Customer story · Energy · Purchasing

One purchase request, several delegations, a supplier to pay on time. And emails that get lost.

GRDF feedback: tracking a purchasing process across delegations

At GRDF's Île-de-France Customer Division, the Management and Steering Delegation handles the general purchases requested by the other delegations. Since early 2016, every purchase request there has been a Perfony action, with a unique number, coded stages and discussions in comments. Marc Bourion, who runs this service, explains how the tool became everyone's shared reference.

Based on the testimony of Marc Bourion, management assistant, Management and Steering Delegation, GRDF, published in 2020

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The path of a purchase request. The number created by Perfony follows the purchase from the needs statement to the purchase order. Discussions stay attached to the action.

The problem

GRDF is the main natural gas distribution network operator in France. Within its Île-de-France Customer Division, the Management and Steering Delegation handles general purchases for the other delegations: seminar bookings, memberships of organisations or associations, partnerships. Marc Bourion runs this service, which in 2020 represented nearly 4 million euros of orders.

The testimony describes three requirements:

• placing orders on time;
• meeting supplier payment deadlines, as set by the contracts;
• simplifying exchanges with the delegations that submit the requests.

In a process where a request goes through several hands, the difficulty is well known: knowing where each purchase stands. When information travels by email, a single message that gets lost or never goes out is enough to cause a delay, and then tension between the delegation waiting and the service processing.

The choice

Perfony was set up in early 2016. The service was looking for a reliable tool that could track the progress of purchasing processes and so avoid tensions with the requesting delegations.

The solution

The service built Perfony into the process itself, rather than adding it alongside. Four rules, described by Marc Bourion:

1. One purchase request, one actionEach request is created in Perfony, in the folder of the delegation that submits it. The unique number generated by Perfony must appear on the needs statement, then on the purchase order. If there is a problem, even the supplier can quote it, and the purchase is found immediately.
2. Progress rates that mean somethingThe management rules are shared: 20%, the request has been seen but not yet processed; above 50%, processing is under way; 80%, the request has been processed and awaits the controller's approval in the management system.
3. A common naming conventionEach action is named "supplier name / event name / amount". You know where a purchase stands, sometimes without even opening the action.
4. Discussions in commentsOrder status is discussed in the action's comments, and attachments gather all the documents for the purchase. A payment request is only taken into account once the delegation has made it as a comment.

This is the principle of shared action plans, applied to an administrative process: each step has an owner, a status visible to all, and a history.

How GRDF manages its purchasing process with Perfony: the video (in French), hosted on YouTube and shown once you accept cookies. You can also watch it on YouTube.

The impact

What Marc Bourion takes away from Perfony for managing purchases, in his own words:

• "Perfony is a communication tool. We have reduced the number of emails a hundredfold."
• "It is a very simple tool that ensures the same level of information for everyone and allows everyone to react."
• "The little time it takes saves a lot of time."
• "On payment indicators, we now know why things are moving forward or not."

The first point is Marc Bourion's own phrase, not a figure published by GRDF. What stands out overall is a change of climate: when the status of each purchase is visible and dated, nobody has to prove who sent what any more. Marc Bourion speaks of "social appeasement".

The proof

The proof lies in the use itself: the Perfony number is required on the official documents of the process, from the needs statement to the purchase order, and a payment request only exists if it is made in the tool. Perfony is not one more tool alongside the process: it is the process.

This approach works beyond purchasing: any process that passes from one team to another (approval, processing, control) benefits from a single shared record. It is one of the building blocks of operational excellence.

The advice

The testimony does not hide that setting it up takes effort: common rules must be defined (progress rates, naming convention, payment requests as comments) and everyone must follow them. Once these rules are in place, their value is recognised.