Mars Veterinary Health Simplifies & Scales Supplier Onboarding
  

                      

                      

                        

      


Mars Veterinary Health is a global division within Mars Petcare that has 2,500+ veterinary clinics in 20+ countries. The petcare leader partnered with TradeCentric to gain access to best-in-class B2B eProcurement technology and integration support to transition suppliers to its newly adopted Coupa software eProcurement application.


The main challenges in the transition were reducing the complexity of system integrations and implementing solutions that filled both the technology and process gaps to meet requirements and accelerate onboarding time.


    

                                                    
                      

                    

                                        

                      
                      

                              

        

      

    
                 

    

    

    

            

        

          
                    

                            

                                
                

                            

                                              

          

                    
          

                                    

      
Introduction


Mars Veterinary Health began its partnership with TradeCentric when it was still operating under VCA, Inc. In 2022, VCA transitioned into Mars Veterinary Health, and today, the organization is dedicated to improving the lives of people, pets and the planet in support of its purpose: A Better World for Pets.


A key strategy deployed by Mars Veterinary Health is integrating their eProcurement platform directly to suppliers’ eCommerce systems, ensuring pet clinic employees can easily procure the products and medications they need to provide state-of-the-art pet

care. The company strives to reduce friction from the procurement process so veterinary professionals can focus on patients rather than the purchasing process.


    

  • 70,000+ associates
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  • More than 25 million pet visits each year
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The Challenges


Looking to automate and streamline procure-to-pay processes, Mars Veterinary Health decided to move from a dated in-house procurement system to Coupa eProcurement software. Initially, the company needed to transition key suppliers to the new purchasing platform, which represented a combined transaction volume of over 800,000 invoices and $250M in spend. However, more than half of those suppliers could not support a cXML protocol or, more importantly, how Mars Veterinary Health required the cXML. As a result, the average onboarding time for a new vendor was 6-9 months.


Mars Veterinary Health engaged TradeCentric to both assist with integrating key high-volume suppliers via EDI, cXML and other methods to conform and adapt to their new Coupa eProcurement software as well as streamline the supplier onboarding and transaction processes. Uniquely positioned in the center of B2B buyers and suppliers, TradeCentric supports thousands of eProcurement integrations on 150+ procurement systems for customers across 40 countries.


    

            
                    
                            

      

    

  

  
                 

    

    

    

            

        

          
                    

                            

                                
                

                            

                                              

          

                    
          

                                    

      
The Solution


The TradeCentric Platform is an iPaaS technology that acts as a layer between Mars Veterinary Health’s Coupa Software eProcurement system and their suppliers’ eCommerce and order management back-end systems. The Platform can consume any type of data and transaction communication protocols from any business system, translate into the protocol needed and map accordingly to enable procurement and commerce business applications to communicate effectively and enable businesses to transact electronically.


    

                          

                                        

            
          

        

      

    

  

  
                   

      

    

    

            

        

          
                    
          

            

              

      
The Results


Mars Veterinary Health significantly reduced the time and effort required to transition key suppliers from their outdated homegrown procurement system to their new Coupa eProcurement software. The company can also onboard a broader range of new suppliers without requiring them to undertake complex IT projects to support integrating with Mars Veterinary Health’s processes and

eProcurement solution. TradeCentric:


    

  • Provided cost savings to Mars Veterinary Health and their suppliers with minimal development to integrate with Coupa
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  • Drove more spend through Mars Veterinary Health’s procurement system
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  • Expedited the ordering and invoicing cycle time
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  • Reduced manual errors
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By partnering with TradeCentric, Mars Veterinary Health’s clinic teams save time sourcing key products they need to provide state-of-the-art veterinary care, which translates to a meaningful time savings for their veterinary professionals.


The first phase of supplier deployment was so successful that Mars Veterinary Health chose to have all electronic suppliers begin automating their procure-to-pay processes. As a result, the initial project’s scope expanded to 40 additional vendors, including Staples, McKesson, Amazon Business, Henry Schein and Merck.


Moving forward, Mars Veterinary Health will leverage the TradeCentric Platform to continue meeting suppliers where they are in terms of technical capability, with the end goal of expanding their reach – both within their procurement organization as well as the service they are able to provide pets across the country.


    

                                          

            
            

              

      
“Previously, the cycle time to deploy a new supplier on Mars Veterinary Health’s homegrown system averaged 6 to 9 months. With TradeCentric’s support, cycle time to deploy a supplier has now decreased by 50%.”


David Karakas


Director of Procurement, Mars Veterinary Health


    

                                        

        

      

    

  

  
  
                
    
                
                      

          

            

    

            

              

                

                  

      
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