Revolut: Managing procurement while building a hybrid-work company of the future
The pandemic has accelerated digital adoption and companies are being forced to “go hybrid” due to restrictions. Revolut's progress in this area is advanced and so the methodology and tips they shared at Markit Forum Virtual 2021 could be particularly valuable to us all.
Rimvydas Butenas, Revolut’s Tech Services Manager for Vilnius & APAC, explained that their procurement system is “homemade” and totally designed, and continuously improved, to suit their specific needs. The back office is integrated with Jira and provides a single location for everything from vendor management to budget planning.
IT requests are directed as tickets to right departments e-g IT hardware and software. Anyone in company can file a budget/item request, watch its progress, and see who is handling it. It is a very transparent, documented flow where the exact process is fine tuned in different regions according to regulatory requirements.
When the pandemic hit Revolut promptly adopted new tools/processes:
Hotdesking function to reserve seat in office and notify colleagues automatically, using specialist software.
The "Safety Sally" project, delivering ergonomic equipment to employee’s home, everything that makes work at home comfortable. Revolut allowed employees to complete survey about their home setup and then granted them a budget to improve their setup and get it delivered directly to the door.
This close cooperation between HR, IT and procurement ensures employee safety at home, and that it follows local health and safety regulations.
Provision of the correct level of internet access and remote support, with training how best to use remote support tools.
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The main metric in procurement for Revolut, a fast-growing company, is the hiring forecasts, so they are making accurate predictions and not purchasing too much or too little, just purchasing exactly what they need. It should be noted that some Revolut offices do not have IT personnel on site, so everything needs to be managed remotely, noting that some locations do not have storage facilities.
During the pandemic, Revolut’s team are maintaining close, frequent, and ideally face-to-face, contact with vendors because lead times may be an issue due to IT shortages. Rimvydas acknowledged there are challenges with this approach, especially given Revolut’s ongoing rapid growth:
Significant lead time risks - so flexibility in product choices is required.
Brexit offers particular logistic challenges (Revolut’s HQ is in UK)
Regional expansion without visiting offices personally causes complexity.
Unscheduled demand peaks e.g., having to onboard a lot of people quickly, where they may have to reuse stock and build rich level of emergency stock.
A survey of Revolut employees threw up a surprising result – only 2% wanted to return to work in the office fulltime. The fact is the new reality is hybrid working, at least that what employees at Revolut (and presumably at many other companies) would prefer.
So faced with this new reality, new policies and plans were promptly introduced to redefine the role of the office.
- WFH Covid19 contingency plan: Workforce based at home following national/global health authorities guidelines
- New RevLabs strategy: Repurposing Revolut offices as flexible collaborative spaces, with 70% collaboration space
- New work from abroad policy (60 days a year): Employees can work from a different country up to 60 days over a rolling period of 12 months
- New work from home policy: Employees will be able to choose where they work - home, office or a combination of the two, to be fully implemented until the end of 2021
Without doubt, Revolut is ahead of the curve in terms facilitating hybrid working and has the procurement strategies in place to make it a success.
Watch the Revolut presentation on YouTube now.
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Read the main Markit Forum Virtual 2021 Report or check the other individual client presentation reports from:
- Western Union - 6 Principles for Success -Navigating a Changing World
- Danfoss - How to Make Your Procurement Future – Proof?
- SEB - Taking a diverse approach to procurement
- Greentube - How user-centric procurement can drive innovation and influence employee satisfaction
- Alantra - Solving IT procurement with speed and efficiency