WALGREENS BOOTS ALLIANCE
Procurement , enabled through changes to the operating model , investing in the team via the Procurement Academy , and disciplined execution ,” says Townsend .
But what about the technology aiding this transformation ? “ Currently , we use a suite of different procurement tech tools ; at the heart of this is GEP ’ s Smart Suite ,” he says . “ This enables us to focus on our role , the partnering and commerciality of what we do . We heavily utilise the programme management module for , among other things , tracking benefits , the e-sourcing tool and the contracts repository . How we drive our programme is key to our success , our day-to-day operations , as well as our strategic initiatives .
“ By design , business processes , requirements and partnerships , as well as technology growth partnerships – through optimising for sustainability impact , for example – facilitated Walgreens to much better reach the socially vulnerable , which has been critical during the pandemic ,” Townsend explains , the notion of supporting the socially vulnerable having helped shape the company ’ s overall ethos of making healthcare more affordable .
“ This really sets the drum beat of the organisation .”
Talking of the near-future , Townsend excitedly tells us : “ We ’ re building out the future digital environment for our team members , this will focus on delivering material value growth and retention to WBA .
“ The next phase will see us optimising our existing Ariba platform , implementing a comprehensive end to end contract lifecycle management solution , optimised buying channels and an intuitive low value sourcing solution . The real prize here is figuring out how to stitch this
46 July 2022