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Innovating Tradition: Centralizing Procurement Operations for an Ecclesiastical Financial Authority

Our client serves as the financial entity of the Roman Curia. Its main role is to oversee the management of the Holy See's assets, encompassing real estate holdings, financial investments, and other economic resources. It plays a pivotal role in the economic and financial administration of the Holy See, providing essential support for the global activities of the Catholic Church.

The Challenge

In 2020, our client faced a critical challenge following the Apostolic Letter "Norms on transparency, control, and competition in public contracts of the Holy See and Vatican City State". The directive was clear: modernize and digitize procurement operations to ensure transparency and control across the entire Source-to-Pay process. This initiative aimed to streamline operations, particularly benefiting the purchasing office and dicasteries, the primary users of the new platform.

Key challenges included:

  • Fragmented procurement practices across various Vatican entities;
  • Lack of centralized oversight;
  • Complexity in adhering to Vatican regulations.
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The Approach

After an in-depth analysis of the client’s business requirements, Avvale applied its strategic expertise to design a comprehensive solution for managing procurement processes across Source to Contract, Procure to Pay, and the Regulated Sector, utilizing SAP Ariba's SaaS solution.

Leveraging 20 years of experience in procurement implementations and advisory services, including nearly 8 years specifically with SAP Ariba solutions, Avvale's team was well-equipped to support the client promptly. This meant understanding both the coverage of required processes according to platform standards and exploring additional features not currently provided. To address the institution’s specific requirements, integrating SAP’s Business Technology Platform (BTP) proved to be the best choice for custom solutions and extensions.

The analysis phase spanned approximately 5 months and involved all relevant business areas,  the institution’s procurement office, the Vatican City State's Secretariat for the Economy, and other key entities (such as the 17 Vatican Dicasteries, Pontifical Academies, Commissions, the Secretariat of State, the Swiss Guard, and the Roman Rota). This holistic approach integrated Avvale's in-depth expertise in procurement processes with the industry's best practices, ensuring compliance with complex structural and procedural requirements. Avvale’s iterative course of action continuously refined the solution through client feedback to ensure the solution's ongoing enhancement and sustainability.

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The Impact

At the end of this journey, the organization successfully managed its entire procurement process on a single platform, ensuring compliance with current regulations and increasing supplier collaboration. Suppliers utilize the Ariba Network solution as a single access point, entering information for registration and qualification, participating in negotiation events, and receiving transactional documents for the pay cycle.

Avvale's support included change management activities conducted during the final phase of implementation and the hypercare period, immediately achieving a high level of customer adoption. Remarkably, within just over two weeks post-launch, 99% of the institution's entities had embraced the new solution.

Avvale's ongoing support continues to optimize the client’s procurement operations, ensuring sustained success in managing the Holy See's economic resources.

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