite order entry and improve internal efficiencies. The data cleansing solution, embedded within SAP margin optimization solutions by Vistex, emerged as the ideal answer to ensure greater data accuracy, automation of agreements with data validation and rules for revisions, and as an enrichment engine to streamline and simplify data management. The solution accepts multiple partner file formats, automatically cross-references data, normalizes file formats and identifies missing and/or duplicate information.
The company partnered with Vistex to take advantage of its data cleansing functionality to consume, clean and enrich unstructured data.
Results
Leveraging the data cleansing capabilities within SAP margin optimization solutions by Vistex delivered significant benefits for ScanSource. Processes were streamlined, and the manual SPA entry workload was automated, increasing the accuracy of special pricing setup in SAP. Productivity was vastly improved, eliminating redundant, non-value-added work and significantly reducing data entry time.
ScanSource was able to fully automate its top 10 revenue-producing vendors, allowing them to track, examine and categorize agreements based on their value, and providing the pricing team with actionable outcomes. In addition to faster payment reconciliation with vendors, the company drastically improved customer service, quote turnaround and the speed of special pricing in the market.
About
ScanSource
ScanSource is the leading international value-added distributor of specialty technology products, focusing on point-of-sale (POS), barcode, physical security, 3D printing and voice/video/data networking solutions. Founded in 1992, ScanSource serves more than 300 manufacturers and sells to approximately 35,000 reseller customers.
Headquarters: Greenville, SC
Industry: Wholesale Distribution
Products: Technology products, including POS/barcode, communications, security and printing equipment
Revenue: $3.7 billion
Locations: 7 distribution centers in the U.S. (3) and Brazil (4)
Employees: 2,300+
Vistex solutions implemented:
SAP margin optimization solutions by Vistex
- SAP Paybacks and Chargebacks by Vistex