INNOGY
PARTNERSHIPS
A decade-long partnership
84 innogy has enjoyed a 10-year partnership with Mercateo , with the procurement platform being instrumental in time and cost savings . This long-standing collaboration has enabled Mercateo not only to develop suloutions that are specifically adapted to the needs of the energy giant , but also over time to develop into one of Europe ’ s leading platform providers . “ We ’ re proud of contributing to the hugely successful innogy story ,” says Dr . Bernd Schönwälder , a member of Mercateo ’ s executive board . “ innogy was an early and rapid mover in introducing process digitisation .”
The partnership has allowed this digitisation to be accepted by users despite the initial resistance recalled by Piepel . “ It was a fascinating step into a new arena ,” says Schönwälder , “ but today many procurement managers see Mercateo ’ s solution as a kind of
‘ dial tone ’ in e-procurement – they connect , pick up the receiver as it were , and have access to millions of items . It ’ s crucial to see how users find the platform useful . This was a really strategic step for us with innogy .
“ It was a co-creative process ,” he recalls . “ innogy has always had a clear vision and the partnership has contributed a lot to our innovation . Innogy should be proud of how they helped improve our solution and brought this value to a broader market .”
Initially , Mercateo onboarded innogy ’ s existing suppliers with its B2B network , and users began to accept the platform as a way to get their suppliers all on the same solution . “ We had a mashup from the marketplace , an ocean of products , and the very specific products that every single user needed each day . This was groundbreaking in terms of acceptance ,”
AUGUST 2018