Smith & Nephew

The deployment of SAP Ariba in Smith & Nephew created some resistance from end-users being asked to change from a tool they knew and mastered to a brand-new Procurement system.

Despite delivering live trainings (both online and on-site) and the publication of educational material (knowledge articles, videos…), we knew that we were below our internal NPS goal and needed a better way to support and guide our users through the transition.

Lack of adoption by users also created a risk for business continuity (delayed orders meaning delayed deliveries) and potential issues with suppliers (penalties for late payment, bad reputation…) therefore we had to find additional solutions to proactively address any issues.

Additionally we had to free team members to focus on high impact projects – and ensure procurement ran as smoothly as possible.

WalkMe was used to help our colleagues with some interactive guidance directly in the system, taking advantage of all DAP features (Smart Walk Through, SmartTips and Launchers mainly).

We quickly observed a decrease in support needs (less tickets and chats), a reduction of errors and an improvement of user’s satisfaction (to exceed our 80% NPS target).

Once the guidance was implemented and adopted by users, we started broadening our use of the tool with additional features such as Shoutouts to advertise trainings or new Ariba features, but also for disclaimers about changes in the Procurement policy or information about new buying channels.

More recently, to help the implementation of a new saving project in Ariba for big value orders, and to tackle the limitation of Ariba customization possibilities, we used the Conversation feature under the form of an ActionBot and combined with other WalkMe content such as SWT and launchers to create a questionnaire leading to different actions and messages depending on the answers. Using WalkMe also allowed to capture and report on the users’ answers, which was not technically possible within Ariba current version.

The use of WalkMe saved a several months of work on an Ariba customization, in terms of project planning, implementation and follow-up, avoided high additional costs, and allowed to get a solution tailored to our needs.

WalkMe content had a great impact on the end-users’ proficiency and satisfaction. I initially built several types of contents on the 5 main processes needed by users on their Ariba journey.

The interactive guidance was suitable for different user profiles, whether they wanted to be fully assisted (fully guided path with SWT), or just get some information on critical fields (SmartTips on pain points). This way it was not intrusive nor overwhelming and provided the exact amount of support they needed.

For our team, these features combined with the use of validation and on-screen warnings prevented errors, resulting in a decrease of the workload (less support requests and manual re-work). Using segmentation, we also created some launchers visible only for our team and acting as shortcuts, reducing the amount of clicks in our daily tasks. We also regularly use ShoutOuts as advertisement and communication tools.

On the leadership side, the use of WalkMe decreased the needs for support, allowing to allocate resources on other strategic tasks and reducing costs, and it improved the image of the Procurement department.

Our digital adoption strategy and the implementation of WalkMe content allowed our employees not only to reduce the time they spend dealing with Procurement-related tasks and focus on their core tasks, but also to have a better experience thanks to interactive guidance and additional on-screen information and reduce the initial resistance to the new Procurement tool.

As we were implementing Ariba on new markets, and despite a 200% increase on the number of users, the number of tickets slightly decreased. Also the type of requests were different, with almost no “How to” requests anymore, meaning that end-users spent less time with support, and that our support team could provide a better service or concentrate on additional tasks.

Finally, the self-service content and guidance helped in our “shift left strategy”, allowing end-users to solve some of their issues independently.

Smith and Nephew’s core values are Care, Collaboration and Courage, and offering additional layers of support, information and guidance to our colleagues, using innovative tools provided by WalkMe were totally in line with these values.

Our recent use of WalkMe to help Procurement in the implementation of a cost savings project is the one that makes me very proud.

We needed to display a specific questionnaire depending on user’s role to justify expenditure, record these answers, and adapt Ariba’s behavior based on these answers.

As we needed to implement the project quickly I used WalkMe to provide a workaround to some technical limitations of Ariba system (such as delivering a customized questionnaire), finding solutions and developing a tool in two weeks, where it would have taken around three months and a costly customization had we asked Ariba’s tools.

Using a combination of WalkMe features, including forms and ActionBot, I was able to overcome the initial difficulties that the project team was facing and to deliver a working solution in our very tight deadline. The feedback after User Acceptance Testing was very good with testers highlighting the ease of use.

Additionally, this was by far the most complex content to build, using features that were not completely developed for the use I made of it, but ending up with a powerful and reliable tool that exactly fits our needs, and is quickly adaptable if needed.

Jerome Peytavin, Team Manager, Knowledge Management: As the only WalkMe builder in the team, I am proactively finding new content ideas, with the help of my Helpdesk Team who inform me about the main difficulties users are facing.

Based on these ideas, I build all the content, paying special attention to the layout (I use Ariba’s colors and make sure WalkMe content blends in) and making sure this content is always relevant, easy to use, and not overwhelming.

Regular testing and maintenance are a big part of the WalkMe project, with Ariba’s layout regularly evolving I make sure the content is always displaying properly, and trying to use the new improved features that WalkMe regularly deploys.

For the future, I would like to increase my use of segmentation to offer targeted content to users, to increase automation and start using the Onboarding Tasks feature.

WalkMe usage was also widened to a system used by Finance: Esker.

On that tool, in addition to end users’ guidance, we used WalkMe to prevent the team from making mistakes that would result in system errors and manual re-work, using validation, hiding some fields, or blocking certain combinations thanks to WalkMe. The error rate went down to almost 0% and Finance Team confirmed a reduction of around half a day per week of re-work.

I was also asked by Finance management to help with the communication on new features thanks to shoutouts and publish reminders at specific dates (advertising the Out-of-office feature before summer holidays for example).

Smith+Nephew is a portfolio medical technology business focused on the repair, regeneration and replacement of soft and hard tissue. We restore people’s bodies and their self-belief by using technology to take the limits off living. We call this purpose ’Life unlimited’.

We have 19K employees operating in more than 100 countries and generated revenues of $5.2bn in 2022.

Our history dates back to 1856 when Thomas J. Smith opened a chemist shop in Hull, UK and developed a new method for refining cod liver oil. In 1896 Horatio Smith entered a partnership with his uncle forming TJ Smith & Nephew.