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SAP Business Suite for Spend Management
SAP Business Suite for Spend Management Engineering,
Construction & O ing, Co Engine n & Opera INTERNAL ONLY
Operation onstr eering, ation
Engineering, Construction & Operation
Industry at a Glance
The EC&O industry has historically lagged behind in digital maturity compared to other sectors, with procurement practices often being tactical and project-specific rather than strategically aligned at an enterprise level. Each project operates as a standalone entity, allowing project managers significant autonomy in establishing supply chains and labor forces. However, this approach leads to inefficiencies and fragmented supplier relationships. The industry is now shifting towards more mature procurement governance models, including centralized shared service centers, to enhance efficiency and cost optimization. Digital solutions offer transformative potential by streamlining processes and improving visibility across projects. In APAC, countries like China and Australia are driving this shift, leveraging digital technologies to modernize procurement practices and improve project outcomes..
Opportunities
45%
43% of the C-Suite identified cost saving s as procurements primary value proposition, with 74% identifying cost savings as the primary benefit of the increased collaboration and 74% identifiying cost savings a primary driver of the increased use of the external workforce. However, only 46% are highly confident in procurements ability to manage strategic sourcing. 38% identified digitalization as a top priority for procurement, and 67% identified spend analytics as the top driver of digital transformation in procurement for the 3rd year in a row . 46% identified digital adoption metrics as a top KPI to measure procurement performance and 62% identified that increased digital adoption was a top benefit of improved internal collaboration.
38%
34%
34% identified organizational operating model changes were a key risk area for procurement to focus on, and 38% identified increasing outsourcing as a top priority for the managing the external workforce.
63%
63% identified geopolitical risk was the top organizational risk area for procurement, and 45% identified supply chain reconfigurations as a top strategic priority for the next 18 months.
Source: Economist Impact study, The Resilient Edge – Procurement in an era of polycrisis
Best in Class Metrics*
Sourcing Savings Rate
Sourcing Cycle Time
Invoices without Exceptions
18.4%
20 Days
95.9%
*SAP Customer Benchmarking program
Spend Management Solutions
The SAP Strategic Procurement package, combined with Icertis Contract Intelligence, delivers a robust solution designed specifically for the complex demands of the Engineering, Construction, and Operations (EC&O) industry. By seamlessly integrating advanced sourcing capabilities, contract lifecycle management, and supplier collaboration, this solution empowers EC&O firms to manage high-value procurement activities with greater confidence, agility, and control. This unified platform delivers end-to-end visibility across sourcing and contract processes, enabling firms to manage complex supplier ecosystems, drive better sourcing decisions, ensure compliance, and reduce contractual and operational risk. The combination of SAP Ariba’s intelligent sourcing with Icertis’ AI-powered contract management ensures supplier agreements are aligned to budget, timeline, and regulatory standards from day one. Additionally, SAP Joule, the generative AI assistant, enhances productivity across the sourcing and contracting lifecycle. Joule provides real-time insights and hands-free navigation, allowing procurement professionals to interact with sourcing and supplier data via natural language. From surfacing risk exposure in seconds to initiating engagement requests or setting up reminders, Joule streamlines work and unlocks greater decision-making speed.
End-to-end procurement and contract management:
Integrate sourcing, contracting, and supplier collaboration workflows into one cohesive experience. Leverage Joule’s natural language capabilities to launch sourcing events, surface supplier recommendations using generative AI, check contract status or pending approvals, automatically trigger engagement workflows or supplier notifications. This integration allows sourcing teams to operate with real-time visibility and fewer manual handoffs—critical in managing high-value capital projects and subcontractor engagements.
Real-time visibility:
Monitor supplier performance, contractual obligations, and project-specific requirements across global operations. Use Joule to instantly see risk exposure details for a supplier (including risk categories and severity), open engagement details for specific supplier relationships, view risk information directly in a supplier’s profile. This visibility improves accountability and reduces uncertainty around contract compliance and supplier delivery timelines.
Optimized sourcing decisions:
Drive smarter supplier selection with embedded analytics, supplier performance data, and risk scoring. Joule enhances this by automatically recommending suppliers for sourcing events based on contract terms, past performance, and project alignment—accelerating selection and improving supplier fit.
Compliance and risk mitigation:
Automate documentation workflows, enforce policies, and manage third-party risks with embedded compliance checks across jurisdictions. With Joule, users can now create a finding tied to a supplier issue or risk event & initiate engagement requests with stakeholders when risk thresholds are breached. These capabilities ensure prompt, auditable actions to protect the business and maintain compliance integrity.
Project-specific contract alignment:
Ensure supplier contracts are tailored to unique project scopes, locations, and delivery timelines. The integration of Icertis Contract Intelligence enables advanced clause management, real-time deviation tracking, and collaborative negotiation tools—all optimized for the construction lifecycle.
Automated workflows and enhanced collaboration:
Streamline sourcing and contract execution processes with digital workflows that improve speed and reduce friction. With Joule, tasks such as setting supplier bid deadlines, generating risk summaries, or initiating approval flows can be completed conversationally, freeing up teams to focus on high-value activities.
Cost savings and operational efficiency:
Achieve faster cycle times, improved bid competitiveness, and optimized supplier portfolios. Real-time insights and automation help reduce overages, missed milestones, and change order disputes—helping EC&O firms maintain profitability across projects. SAP Ariba’s strategic sourcing solutions, powered by Icertis and augmented with Joule AI, help EC&O organizations modernize procurement for complex, multi-party project environments. By connecting sourcing, risk, and contract data in a single ecosystem—with AI-driven intelligence layered throughout—firms can build resilient supplier networks, mitigate costly delays, and deliver capital projects on time and within budget
Spend Management Solutions
SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing delivers a streamlined, intelligent procurement and invoicing experience purpose-built for the scale and complexity of the EC&O industry. By unifying purchasing, invoicing, and supplier collaboration in a single, cloud-based platform, it empowers organizations to gain greater control over spend, increase financial accuracy, and reduce delays across capital-intensive projects. The solution integrates seamlessly with ERP and financial systems while leveraging automation and real-time data to reduce friction and improve cost and schedule performance. Simplify the casual user experience, eliminate the need for complex training programs and manuals by leverage Joule, SAP’s omnipresent co-pilot. Joule embedded in SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing will surface common user requests, approval status and seamlessly search through catalogs for the right item, all using natural language processing.
Simplified purchasing processes:
Automate and standardize the procurement of construction materials, services, and heavy equipment across job sites and project offices. Enable guided buying to ensure users select from preferred suppliers and contract-compliant catalogs, reduce maverick spend and manual requisitioning with self-service capabilities and support punch-out catalogs and blanket purchase orders for frequently used suppliers and long-lead items
End-to-end visibility and control:
Gain granular, real-time visibility into all purchasing and invoicing activity, ensuring better oversight across project portfolios, track spend by project, supplier, category, or location, monitor supplier performance metrics, fulfillment timelines, and invoice cycles in real time and flag exceptions early and identify bottlenecks with embedded analytics and dashboards.
Faster, error-free invoicing:
Eliminate manual data entry and reduce payment delays with intelligent invoice automation, automatically match POs, goods receipts, and invoices to prevent overpayments and fraud, enable suppliers to submit electronic invoices directly via the SAP Business Network for Procurement and leverage exception-based processing to focus only on outliers, speeding up approvals and payments.
Enhanced compliance and cost control:
Ensure all purchases align with negotiated contract terms, regulatory requirements, and budget approvals, enforce spending thresholds and approval workflows, integrate policy checks into the buying and invoicing process and maintain audit-ready transaction histories and digital documentation.
Increased operational efficiency:
Accelerate procurement and invoicing cycles while reducing manual touchpoints, automate repeatable tasks to free up procurement and AP teams, enable mobile approvals and real-time status tracking and shorten cycle times for material ordering and invoice settlement, keeping construction projects on schedule
Spend Management Solutions
SAP Fieldglass streamlines services procurement by automating agreement adherence through Statements of Work (SOWs) with flexible billing structures. Purpose-built for the Engineering, Construction, and Operations (EC&O) sector, it provides comprehensive visibility into services spend, labor deployment, and asset usage. Organizations gain real-time insights to manage milestones, monitor vendor performance, and ensure compliance across complex service engagements. Now enhanced with SAP Joule, the AI-powered digital assistant, users can interact with Fieldglass using natural language to surface critical insights, initiate actions, and make informed decisions faster—driving greater efficiency, transparency, and control across the services lifecycle.
Contractual Compliance:
Automate the management of skill classifications, equipment rates, and contract language directly within SOWs. Handle complex service structures including deliverable-based, time and materials (T&M), or fixed-rate agreements across various supplier engagements. Leveraging Joule, surface insights such as “Which active SOWs exceed our rate thresholds?” or “What contracts include fatigue compliance terms for electrical subcontractors?” Joule surfaces relevant exceptions, terms, and recommendations in real time to support proactive compliance and audit readiness.
Data-Driven Decision Making:
Fieldglass provides granular visibility into services spend—down to individual workers, milestones, and equipment usage. Track deliverables against timelines and evaluate supplier performance across structured scoring criteria. With Joule, users can query performance data or uncover risks. Joule enables fast access to relevant data, identifies trends, and helps prioritize supplier and project actions.
Streamlined Services Management:
Accelerate SOW creation and approval with standardized templates and integrated workflows. Fieldglass seamlessly integrates with SAP ERP and SAP Ariba to manage all contingent labor and services spend under one umbrella. Increase productivity using Joule for SOW creation simplifying the process using natural language processing. Users can automate routing, receive status updates, and ensure policy adherence without navigating across systems.
Labor and Equipment Management:
Manage contractor compliance and safety obligations at the individual level. Track labor fatigue, certifications, and on-site activity, while also managing equipment as either individual assets or normalized usage across contracts. This proactive oversight helps minimize risk, improve accountability, and enforce contract terms effectively.
Value for EC&O Organizations
Optimized for large-scale projects: Designed to manage diverse contractor networks, varying service models, and geographically dispersed workforces
Milestone-based management: Enables tracking of progress and deliverables across complex project structures
Integrated compliance oversight: Enforces policy and regulatory requirements across labor, safety, and commercial terms
AI-powered agility: Joule enhances user productivity, reduces administrative overhead, and empowers faster, more confident decisions
Manage services better – track milestones, deliverables, workers, assets with end to end visibility and contractual compliance SAP Fieldglass streamlines services management by automating agreement adherence through statements of work with multiple billing structures, while providing analytics-driven expenditure visibility down to individual worker levels for comprehensive milestone tracking and vendor performance evaluation.
Contractual Compliance– Automate of craft, skill, equipment rates and contract language through SOW with capabilities to manage complex service structures with multiple payment vehicles – deliverable based, T&M and/or contracted rates.
Data driven decision making – SAP Fieldglass provides you the ability to see spend information all the way down to the contractor level, tracking deliverables and overall progress through itemized deliverables and hierarchical events. Customers can evaluate any deliverable and provide supplier performance scoring.
Streamline services management– Simplify SOW creation with AI, templates including seamless integration with SAP ERP and/or SAP Ariba for all spend under management.
Labor and equipment management– Manage safety and compliance at the contractor level including fatigue management. Manage equipment as an individual asset or normalized allowing for the service providers to submit equipment usage as a contracted rate.
Improving collaboration for a smarter, more agile supply chain
59%
of organizations view a lack of visibility to see necessary changes in time to react to them effectively to be a challenge for their supply chain.
43%
of organizations believe that a lack of effective collaboration with external suppliers is a significant impediment to better business performance.
43%
of organizations view collaboration as a work in progress.
Business Network Solutions
In Engineering, Construction, and Operations, success depends on having the right materials, services, and suppliers at the right time—without compromising on compliance, cost, or quality. The SAP Business Network for Procurement delivers the visibility and control EC&O companies need to keep projects moving efficiently.
Fast, Intelligent Supplier Discovery Tap into a global network of pre-qualified suppliers with profiles that include: Company credentials and certifications Safety records and sustainability ratings Dun & Bradstreet insights Quickly find partners who meet project, safety, and compliance requirements.
Real-Time Collaboration and Visibility Enable end-to-end document exchange and real-time updates for purchase orders, invoices, and suppliedata providing full transparency and an auditable trail for every transaction.
Streamlined Procurement for Indirect and Project-Based Spend Reduce delays and manual effort with: Digital collaboration on POs and invoices Automated validation against contracts and business rules Policy enforcement for price, quantity, and change order compliance Boost project efficiency and reduce costly errors or rework.
Integrated Supplier Risk and Qualification Ensure supply chain resilience by managing supplier risk, certifications, and performance directly within trading partner profiles. Drive better sourcing decisions and meet regulatory requirements.
Built for Complex Projects and Demanding Timelines SAP Business Network for Procurement empowers EC&O firms to: Improve supply chain coordination across trades and regions Increase compliance and reduce procurement risk Control costs while staying on schedule
Building better spend management processes with SAP Ariba solutions
Before: Challenges and opportunities Significant manual effort, including paper- and spreadsheet-based processes Need for an intuitive system for visibility, standardized processes, and compliance
Why SAP SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite, which aligns with best practices, minimizes legacy systems, and provides cost-effective technology that maximizes value The guided buying capability to create and search purchase requisitions (PRs) and purchase orders (POs) SAP Ariba Buying and SAP Ariba Catalog solutions to standardize and automate procurement processes Longtime user of SAP solutions, providing a trusted reputation for successful collaboration After: Value-driven results Achieved 100% on-time payment of invoices on agreed timelines for more than 2,000 vendors Established mobile-friendly workflows with faster approval processes Implemented an intuitive platform that helps management make strategic decisions on accurate data Eliminated paper-based processes with a combination of automated PR and PO processes and using the SAP Signature Management application by DocuSign Increased transparency and created audit trail compliance throughout the new system Simplified the vendor evaluation and enablement process Started providing more than 50 e-catalogs for employees to smooth requisition and PO processes
Ananda Development Public Company Limited
Industry Engineering, construction, and operations
Products and services Real estate development for urban living such as condos
Employees ~350
Bangkok, Thailand www.ananda.co.th (Thai)
“SAP Ariba solutions allow us to be future ready. We are excited that the solutions align with our long-term vision, which is focused on generative AI and growing new types of AI.”
Pallop Satjaraxa, Head of Innovative Operations and Technology, Ananda Development Public Company Limited
15 Days ~10% 1 hour 13,000 Average reduction in PR to PO order cycle time To process a PO (down from two to three days previously) POs generated yearly with SAP Ariba solutions Cost savings
Revenue B3.82 million (US$109 million)
Featured solutions SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite, guided buying capability, SAP Ariba Buying, and SAP Ariba Catalog
ThankYou
* Research documentation has been used from work commissioned by SAP Ariba and produced by Economist Impact
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