Nortel: Strengthening its position as a strategic partner in digital transformation
Using cloud-based collaboration to drive digital transformation
Nortel wanted to strengthen its position as a strategic partner in digital transformation. With SAP Business Network and SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite, the company transacts, interacts, and collaborates efficiently with its customers, driving e-commerce sales and strengthening relationships.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Industrial manufacturing | Campinas, Brazil | >700 employees |
of sales transactions now taking place on SAP Business Network.
buyers transacting with Nortel on SAP Business Network.
Sales Director, Nortel
Unifying buyer transactions with a single platform
Nortel, part of the Sonepar Group, is a pioneer and leader in the maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) segment in Brazil and the electric materials category. Its portfolio includes electrical materials, safety equipment, tools, lighting, and other essential items for industrial operations. Nortel’s mission is to make its customers’ lives easier by offering the best possible shopping experience throughout their journey across all service channels. The values that guide Nortel’s growth include being customer and people centric, showing commitment to the planet, leading by example, and encouraging a strong entrepreneurial spirit.
Nortel noticed that its customers were adopting SAP Business Network to improve their operational processes. The company saw this as an opportunity to automate its own processes and integrate electronic documents for use with multiple customers. It hoped that harmonizing its business transactions on a single platform would deliver greater agility, standardization, and efficiency in its relationships with customers.
Sales Director, Nortel
Using cloud-based offerings to collaborate with suppliers
Nortel uses SAP Business Network, a cloud-based collaboration offering, to help streamline its sales operations. It also employs three solutions in SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite to interact with suppliers. The SAP Ariba Sourcing solution enables Nortel to respond to quotes, and the SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance solution helps the company manage suppliers throughout their lifecycle—from onboarding, qualification, and performance monitoring to phaseout. With the SAP Business Network Discovery solution, the company can use data from supplier profiles and network catalogs, for example, to find new sources of supply that meet its needs.
The PunchOut feature allows Nortel to automate the flow of requisitions and orders, minimizing manual errors, improving information accuracy, and helping ensure greater compliance with buyers’ purchasing rules. This significantly reduces rework and corrective actions and, in turn, effort and cost. The PunchOut feature enables a personalized, real-time shopping experience for Nortel’s buyers. By integrating its catalogs and processes with its buyers’ systems, the company can create a more robust, efficient, and strategic purchasing environment. Through capabilities such as electronic document integration, identity and access management, digital catalogs, and account automation, Nortel can actively contribute to its buyers’ digital transformation in a simple and scalable way.
Nortel has a close working relationship with its account team at SAP, which has been instrumental in extending the use of SAP Business Network. The companies collaborate on areas such as strategic customer analysis, digital planning and e-commerce expansion, and growth opportunities. The partnership provides valuable support for Nortel’s internal teams, allowing them to explore new tools for digitalization and innovation, such as quote automation, to further optimize processes between the company and its customers.
Sales Director, Nortel
Positioning Nortel as a strategic partner in digital transformation
Nortel currently transacts with 84 buyers on SAP Business Network. Using the network along with SAP Ariba solutions enables the company to significantly improve business processes and innovation in its buyer operations so that it can become a strategic partner in their digital transformation. By automating and digitalizing B2B transactions, Nortel can increase operational efficiency, enhance regulatory compliance, drive sales growth, and promote sustainability goals. After five years of e-commerce expansion, half of company sales now take place through the digital channel. The business has also been able to optimize operational costs and increase the predictability of sales. Standardization and integration with buyers who use the network allow Nortel to scale its processes with greater agility, security, and intelligence, generating mutual value and reinforcing its position as a strategic partner in the MRO ecosystem.
Advancing service-level agreements, streamlining transactions, and reducing rework have improved buyer relationships through better transparency, trust, loyalty, and predictability in operations. Nortel’s digital maturity positions the company more competitively in accessing new business opportunities. In addition, reducing paper usage and streamlining processes allow the business to support sustainability initiatives, promoting more-responsible operations with less environmental impact. With more agile and integrated processes, employees can focus on strategic activities and strengthening customer relationships.
Sales Director, Nortel