Global telecommunications / Enterprise procurement / 2020–2021

Vodafone Price Manager: An 80% Improvement in Creating Purchasing Conditions

Vodafone Procurement Company's blockchain-based Price Manager moved from a six-month minimum viable product to wider rollout. The Hackett Group reported an 80% efficiency improvement in creating pricing conditions and updates that could be recognised immediately rather than after several days.

AdvisoryBuild
80%
reported efficiency improvement in creating pricing conditions
€25bn
annual procurement spend in scope
2021
Hackett Group Digital Award
On this page

The story in brief

01 — Situation

Vodafone's procurement organisation managed tens of billions of euros in annual expenditure, large supplier portfolios and hundreds of thousands of products and services. Changing contract prices and negotiated discounts had to reach purchasing systems without delays or inconsistent records.

02 — Role

The founder of the predecessor practice that later became Lionscraft identifies the programme as one of her lead technical-architecture engagements while working externally with Vodafone. Vodafone Procurement Company and technology partner Block Gemini are publicly documented programme participants.

03 — Work

Enterprise technical architecture work associated with a blockchain-backed commercial-contract and pricing-management system, bringing supplier agreements and purchasing conditions into a shared data-management workflow.

04 — Outcome

Following a six-month MVP phase and rollout, Vodafone reported 80% better efficiency creating pricing conditions and substantially faster recognition of pricing changes. Vodafone Procurement Company received a 2021 Hackett Group Digital Award.

Client
Vodafone Procurement Company
Industry
Global telecommunications · Enterprise procurement
Period
2020–2021
Project
Blockchain Price Manager
Engagement
Enterprise blockchain architecture – founder's predecessor consulting practice
Services
Advisory · Build

The challenge

€25 billion in purchasing. Thousands of contracts. Which price was current?

Vodafone Procurement Company oversaw approximately €25 billion of annual group spending, including more than 540,000 products and services and over 10,000 suppliers, according to the 2021 Hackett Group award materials.

A price could be negotiated in a contract, modified through an amendment and adjusted again by volume discounts. The same conditions could exist in separate spreadsheets, purchasing tools and supplier systems.

When terms changed, updating every downstream record took time. Purchases could still be created against an outdated pricing condition while the approved commercial agreement said something else.

The assignment was to improve the creation, maintenance and availability of commercial prices throughout Vodafone's procurement process.

The story

01

Making pricing conditions usable across systems

Vodafone Procurement Company worked with Block Gemini on a blockchain-based commercial contract management platform that could support shared, up-to-date pricing conditions.

The system was intended to make negotiated prices and changes accessible to the relevant parties and processes, reducing manual reconciliation and inconsistent versions of the agreement.

The founder's consulting practice was involved in technical architecture work on Vodafone's side of the initiative. The current archive identifies that role through first-hand history; its exact individual designs, approvals and implementation boundaries still require the original engineering records.

02

Testing before wider rollout

The Hackett Group's 2021 account describes Vodafone testing a minimum viable Price Manager for approximately six months and then proceeding to a wider rollout.

That sequence matters because the performance reported was associated with a deployed procurement process, rather than a demonstration with invented figures.

03

Eighty percent better efficiency in creating conditions

The project results reported to The Hackett Group included an 80% efficiency improvement in creating pricing conditions.

Vodafone also described changes that previously took several days to become visible in pricing processes being recognised immediately after the new system was in use.

The figures are Vodafone's reported measures, as reproduced by the award organiser. They should not be interpreted as an audited 80% reduction in total procurement costs or as proof that every supplier had adopted the system.

04

Recognised for a source-to-purchase result

In July 2021, The Hackett Group named Vodafone Procurement Company a Source-to-Purchase winner in its Digital Awards for Blockchain Price Manager.

The recognition attached a named enterprise process and reported operating improvement to a blockchain implementation.

What Lionscraft did

Advisory

Enterprise blockchain architecture

The founder identifies her predecessor consulting practice as providing lead technical-architecture expertise on the Vodafone engagement, working within the enterprise architecture context of procurement and commercial data.

Build

Systems and integration architecture

Provided architecture participation associated with the platform and its enterprise integration requirements. Vodafone and Block Gemini remain the named client and solution-delivery participants in the public record.

The case is not intended to attribute all software development or the entire 80% improvement to Lionscraft acting alone. The exact founder-specific architecture deliverables should be established from original project records before publication.

Results and impact

01

Approximately €25 billion in annual procurement spend within the organisation's scope at the time.

02

A six-month MVP followed by wider Price Manager rollout, according to Vodafone's published award account.

03

80% reported efficiency improvement in creating pricing conditions.

04

Pricing changes reportedly available immediately rather than after several days.

05

2021 Hackett Group Digital Award, Source-to-Purchase category, awarded to Vodafone Procurement Company.

Evidence and further reading

The public sources behind this story: announcements, partner reports and coverage. 3 sources.

Source

The Hackett Group announces its 2021 Digital Award winners

Original award and business-results source, including procurement scale, MVP period and reported improvement.

The Hackett Group · July 2021
Source

Vodafone: A Blockchain Price Manager Helps Revolutionize Procurement

Vodafone procurement leadership discusses the problem and system approach.

The Hackett Group · Podcast and interview
Source

Vodafone and Block Gemini collaborate on blockchain solution

Contemporary account of the client and implementation-partner relationship.

TahawulTech · Technology reporting
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