Promega: Creating strong trading partner relationships with a robust distribution network
Explore Promega Corporation’s journey with SAP
Promega develops and evolves technologies and instrumentation for academic, industrial, and government institutions that are working to solve some of the toughest scientific questions. To enable the research of its customers to proceed without any disruption, the company chose SAP Business Network to help manage and enhance its product distribution channel.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Wholesale distribution | Madison, Wisconsin | 2,000 employees |
trading relationships globally, managed through SAP Business Network.
from order placement to shipment processing.
consistent on-time product delivery year over year.
Senior Business Analyst, Promega Corporation
Building integrity with customers through timely and reliable deliveries
Originally founded in 1978, Promega Corporation has branches in 16 countries and more than 50 global distributors serving 100 countries. The company develops and manufactures reagent tool kits and integrated systems that are used by laboratories in a wide variety of industries, including pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and government and academic research institutions.
Promega customers are often driven by high-priority deadlines, so getting orders to customers on time is critical. In addition, most of the company’s products include temperature-sensitive active reagents with short shelf lives. Therefore, products must ship overnight to control temperatures properly.
“Our products are often a vital part of our customers’ research processes,” say Elise Erdmann, senior business analyst for Promega’s B2B solutions. “Because of that—the timely nature of their work and the sensitivity of our products—our customers must be able to confidently rely on our next-day deliveries so they can continue their research without disruption.”
To achieve this, Promega’s procurement team needed a distribution network solution that would help the company build and manage a reliable, comprehensive supply chain for its 165 trading partners. The team also wanted to help Promega meet or exceed its high expectations for on-time product delivery by getting orders into shipping quickly and accurately with reduced manual processing time.
Providing trading partners with the tools they need to succeed
To help ensure ongoing valued relationships with its customers, Promega chose SAP Business Network.
For organizations like Promega that need a reliable distribution solution, the network digitalizes transactions and creates a transparent, resilient, and sustainable supply chain for the company. Its functionality helps Promega’s procurement team deliver the right product to the right customer at the right time by aligning its trading partners with consistent and accurate information across orders, inventory, capacity, logistics, and asset management.
SAP Business Network also supports its goals of building trust with its partners and developing ongoing long-term partnerships. “With SAP Business Network, we can provide catalogs of our temperature-controlled offerings to our customers so customers can order the correct products quickly and more easily,” says Erdmann.
SAP Business Network provides Promega with direct integration to its trading partners, helping ensure critical next-day deliveries thanks to reduced turnaround times between order receipt and when they are shipped and invoiced. The network also decreases manual processing time, which has freed up the procurement team to focus on proactively capturing new business opportunities.
Enhancing trust and loyalty with reliability and efficiency
Promega has been using SAP Business Network for over 10 years now, and it has become a significant foundation for its trading partner relationships.
The network has created greater efficiencies for both external and internal users. For instance, SAP Business Network provides the continued reliability and speed Promega’s customers need to access real-time data and documentation in a timely manner.
As to Promega’s procurement team, they can instantly find customers, identify what kind of relationship they have with the company, and see comprehensive details on buyers’ information. “With a user interface that is fast, reliable, and intuitive, we can find every detail we need, whether it’s from our catalogs, purchase orders, or invoices,” says Erdmann. “Plus, when I communicate with buyers, they see the same data I do, at the same time, in real time, so we can resolve any issues almost immediately.”
“SAP Business Network makes my job easier because I can provide detailed instructions to our internal customers on how to perform their job with greater ease,” adds Erdmann. “It also helps me get right to the source of an issue when I’m troubleshooting and searching for different documents.”
Most important, Promega has been able to build trusted relationships because of the quality of its products—and the reliability of the company’s delivery of them. “Customers heavily depend on our quality of service,” says Erdmann. “They trust us to repeatedly deliver our products on time so they can continue to do their research without worry.”