Medical Procurement of Ukraine: Safeguarding essential supply chains in a time of full-scale war
Meeting an urgent need for medicines and medical supplies
Keeping medical supply chains functioning during war requires intelligence and agility. State enterprise Medical Procurement of Ukraine quickly adapted after the country’s invasion by Russia by reimagining its operations using SAP Ariba solutions and SAP Business Network.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Federal, national, and central government | Kyiv, Ukraine | 180 employees |
weeks to build the first phase of the new system.
of essential supplies purchased in the first two weeks of operation.
General Manager, Medical Procurement of Ukraine
Securing medical supplies in an uncertain environment
State enterprise Medical Procurement of Ukraine (MPU) strives to improve the quality and life expectancy of Ukrainians by efficiently and cost-effectively purchasing medicines, medical products, and medical equipment. Working within the centralized procurement program of the country’s ministry of health, MPU aims to ensure transparency at all stages of the medical supply process.
Maintaining a well-functioning medical supply system is vitally important in normal times. However, MPU’s mission became even more urgent after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. With supply chains interrupted, pharmaceutical manufacturing and medical infrastructure destroyed, and demand for emergency medical supplies soaring, coping with the new environment was a daunting task.
Providing humanitarian aid became a top priority, and MPU’s remit expanded to include procurement of medical goods under the UNITED24 initiative, a government-run international fundraising platform established during the conflict.
MPU’s existing procurement model of multiple suppliers on different systems, many communicating by e-mail, was not fit for purpose in this radically altered landscape. The agency needed to revamp its processes and build a nimble yet structured procurement system – and it needed to do this fast.
General Manager, Medical Procurement of Ukraine
Getting a new procurement system up and running in weeks
To function within this new landscape, MPU needed a cloud-based procurement system with international reach and comprehensive modular functionality to support processes from end to end. SAP Ariba solutions satisfied these requirements.
Working with experts from SAP and nonprofit association Enkidu, which facilitates the purchase and delivery of humanitarian aid, MPU implemented the first phase of a new system based on SAP Ariba solutions and SAP Business Network for Procurement in a matter of weeks. The agency was able to rapidly download catalogs for medical products, set up user authorizations, and adapt the solutions to the unique needs of the national catalog system for public sector medical goods. Aided by the guided buying capability for SAP Ariba solutions, it purchased €2.5 million of critical medical machinery and wound kits in the first two weeks of the system’s operation.
The next phase involved implementing the SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance solution to help preregister, register, and qualify suppliers and the SAP Ariba Sourcing solution to facilitate detailed medical tender processes, requests for information, requests for proposal, and auctions.
The agency also deployed the SAP Ariba Contracts solution to enable both internal teams and suppliers to manage contracts more efficiently.
MPU smoothly moved hundreds of suppliers and processes onto the new system. The first auctions for medical supplies and armored evacuation vehicles for the UNITED24 initiative took place in fall 2022, half a year after the onset of the war.
The figure provides an architecture overview of MPU’s integrated cloud-based procurement system.
Enabling a professional approach to procurement from start to finish
MPU now has a centralized procurement system in the cloud that helps it quickly and efficiently secure urgently needed supplies. Procurement teams have one platform for communicating with suppliers about everything from tender dates to delivery schedules, making life easier for suppliers too. Users can more easily meet deadlines, deal with currency fluctuations, and satisfy fast-changing legal and compliance requirements using straightforward procedures and intuitive tools.
For example, SAP Ariba Sourcing simplifies tenders for complex medical equipment and increases transparency by allowing users to download suppliers’ technical specifications and compare models in an intuitive table that includes commentary from suppliers as needed.
Using SAP Ariba solutions and new auction functionality, MPU can make urgent purchases efficiently, including for the UNITED24 initiative. The results of auctions are public and available on the agency’s business intelligence dashboards, increasing transparency. Ukraine’s Ministry of Health has also recognized the increase in efficiency and responsiveness.
Meanwhile, SAP Business Network lets teams tap into a network of more than eight million connected companies across the world to quickly find and engage suppliers of essential goods while minimizing the time spent on procurement. This has been especially useful in meeting complex demands caused by the war. For example, finding it difficult to locate armored vehicles to help transport supplies, MPU used the SAP Business Network Discovery solution to quickly find a new supplier in Canada.
Building an integrated enterprise that can thrive, whatever the situation
Having reinvented its procurement operations in a short time under extremely difficult conditions, MPU is continuing to develop its new system. One next step is to integrate SAP Ariba solutions with the national procurement database to enable smooth data flows and contract management. MPU also wants to introduce electronic signatures for supplier contracts for even greater efficiency.
Further down the line, MPU has ambitious plans to digitally transform its entire organization, from finance to logistics operations, using SAP solutions. It recognizes the huge potential of integrating its IT operations using SAP Business Technology Platform and SAP S/4HANA. With procurement now running in the cloud, it wants to bring analytics and planning together with the SAP Analytics Cloud solution and tap into powerful cloud HR software using SAP SuccessFactors solutions.
MPU is also exploring how business process transformation solutions such as SAP Signavio solutions can aid integrated business planning as well as tracking and tracing pharmaceuticals.
Though its short-term environment may be uncertain, MPU knows a nimble and efficient IT landscape based on integrated data and processes will help give Ukraine’s people access to important medical supplies for years to come. The acquired expertise of MPU not only serves the lives of Ukrainians but also extends to the purchasing community, which is developing and transforming after receiving a second breath.