MTN simplifies data management with a custom-built procure-to-pay solution

Summary

MTN—a billion-dollar company and the seventh-largest mobile operator in the world—built a custom procure-to-pay automation tool, called BOOM, to streamline their end-to-end data management process using Zoho Creator.

The custom procure-to-pay tool helped them gain real-time insights of their processes, enforce data accuracy, and ensure they had zero integration and implementation complexities. As of today, the app has around 400 active users across the globe, and allows them to have end-to-end visibility of all their sourcing projects.

The company

MTN, Africa’s leading telecom operator, was founded in 1994 and has its headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa. The multinational telecommunication firm is the seventh largest in the world, and operates in 24 different countries with over 223 million subscribers.

Owing to its extensive user base, they have a large amount of data to be processed. They were on the lookout for a solution that was user-friendly, agile, and customizable. While many digital solutions were considered, most of them had complex development processes, slow implementation, and poor integration.

The challenge

MTN was collecting procure-to-pay (P2P) data from 24 different stakeholders by manually sending out Excel files over email and asking users to write down the data.

• The spreadsheets included dropdowns, but since there were no workflows or controls in place, customers could enter random data. For example, they would enter dates in different formats and the firm would have to sort it out.
• The data collected was full of inconsistencies—it was formatted and structured differently and companies varied greatly in terms of complexity and language.
• So the procured data wasn’t smart, and employees of the firm would have to spend time double-checking and clarifying the information.
• Consequently, the firm wasn’t able to focus on acquiring real-time insights, which they needed in order to advance and grow as a business.
• A lot of time and effort went into data mining and translating and then following up on emails sent, reminding users to get back to them on time.

And by the time the firm had the correct data, the next batch would come in, and the insights would no longer be relevant. It was inefficient, time consuming, and a waste of resources.

The solution

MTN knew that the perfect solution to this problem was a low-code platform, which would be agile and provide uncomplicated solutions—allowing them to go live quickly with little hassle. So they did their market research to find out the best available products.

And that's where Zoho Creator came in. According to Laila, Zoho Creator benefited MTN in three important ways. The platform provided the firm with:

Client management

• Real-time visibility
• Data accuracy
• Operational efficiency

Through Zoho Creator, MTN developed an app called BOOM (Business Process Management)—a procure-to-pay cloud-based process automation tool.

The firm had specific needs from the app, like clear workflows and controls, so they created the blueprint while the actual development was done by the Zoho team. It was also easy to maintain, as the firm received dedicated technical support from Zoho throughout the process.

In three months, the app was live and now has around 400 active users across the globe.

Benefits and ROI

• With the help of Zoho Creator’s built-in AI, the Excel sheets sent to users were restricted, forcing them to input only the data that would make sense to the firm—leaving them with accurate information.
• The app takes care of automatically cleaning, sorting, and translating the data received into real-time insights.
• The app also handles sending automatic notifications to users—reminding them to respond on time—and keeps track of everything through audit trails.
• This way, the firm has better security and can keep a record of when users logged in, when they entered data, and what changes they made. The audit trails in place also ensures the firm can trust the data provided.
• On the user end, since the app is web-based, it's easy to access.
• Once they were comfortable with the app, new data points were added and then translated into real-time dashboards.
• Users no longer had to email requests, and could directly log in and see for themselves what was going on with their data.
• The app’s user friendliness also added to its adoption rate.
• Whenever the firm needed to make tweaks or minor adjustments according to user feedback, they could easily do it themselves, as it was just a matter of dragging and dropping.