How Sasol achieved 2.5x ROI through delivering a new payment process to their suppliers

Sasol is a global chemicals and energy company operating across dozens of countries, with a large and diverse supplier base that includes many small and rural businesses. Francois Coetzee, Project, Bank and Cash Manager, explains how Sasol recognized that the financial health of its suppliers was directly tied to its own operational performance, and how SAP Taulia’s Dynamic Discounting solution helped the company address both at once.

Before: Challenges and opportunities

Sasol’s legacy early payment program relied on manual processes: discount calculations were done by hand, and the approach lacked the scalability to reach the full breadth of the supplier base, particularly the many small and rural suppliers critical to Sasol’s operations. Some suppliers were struggling to access working capital in the market, which was creating downstream pressure on Sasol’s own supply chain. Communication with suppliers was phone and email-based, with no integrated system to manage the process efficiently. Sasol wanted to automate discounting, deploy its excess cash more effectively, and bring more suppliers into a structured early payment program.

Why SAP Taulia

SAP Taulia’s Dynamic Discounting solution offered the seamless integration and scalability Sasol needed. The embedded solution, combined with dedicated supplier outreach support, allowed Sasol to digitalize its early payment processes and onboard suppliers quickly. Suppliers could make digital requests on invoices and payment terms through an intuitive, self-service interface, replacing the manual calculations and phone-based approach that had defined their previous program. The implementation process, which had taken years in previous supply chain projects, was completed in a matter of months.

After: Value-driven results

The program enrolled a large portion of Sasol’s invited supplier base, providing critical access to liquidity for thousands of suppliers, including many small and rural businesses that had previously struggled to access working capital. For Sasol, the program delivered strong returns: by deploying excess cash into Dynamic Discounting rather than conventional investment alternatives, the company achieved significant yield capture and working capital improvement. The ROI substantially exceeded what Sasol would have achieved through other cash deployment options, even after accounting for the cost of the program itself. What had once been a fragmented, manual process became a scalable, automated program with measurable impact across the supply chain.