Industry Voice: How tech investment is improving efficiency at Mitie

A single source of truth underpinning everything

Digital transformation and innovation at Mitie has delivered process enhancements, improved visibility and millions of pounds in savings.

As an operator in a low-margin industry, investment in technology like the Digital Supplier Platform (DSP) enables Mitie to work more efficiently, generate financial savings, and improve customer service.

At Mitie, the DSP has standardised our ways of working, leveraging technology to remove unnecessary manual tasks to create a more efficient, streamlined source to pay process.

Effective deployment of our digital strategy has allowed us to implement ‘straight through processing,' which has greatly reduced the level of manual effort involved in the P2P process.

Since we launched our digital solution in March 2022, more than 500K purchase orders (POs) have been processed via DSP, amounting to more than £1bn in value. Ninety-nine percent of our DSP POs are electronic, and we have achieved ‘touchless electronic invoicing' for 98% of invoices - with 99.9% of all invoices backed by a PO.

The DSP is a single source of the truth regarding supplier data and management information. This has under-pinned rationalisation of our supply base from 15,000 to 8,000 suppliers, allowing us to consolidate spend with preferred suppliers, ensuring we receive best value for money.

Since programme inception, the DSP has delivered double the savings included in the business case. The exact value, measured and reported in the P&L, runs to tens of millions of pounds in benefit to Mitie.

Shaun Carroll is group director of MSS & chief procurement officer at Mitie. He has more than thirty years' experience working in the supply chain and procurement sectors, holding senior positions across a wide range of industries, including facilities management, security and automotive.

Mitie's Digital Supplier Platform is a finalist for Digital Project of the Year at this year's Digital Technology Leaders Awards. Winners will be announced on 3rd July.