Viessmann

Initial Situation

• Viessmann, a German manufacturer for heating, industrial and refrigeration systems, looked into possibilities to benchmark their supplier market, specifically for vendors offering TFT display modules.

Objectives

• Make buying decisions based on accurate supplier data
• Gain more transparency on unknown market
• Benchmark vendors in new areas
• Find new suppliers that could also offer a lower price
• Scout for suppliers on a global scale, with a focus on European suppliers
• Transparency and insights into a supplier market in which up to date information is key to achieve significant cost savings

Challenges

• Covid-19 crisis peaking in large parts of Asia
• Volatile supply chains

Solution

• scoutbee was able to identify potential suppliers in 15 different countries (8 European) in just 7 days from the project kickoff
• Longlist contained 89 suppliers they could evaluate
• 77 suppliers were invited to provide RFI
• Only 24 hours for the first feedback
• Under 2 hours for the first NDA
• 21 suppliers submitted a proposal after just 8 weeks

Benefiting From Smarter Supplier Discovery

When talking about the potential of digitaltransformation, Viessmann is a prime example. A companywith a history of over 100 years, the manufacturer of heating,refrigeration and industrial systems has been transformingsteadily into a cutting-edge technology company over thepast decade. Digital transformation and innovation it seems,has been at the forefront of Viessman’s agenda, and startingin 2020, this transformation would also evolve Viessmann’s procurement processes.

Having made the decision to test scoutbee’s AI-drivensupplier discovery in January 2020, Viessmann sought helpin seemingly unprecedented times. The company wantedto search for new suppliers for specific TFT displays with afocus on Asia, a market they had only limited informationabout, just as COVID-19 reached its peak in China andTaiwan. Therefore, expectations to succeed and create morevalue in Viessmann’s procurement team became rather subdued.

Efficient supplier discovery in uncertain time

That’s probably why Lead Buyers Anton Ewitsch and Stefan Funke were even more surprised when scoutbee in fact delivered quite groundbreaking results. “I didn’t think we would get that much feedback from suppliers despite the fact that we were in the middle of a global crisis,” Ewitsch admits. In fact, scoutbee had managed to find 89 suppliers within the first week of starting the project, 32 of which provided RFI feedback just a couple of days later.

Having dealt with a competitive market situation for this product category, Ewitsch’s aim was not only to benchmark suppliers for better pricing, but also gain transparency into a supplier market that seemed inaccessible, especially without the ability to have on site meetings in times of the coronavirus.

Trustworthy suppliers provided by scoutbee

This is where scoutbee’s AI-driven supplier discovery came into full effect. Having the ability to check a supplier’s trustworthiness based on a trust score, which in turn is generated from hundreds of accurate data sources, gave Viessmann the possibility to benchmark suppliers for TFT displays on a global scale. In fact, Ewitsch and his team used scoutbee to find possible supply partners and via a detailed benchmark were provided with suitable suppliers across 15 different countries in Europe and Asia. Having neutral and unbiased search results was important for Viessmann.

“One thing we really like about scoutbee is the objectivity it provides us when searching for global suppliers. Every step on the platform is completely transparent. It’s qualitative and sustainable,” said Lead Buyer Stefan Funke, comparing scoutbee’s approach to “pay for play” supplier search tools that mainly show vendors paying to be listed.

Supplier sustainability is key

Sustainability and scalability were key factors in Viessmann’s supplier scouting project. Within just 61 days from the kickoff to the end of the project, scoutbee managed to scout 89 feasible global suppliers, which resulted in 21 proposals from previously unknown suppliers.

This information advantage has delivered Viessmann the opportunity to stay strategic and responsive in a time of global crisis and supply chain uncertainties. Ewitsch concludes, “scoutbee is a very helpful and efficient tool to support procurement in its responsibility to be strategic within the business. That’s why we will propose to use scoutbee on a broader scale in the company.