CDW: Connecting B2B e-procurement solutions to help customers achieve new levels of efficiency and transparency
Explore how CDW is using e-procurement to set it apart
Ushering in a new era of B2B procurement transactions through its e-procurement integration offering, CDW Corporation uses SAP Business Network for Suppliers as a centralized location to manage customer relationships. By efficiently integrating with customers’ procurement workflows, CDW elevated its supplier-tier standing for a mutual competitive advantage.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Professional services | Vernon Hills, Illinois | >15,000 employees |
integration timeline achieved and maintained.
customers transacting on SAP Business Network.
automated purchase order transactions over three years.
Senior Manager Digital Integrations, CDW Corporation
Standing out as a valued supplier through smooth e-procurement
CDW Corporation is a leading multibrand provider of information technology solutions to 250,000 business, government, education, and healthcare customers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. A Fortune 500 company and member of the S&P 500 Index, CDW helps customers navigate an increasingly complex IT market and maximize return on their technology investments.
CDW’s comprehensive offerings range from discrete hardware and software products and services to integrated IT solutions. Software offerings encompass cloud solutions, software assurance, application suites, security, virtualization, operating systems, and network management. Its services include advisory and design, software development, implementation, managed services, and warranties.
Wanting to cement its reputation as a valued supplier, CDW could see that connecting business-to-business e-procurement solutions would make its customers’ purchasing faster and more efficient. Executing on its commitment to help customers harness the power of technology, CDW resolved to help customers take control of IT spending by facilitating e-procurement integrations with SAP Business Network and SAP Ariba solutions.
Senior Manager Digital Integrations, CDW Corporation
Supporting a frictionless workflow to ease doing business
In building its e-procurement integration services business, CDW uses SAP Business Network for Suppliers to provide a centralized location to manage its customer relationships through one portal. SAP Business Network for Suppliers also allows CDW to tie its customers’ procurement workflows with its catalogs and e-procurement processes.
This means CDW and its customers who use SAP Ariba solutions can connect on SAP Business Network to shop and transact without friction but with guardrails and built-in controls that minimize human error and prevent overspending. CDW also provides a dedicated customer service manager to help confirm and coordinate business needs and requirements to meet customer expectations.
Through efficient integration, CDW offers customers a holistic experience for purchasing, reporting, and forecasting, streamlining how they browse and buy from the company while keeping the information up to date. This approach also aligns with a commitment to sustainability initiatives and helping customers improve efficiency and transparency through automation.
Gregory Palmer, senior manager for digital integrations at CDW, comments, “By consolidating their purchases through a single interface on SAP Business Network, we help customers increase efficiency and decrease transactional and fulfillment costs with electronic invoicing.”
Another major advantage of being part of SAP Business Network for Suppliers means CDW gets access to a huge customer base for potential new and increased business opportunities. Meanwhile, the introduction of automated buying processes frees internal staff from manual tasks, allowing them to focus on strategic initiatives.
Senior Manager Digital Integrations, CDW Corporation
Leading the way by differentiating itself from the competition
CDW has built a strong reputation around its fast e-procurement integration offering that’s both comprehensive and adaptable to the customizations required by customers. As such, CDW is currently doing business with approximately 433 customers on SAP Business Network and benefiting from automated procurement transactions, with approximately 327,110 purchase orders and 284,797 invoices flowing through the system over three years. This customer base currently delivers one-third of the company’s e-procurement services revenue, with digital services accounting for 25% of its total revenue and seeing annual year-over-year growth of around 7%. In addition, total spend on the network has increased by 200% over the past seven years.
In terms of flexibility, the company looks at all aspects of a customer’s business when recommending an e-procurement course of action to deliver process efficiencies and sustainable practices. And in partnership with SAP, CDW further streamlined customer requirements gathering for new integrations. This new business process allowed CDW to achieve and maintain a business-standard 90-day integration timeline for customer requests.
Palmer comments, “Since we developed this process, we’ve noticed consultants and customers bringing similar documentation to us, validating our industry-leading approach.”
Senior Manager Digital Integrations, CDW Corporation
Taking e-procurement to the next level
As the company’s e-procurement integration services business grows, Palmer maintains it’s essential for new customers to involve stakeholders from the earliest stages of the change management planning process. For customers looking to transition to e-procurement practices, he says that it’s critical to map accounts receivable and accounts payable processes as well as all other ways products are requisitioned.
For CDW, increased customer adoption and use of SAP Business Network and SAP Ariba solutions means more business transactions automatically flowing through the network, freeing its team to focus on strategic selling and meeting customer needs. Palmer says, “We expect increased adoption and for a greater share of total spend to move through the e-procurement channel as our abilities to make solutions more transactional intersect with customers requiring e-procurement efficiencies.”