How does an Ivalua implementation work?

What is an Ivalua implementation?

An Ivalua implementation is the project that turns the standard Ivalua platform into your organisation’s procurement system: your processes configured, your approval workflows set up, your supplier and contract data loaded, your ERP connected. Ivalua is configured rather than coded, so most of the work is design and configuration, plus interfaces and data.

The scope can be one area, such as procure-to-pay or source-to-contract, or the full source-to-pay suite. For the general picture of what those processes cover, eProcurement Toolkit has neutral guides to procure-to-pay and procurement software. This page is about doing it on Ivalua.

What are the phases of an Ivalua project?

Integrators name their phases differently, but an Ivalua project moves through the same sequence. The order matters more than the names: each phase depends on decisions the previous one closed.

1. Framing: scope (modules, entities, countries), governance, the team on both sides, and which system is master for each object (suppliers, cost centres, items).
2. Design: processes mapped onto the standard, each departure from it decided and written down; Ivalua’s 2023 terms provide for Ivalua to review the customer’s design document.
3. Build: configuration in the platform by Level 2 certified people, interfaces with the ERP and other systems by Level 3 certified people.
4. Data: supplier, contract and catalogue data cleaned, mapped and loaded, with controls on duplicates and quality.
5. Testing: interfaces tested end to end, then user acceptance testing by your key users, with written go/no-go criteria.
6. Training and go-live: users trained, cutover, then hypercare while the first transactions run.
7. Run and upgrades: support, changes, and an upgrade at least every two years under Ivalua’s terms.

A large programme repeats the build-to-go-live loop by lot or by entity. Groupe BPCE, for example, redeployed its Ivalua platform in three lots on the standard, with a gap analysis before each lot. On the BNP Paribas v182 programme I work on, the new solution runs in parallel with the old one while entities and users switch over progressively; the v182 case study describes it.

Who does what on an Ivalua implementation?

You can implement with one of Ivalua’s integration partners, with independent certified consultants, or with a mix next to your own team. Choosing between them is the subject of a planned guide on the Ivalua implementation partner. If you need certified Ivalua capacity, I take senior missions or lead a team from my network.

What makes an Ivalua implementation go wrong?

Public cases point to the same few causes. None of them is specific to the software; each one is easier to see early than to fix late.

• Departures from the standard. Ivalua’s terms charge complex configuration and integrations added after go-live at every upgrade. BPCE rebuilt its Ivalua platforms on the standard; BNP Paribas rebuilt its platform from scratch on v164 because v156 carried many complex specific configurations (v164 case study).
• Key users who are not there. The fast cases (HDF Energy in three months) name the availability of the client team in design and testing as a condition.
• Data that arrives late. Supplier data has to be clean, and the master system for each object decided, before testing can mean anything.
• Interfaces tested late. ERP flows tested end to end only during acceptance testing turn every defect into a delay.
• A project that nobody stops. Maryland’s Ivalua project, signed in March 2019, was still only partially completed in December 2023, when the State ordered a six-week assessment and planned a new contract to finish it.

How much does it cost and how long does it take?

Public cases range from 8 weeks for a packaged procure-to-pay scope to six to ten months for a multi-module suite, and licence fees were only about a quarter of the three-year cost in Forrester’s Ivalua-commissioned composite. The figures, the contracts behind them and the cost components are in Ivalua implementation cost and timeline.

Which questions does this cluster answer next?

This page sums up the implementation. Each specific question has, or will have, its own guide:

• Cost and timeline: Ivalua implementation cost and timeline.
• Choosing an integrator or independent consultants: Ivalua implementation partner (planned).
• Connecting Ivalua to SAP, Oracle or another ERP: Ivalua ERP integration (planned).
• Moving from SAP Ariba: SAP Ariba to Ivalua migration (planned).
• Levels L1 to L3 and who needs them: Ivalua certification (planned).