The ensuing phase, Gass says, involved providing recommendations and the creation of new IT procurement processes, which outlined functionalities and processes, classifying them as primary, secondary, and other important considerations.

Subsequent stages required determining the best solution available and reviewing product demos while still maintaining the departments workload. This took approximately 10 months before Gass, the IT steering committee (consisting of five IT technical services managers), and the director of IT technical services decided Verian was the best option.

The [Verian] software solution provided the best value for our financial investment, and it also offered a short implementation period, says Gass. The product was designed based on best practices, and it had built-in purchasing workflows. Since the scope of our project was for IT procurement/IT technical services only, it was important we could find a solution that was scalable, Web based, and required the least amount of customization to fit our specific IT purchasing needs and processes.

Verian provided a technical team and a consultant to make the installation go smoothly, according to Gass. The installation initially required some tweaking for our server, however the Verian consultants were on site for the configuration and completed the installation within the time frame promised, she says.

Allstate of Canadas IT procurement team did a thorough walk-through of all administrative settings and practiced their impact within the training system, explains Gass. We then would assess how the various changes in the system settings impacted our IT procurement processes and which ones improved or worsened them. Naturally, we selected those settings that fit our processes and enhanced them.

Gass already is looking forward to the next upgrade release, she says, which will allow the carrier to attach documents to internal purchase order requests as backup documentation. Currently, attachments are meant only for the vendors to receive as backup to the products the carrier is requesting. Another upgrade the carrier would like to see is an automatic e-mail message template as a follow-up to a manager for requisition approval once an elapsed amount of time has passed. This would help us maintain our parts of our service-level agreements with our end users and internal customers without any manual intervention, says Gass.

The product was launched at the beginning of this year, and Gass says within the first 10 weeks, the carrier experienced a 20 percent reduction in time spent on the administrative process associated with IT purchasing. There also was a 30 percent decrease in invoice reconciliation times. The carrier has eliminated several steps in the purchasing process and reduced the procurement unit by one person on contract, which Gass adds, helped shrink operational costs. ROBERT REGIS HYLE

THE PROBLEM
Carrier hoped to streamline
IT procurement processes.

THE COMPANY
Allstate Insurance Company of Canada
Web Site: www.allstate.ca
Direct Premium Written: $547 million (Cdn.)

THE SOLUTION
ProcureIT from Verian Technologies
Web Site: www.verian.com