Case Study
The better the question The better the answer The better the world works
Case Study

Case study: How AI helped an IT major improve its vendor interaction experience

A global IT company strengthened its vendor relationships through improved quality of interactions and minimized operational costs.

Related topics AI Digital Consulting Automotive
Vendor management - Technology  transformation with AI
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The better the question

Are you supporting tomorrow's vendor management with yesterday's technology?

Vendor management receives a technology transformation with AI.

A major IT services company was facing challenges to maintain relationships with its diverse network of over 15,000 vendors, resulting in non-adherence to service delivery agreements. Effective vendor management is key to reducing costs, driving service excellence and mitigating risks.

Since the vendors were spread across multiple regions, effectively addressing the large volume of queries in multiple languages was challenging for the organization leading to poor vendor experiences. This not only had a negative impact on vendor satisfaction levels but also resulted in several contracts with the same vendor or disparate transactions with multiple vendors. Such setbacks caused delays in project completion timelines with lower customer satisfaction levels.

EY was appointed to provide a scalable solution that could meet the rising demands of the organization’s complex supplier ecosystem and support in managing it effectively.

An agile vendor management solution on ASpace
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The better the answer

Providing an Artificial Intelligence enabled interactive experience

EY developed an agile vendor management solution on ASpace to respond to vendor queries on a real-time basis

EY ASpace, an enterprise Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation platform equipped the organization with new technology capabilities that helped in effectively managing a complex multi-vendor ecosystem. Built on advanced machine learning algorithms and AI models, EY ASpace offered a tailor-made suite of AI solutions and deployed an on-premise multi-channel, multi-lingual chatbot.

The solution comprised a robust AI engine, capable of interpreting the inputs received from different vendors and responding intelligently by interfacing with various other enterprise applications.  The combined vision of the organization and EY was to create an AI powered digital workforce that augments human input and creates a better user experience with minimal operating expenditures.

EY ASpace not only enabled end-to-end automation but also offered complete data privacy with on-premise installation.

Our constant endeavour is to help businesses build their own automation capabilities to improve governance, reduce costs and create long term value. Through ASpace we helped our IT client resolve vendor queries around the clock, resulting in a significant manual effort reduction and enhanced vendor experience.
Vijay Bhaskaran
EY India Business Consulting Partner, Automation and Artificial Intelligence Leader, Global Business Services

The deployment of EY ASpace helped the IT multinational to:

  • Provided its vendors a choice of communication channels to have their queries addressed
  • Drastically reduced the response time from several days to just a few minutes
  • Enable secure vendor access through a multifactor authentication mechanism
  • Save expenditure by eliminating the need to have a multi-lingual team to respond to vendors from various geographies

The EY team enabled the organization to implement a unified system capable of addressing any vendor query in a short span of time leading to a significantly improved vendor experience.

An improved vendor experience score via ASpace
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The better the world works

A smart experience that is better for vendors and the business

Deployment of ASpace resulted in an improved vendor experience score and reduction in manual effort

With the vendor management solution powered by EY ASpace, the IT services firm witnessed:

15000+

vendors reached via automated interactions

4000+

queries addressed on an average per day

70%

reduction in manual effort

80%

improvement of Net Promoter Score

EY ASpace powered the organization to take appropriate measures for controlling costs, reducing potential risks related to vendors, ensuring excellent service deliverability while enhancing the overall vendor experience.

It not only offered an automated vendor helpdesk to employees with minimal human effort but also provided the vendors an easy but fully secure access to information related to payment advice, tax etc.