Making global B2B complexity scalable
How PFSCM brings customers in dozens of countries, international suppliers, contracts, funding programs and complex medical products together in one digital commercial operation
Table of Content
Executive summary
PFSCM connects health programs in dozens of countries with international suppliers of medicines, medical equipment and other essential health products.
Behind that seemingly simple commercial relationship lies exceptional complexity. Which products a user can see and request is determined by a combination of organization, contract, funding program, assortment, role and permissions. A single user may also work for multiple organizations and countries. Requests can lead to multiple quotes and subsequently multiple orders.
PFSCM invited several B2B platform providers to digitize this commercial operation. It was precisely the combination of all these dependencies that proved difficult for other solutions to model. Propeller was able to bring this complexity together within a single B2B platform.
The platform connects the digital customer environment with PFSCM’s ERP and PIM. Large customers can use OCI to do business with PFSCM directly from their own business software. Specialized suppliers are also involved in the digital process to add information and expertise.
The next expansion is already being implemented: AI Guided Selling. For complex products such as X-ray equipment, an AI agent uses the customer’s context as its starting point, asks additional questions where necessary, and guides the customer toward the right configuration and supporting products.
First, Propeller made PFSCM’s commercial complexity scalable. Now PFSCM and Propeller are also making the expertise behind that commerce scalable.
At a glance
± 80
Scale
countries served in 2023
5,000 → 50,000
Assortment
validated products at launch, expanding with further assortments
5 layers
Complexity
Organizations · contracts · funding · assortments · user permissions
Commerce
Requests · quotes · orders · OCI
Integrations
ERP · PIM · APIs
AI
Guided Selling being implemented
“We evaluated several B2B platforms. Many solutions could support individual requirements, but struggled with the combination of organizations, contracts, funding structures, assortment rules and user permissions. Propeller was the provider that could model this complexity within a single platform.”
[Name, title] — PFSCM · concept quote, for approval
A global commercial operation
Delivering an X-ray system to a hospital or clinic in a developing country is very different from selling a product from a catalog.
Will the equipment physically fit at the location? Does the system need to be installed in a fixed location or be mobile? Is the local power supply suitable? What happens during regular power outages? What supporting equipment is required? And is this organization actually allowed to procure this specific product under the relevant contract and funding program?
For Partnership for Supply Chain Management (PFSCM), questions like these come together in one global B2B operation. PFSCM is an international non-profit organization that helps health programs around the world procure and deliver medicines, medical equipment and other essential health products.
On one side are customers, donors, governments, NGOs and health programs with a specific need and available funding. On the other side is an international network of suppliers. PFSCM brings those worlds together, and supports the entire process: from putting together the right assortment and selecting products to sourcing, quality assurance, order processing and the international supply chain.
The scale is international. During the selection of the new platform, PFSCM stated that it had provided services to approximately 80 countries in 2023. The new platform had to be suitable for global use from day one.
Global B2B commerce
± 80 countries
served in 2023
Global access
to the platform from day one
Multiple
international organizations and contracts
± 60
funding segments per contract in the initial setup
Source: PFSCM RFI
Not a traditional B2B webshop
When PFSCM invited several platform providers to present a solution for its new digital customer environment, it was referred to internally as an e-Requisition platform. For the customer, this means an environment where products can be found, requests can be assembled, quotes can be reviewed and orders can be tracked.
But beneath that relatively familiar customer journey lies an exceptionally complex B2B model. A request, for example, does not automatically become an order. A customer first puts together a request – a requisition. This can result in one or more quotes. Once approved, those quotes can in turn result in multiple orders.
And that is only the transactional process. Behind every request, the platform must determine which organization someone is acting for, under which contract, from which funding program, with which assortment and with which permissions.
This was not a matter of putting products online. PFSCM needed to digitally support a complete international B2B operation.
The complexity lies in the combinations
The individual components are not unusual. Customers. Contracts. Users. Assortments. Roles and permissions. The difficulty is that at PFSCM all these dimensions depend on one another at the same time.
A contract determines which funding is available to certain organizations. Users within those organizations can submit requests, review quotes and track order fulfilment. After delivery, financial processes are linked back to the correct funding segment.
A user may work for multiple organizations, sometimes across different countries. Those organizations may fall under different funding programs and contracts. The same user can have a different role and different permissions for each organization.
Who someone is, which organization they act for, and under which contract and funding program they are operating ultimately determines what they are allowed to see and do. PFSCM explicitly stated that there should be no practical limit to the number of entities and users the platform could support.
The complexity lies in the combinations
Organizations
Countries
Contracts
Funding programs
Users & permissions
Assortments
Every combination determines what someone can see, request, review and ultimately order.
Here, complexity is also a security issue
That structure is not only necessary for the commercial process to function properly. PFSCM explicitly stated in the platform requirements that the structure is essential to guarantee confidentiality around assortments, requests and orders.
At the same time, users who work for multiple organizations must not be hindered by that structure. Named accounts, authorizations and, where needed, MFA must ensure that information reaches only the intended parties.
PFSCM even refers to information about future shipments. Preventing such information from reaching the wrong parties is relevant to operational security and to the likelihood of a shipment arriving successfully.
The platform therefore could not bypass the complexity. It had to be able to model that complexity securely.
From 5,000 to potentially 50,000 products
The product offering also has multiple dimensions. PFSCM works with products that have gone through their own quality and onboarding process – the so-called vetted products – but also wanted to be able to expand the platform with additional products that had not yet been validated in the same way.
Product information also comes from different sources. Akeneo PIM contains the rich product information for vetted products. Transactional and availability information comes from the ERP. The B2B platform then brings this information together in the correct customer and contract context.
At launch, PFSCM expected approximately 5,000 vetted products. With the addition of further assortments, the organization anticipated between 10,000 and 50,000 products.
±5,000
validated products at launch
10,000–50,000
products expected with expansion
Which part of the offering is available is determined by the organization, the contract, the funding program and the user’s permissions. The customer therefore does not simply see PFSCM’s entire catalog. Each customer sees the offering that is both relevant and permitted within their specific commercial context.
Why PFSCM chose Propeller
PFSCM invited several providers to present a solution for this digital commercial environment. The individual requirements were not the problem. Many B2B platforms can manage customers. Or contracts. Or roles and permissions. Or different assortments.
The difficulty was in the combination. A user can work for multiple organizations. Organizations can fall under different contract and funding structures. Those structures determine which assortments are available. Permissions, information and processes must then be applied correctly for every combination. PFSCM itself described this multi-layered hierarchy as fundamental to the way it operates.
That is precisely where other solutions fell short. Not because they were not B2B platforms, but because their underlying models were not designed for so many interdependent commercial structures.
Propeller could model that structure within a single platform. Organizations, contracts, funding structures, users and assortments can be managed within the same architecture and related to one another. Organizations can be part of multiple structures, and users can be linked to multiple organizations, including different roles and permissions.
Propeller was not simply one of the platforms that could be adapted to meet the requirements. It was the platform capable of supporting PFSCM’s underlying complexity.
One commercial layer over the existing systems
An important principle was that PFSCM would not need to replace its existing systems. The OneNetwork ERP system is used for transactional processes such as requisitions, sales orders, purchase orders and shipments. Akeneo PIM is the source for validated product information.
Propeller forms the digital commercial layer above them. Product data and transactional information from ERP and PIM come together in Propeller within the customer context. Requests are sent from the platform to the ERP, while quote and order information becomes available to the user again.
Existing systems
ERP for the internal operation
OneNetwork ERP — requisitions, sales orders, purchase orders, shipments
Akeneo PIM — validated product information
Propeller
Propeller for the commercial operation
✓ Organizations
✓ Contracts
✓ Funding programs
✓ Assortments
✓ Requests & quotes
✓ Orders
From customer request to order
For the customer, that underlying complexity is hidden as much as possible. A user works from the organization and contract they are acting for at that moment. They can then search and filter within the assortment available to them and add products to a request. Multiple requests can be saved as drafts at the same time.
When the request is complete, the applicable funding program is selected and the request can be submitted. PFSCM can then issue a quote that the customer can approve or reject. One request can result in multiple quotes. An approved quote can then in turn result in multiple orders.
From customer request to delivery
Organization & contract
↓
Relevant assortment
↓
Request
↓
Funding program
↓
Quote
↓
Order(s)
↓
Fulfilment
The complexity remains. The customer simply no longer has to manage it themselves.
Commerce outside the portal as well
Not every large international customer wants to place orders through a separate customer portal. Large organizations have their own purchasing or ERP environment and want to continue working from there.
That is why PFSCM and Propeller have now implemented OCI integrations with major customers. These integrations allow users to access the relevant PFSCM offering from their own business software and continue working within their existing process.
For the customer, it feels like part of their own environment. For PFSCM, it remains part of the same digital commercial operation.
The sales channel changes
The underlying commerce does not
Suppliers as part of the digital operation
The commercial operation does not stop with PFSCM and its customers. For complex products, PFSCM works closely with specialized suppliers. Their product and application expertise is important for advising customers effectively and continuously improving the digital service.
That is why suppliers are also brought into the digital process where needed. They can retrieve and add information and use their expertise to further enrich product information and support. This creates a process that can be continuously optimized based on knowledge from across the entire supply chain.
One digital commercial chain
International suppliers
Products · Expertise · Product information
⇄
PFSCM
Assortments · Contracts · Funding · Advice · Orders
⇄
Organizations in dozens of countries
Requests · Quotes · Orders · Use case
The platform connects customers, PFSCM and suppliers in one digital commercial operation.
The next complexity: knowing what to buy
The platform has made a large part of the transactional and commercial complexity manageable. At the same time, more and more knowledge is coming together within that digital operation: from PFSCM itself, from customers and from specialized suppliers. And for complex medical products, that knowledge is essential.
Because the next challenge is not how to order a product, but how to determine which product you need.
Take X-ray equipment. To determine which solution is suitable, the use case must be clear. Will the equipment physically fit at the location? Does the system need to be installed in a fixed location or be mobile? What power supply is available and how stable is it? What will the system be used for? And what additional equipment and supporting resources are required?
The task is not to select a single product, but to configure a working solution. And that requires specialist expertise from both PFSCM and its suppliers.
AI Guided Selling: start with the situation, not the product
The next expansion of the platform is already being implemented: AI Guided Selling. Soon, an AI agent will guide customers in selecting and configuring complex products.
The agent does not necessarily begin with a product or a fixed sequence of questions. It begins by understanding the situation. A customer can describe their context and needs in their own words. The AI agent uses that information as a starting point and then asks targeted follow-up questions where information is missing. This can include location, available space, fixed or mobile use, application, power supply, power outages and other technical constraints.
Step by step, this creates an increasingly complete picture of the use case, allowing the agent to work more quickly and precisely toward a suitable solution. The AI agent then helps not only to identify the right primary equipment, but also to determine the supporting products required to create a complete configuration.
From search to guided selling
Not
“Search for X-ray equipment.”
But
“Describe where and how the equipment will be used.”
The AI agent uses that context, asks additional questions where needed, and guides the customer toward a suitable configuration.
That changes the role of AI. Here, AI does not write product copy or generate arbitrary recommendations. AI helps PFSCM make specialist product and sales expertise digitally available during the commercial process. And because specialized suppliers are also involved in that process, their product and application expertise can likewise be used to further improve digital support.
That creates an important scalability advantage. Selecting and configuring complex medical equipment requires expertise. That knowledge exists within PFSCM and among specialized suppliers, but specialist capacity is not unlimited — especially when customers and users are spread across dozens of countries. By incorporating that expertise into the knowledge and decision logic an AI agent uses, the same expertise can be made available at many more times and locations.
AI does not replace the expertise. It makes expertise scalable.
From B2B commerce to intelligent commerce
PFSCM began with the ambition to further digitize commercial interaction with its customers: finding products, submitting requests, reviewing quotes and tracking orders. But a much broader digital commercial operation is now emerging.
First, the commercial complexity was made scalable: who is allowed to procure what, on behalf of which organization, under which contract, from which funding program and from which assortment? The platform then became part of major customers’ procurement processes through OCI. Suppliers became part of the digital process so that their information and expertise could also contribute to an increasingly effective commercial operation.
With the AI Guided Selling functionality currently being implemented, the knowledge behind the commercial process is now also being made scalable: which solution does this customer, at this location and under these specific circumstances, actually need?
The PFSCM case demonstrates something that goes far beyond this specific organization. In complex B2B commerce, the challenge is rarely putting products online. The real challenge arises when organizations, users, contracts, assortments, permissions, systems, suppliers and commercial processes all become interdependent.
In those situations, technology should not try to make reality simpler than it is. The platform must be able to handle the complexity while making things simple for the customer.
First, Propeller made PFSCM’s commercial complexity scalable. Now PFSCM and Propeller are also making the expertise behind that commerce scalable.