February 22, 2005

Replacing an outdated procurement solution that relied on e-mailed or faxed orders routed among purchasing managers and department clerks, a new Internet-based process automation solution is reducing the time and expense of buying operating supplies at fashion retailer St. John Knits.

St. John, which employs 5,000 people and operates 32 stores in addition to selling through other retailers in 28 countries, implemented a hosted, web-based business process automation system from Nsite Inc. a year ago to streamline its purchasing of products used in maintenance, repair and operations.

“We had a payback on the system in less than a year,” says Kari Dickard, purchasing manager, noting that it has already saved $14,000 in labor costs. Requisition forms and vendor invoices are now distributed, approved and tracked online, replacing a system of faxed and e-mailed orders that were prone to be incomplete or get misplaced, she adds.

The Nsite system saves time and increases accuracy in the purchasing process in several ways, Dickard adds.

Product requisition forms now are based on information entered into a common online template that makes it relatively easy for managers and buyers to identify the pricing and number of items associated with a requested purchase, replacing a system that didn’t use a common form for displaying information, Dickard says.

The old system often left managers taking extra time to look up pricing or other data, she adds.

The web-based system also expedites routing of requisitions from the person originally placing the order to a designated buyer, who would fill in details on pricing and availability, to a department head for approval and back to the buyer for making the actual purchase.

In the past, faxed or e-mailed requisitions might have gotten delayed or misplaced while being routed from one desk to another. Now, because the requisition form is online throughout the routing process, any authorized party can log onto the Nsite system to see the status of the requisition and who is currently reviewing it.

St. John launched the Nsite application in February 2003 and has used it to process more than 3,000 orders, St. John says.

Pricing for the latest version of Nsite, v. 4.0, starts at $40 per month per user for up to 50 users and five processes, Nsite says.

In addition to requisition forms and invoice approvals, other processes can include contract review and approval and expense report approval, Nsite says. Nsite, Pleasanton, CA, hosts the application on IBM servers.

Source: Internet Retailer