The VILA VITA Marburg Group reorganised its strategic and operational procurement activities with effect from the beginning of the year and at the same time implemented digitalisation of all the tasks associated with procurement. “For us, the aim of reorganising procurement for our hotels and restaurants was to achieve optimum transparency over the whole procurement process, simple and lean workflows, a high level of audit compliance and the best possible purchasing conditions,” says Kai Hemm, authorised signatory at VILA VITA Marburg, who is also the project manager for the reorganisation of purchasing and all associated interfaces.

Following extensive analysis in search of the most appropriate solutions, the VILA VITA Marburg Group decided to work with progros. This includes, firstly, the cloud-based full integration of the ordering system (orders), materials management (inventory), vendor management (invoices) as well as integrating the businesses into the high-volume purchasing pool of progros.

The fully digitalised invoicing and vendor management system installed by progros is so tightly integrated with the online ordering system that processes and workflows associated with purchasing and procurement can be run smoothly and transparently for the VILA VITA Marburg establishments. The procure-to-pay process encompasses all activities – from goods procurement, goods receipt and inventory to the receipt and payment of supplier invoices – and thus meets all the requirements of the Marburg-based company.

“progros’ task is to ensure that clients procure the right goods at the best price with as little effort as possible. The intelligent digitalisation of order and invoice management means that savings of significantly more than 50 per cent can be achieved with process costs alone. This relieves staff of administrative tasks, allowing them to focus on revenue-generating activities,” says Sascha de Clerque, Director of the Web:Tools business unit at progros.

Besides the digital advantages that allow procurement and invoice processes to run a great deal more easily, faster and more transparently, the new collaboration with progros also brings benefits with direct purchasing conditions. Jochen Oehler, CEO of progros says: “The establishments of the VILA VITA Marburg Group – which include the Hotel VILA VITA Rosenpark, five restaurants at the Marburg location, an international congress centre, two cafés, two production sites for hand-made ice cream, a delicatessen and the idyllically situated agricultural estate Hofgut Dagobertshausen just 5 minutes from Marburg as well as the Weingut am Nil winery in Kallstadt / Pfalz – are also connected to the progros purchasing pool. This gave VILA VITA Marburg access to all the negotiated purchasing conditions for hundreds of thousands of products that progros has agreed with around 570 leading quality suppliers to the hotel industry and catering and restaurant trade across all ranges of products from day one.”

progros is a full-service provider of integrated and successful procurement management in eight European countries specialising in leading private and branded hotels. Its 50-strong team of experts covers the entire supply chain, progros works on behalf of 900 hotels and hotel chains, handling initial and complete supplies for new hotels (FF&E, OS&E), sourcing, negotiations, volume bundling, procurement consulting and supplier management as well as the accessible digitalisation of all ordering and invoicing processes. The managed procurement volume totals EUR 200 million.

Background information
Marburg is situated on the Lahn river in the densely forested hills of Upper Hesse less than an hour from the financial centre of Frankfurt am Main. Marburg has a many-faceted world for connoisseurs – VILA VITA Marburg. The Group can boast an award-winning conference and spa hotel with 194 rooms, five restaurants, two cafés, two bistros, a delicatessen and its own congress centre. The idyllically situated agricultural estate Hofgut Dagobertshausen just five minutes from Marburg and the Weingut am Nil winery in Kallstadt / Pfalz round off the VILA VITA world. VILA VITA Marburg is a subsidiary of VILA VITA Hotels. VILA VITA Hotels owns three hotels in Germany, one in Austria and one in the Algarve in Portugal.