Transforming Procurement Processes at Forest Lawn with Vroozi’s Procure-to-Pay Platform

Industry

Individual and Family Services

Challenge

Forest Lawn struggled with inefficient, manual, and paper-based procurement processes. With over 1,000 suppliers and a lack of centralized procurement, the organization faced issues such as unnecessary spending, maverick spend, and poor financial visibility. Employees were often bypassing procurement to avoid delays, leading to strategic vendor relationships being compromised.

Results

Forest Lawn experienced lower costs for goods and services, consolidation of the supplier base, smarter financial decisions through enhanced spend analytics, significant reduction in procurement cycle times, increased compliance, reduced risk for the legal department, and boosted employee adoption and satisfaction with the procurement processes.

Key Product

Vroozi Procure-to-Pay

forestlawn.com

Months Implementation Time

100%

Spend Under Management

35%

Cycle Time Reduction

100%

Employee Adoption

We have turned grumblings about purchasing to praises. Now people beg to have a Vroozi sign-on. They love how efficient, seamless, and quick it is for us to process their orders at the lowest cost.

Gretchen Vance

VP of Procurement, Forest Lawn

About Forest Lawn

Forest Lawn is a leading memorial company chain located in Southern California, providing funeral, cremation, cemetery, and memorial services across over 10 cities. Forest Lawn has over 100 years of trusted service in cemetery, funeral, and cremation needs, providing a diverse array of celebrations and special events to cater to all faiths and cultures across Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside counties, with locations in cities like Glendale, Hollywood Hills, and Long Beach.

The Challenge

Forest Lawn, a leading memorial company chain in Southern California, faced significant challenges with their procurement processes. These processes were manual, paper-based, and highly inefficient. With over 1,000 suppliers and no centralized procurement system, Forest Lawn suffered from unnecessary spending, maverick spend, and poor financial visibility. Employees often bypassed the procurement department to avoid delays, which compromised strategic vendor relationships and further exacerbated financial inefficiencies.

The Solution

Forest Lawn decided to address their procurement challenges by partnering with Vroozi to deploy a cloud-based procure-to-pay platform. The decision-making process involved analyzing existing procurement inefficiencies and customizing the Vroozi platform to meet Forest Lawn's specific needs. The platform, dubbed the 'Forest Lawn Marketplace,' centralized supplier information, including contracts and insurance certificates, into a single digital space. It was essential to ensure full buy-in from employees across departments to streamline purchasing and approvals. As Gretchen Vance, VP of Purchasing at Forest Lawn, stated, 'We have turned grumblings about purchasing to praises. Now people beg to have a Vroozi sign-on. They love how efficient, seamless, and quick it is for us to process their orders at the lowest cost.'

The Results

After implementing Vroozi’s procure-to-pay platform, Forest Lawn saw remarkable improvements. Costs for goods and services were significantly reduced, and the supplier base was consolidated, leading to better negotiations and increased savings. The platform's enhanced spend analytics enabled smarter financial decisions. Additionally, procurement cycle times were drastically reduced, compliance increased, and risk for the legal department was minimized. Employee adoption of the new system was high, leading to boosted satisfaction with procurement processes. Metrics showed that the implementation time was just 4 months, supplier base consolidation was significant, and cycle time reduction was substantial, further validating the success of the solution.