Get dramatic return on investment whatever the extent to which your company has evolved Digital Procurement

Opportunity Assessment

Get spend visibility, reduce costs and improve existing systems.

Let our experts conduct a review of the whole or part of a procurement function to identify areas where improvements can be made. We will gather data and develop an understanding of how procurement is working in your company, including:

• Overall spend per category
• Degree of procurement maturity / sophistication within selected categories
• Cost reduction / value creation opportunities
• Options for how to realise the identified opportunities
• Procurement’s people and system capabilities to deliver the opportunities and where gaps have been identified

Our observations will be qualified by discussion with procurement and other category stakeholders before agreeing the conclusions of the assessment.

Get in touch for an opportunity assessment.

Digital Procurement Transformation Business Case

Enjoy a more efficient digital procurement transformation.

For a faster and efficient digital procurement transformation we can assist you in the preparation of a business case. Get the best insights and trends from our experience of running and contributing a variety of digital transformation programmes across many industries and sectors.

A Digital Procurement Transformation Business Case should consider many aspects, including:

• What is the vision for procurement?
• What is the gap between the vision and the current capability of procurement?
• Which areas within procurement should be the focus of a procurement digital transformation programme?
• How to ensure people are doing the right type of work in the right place & in the best way?
• Are systems fit for purpose?
• Is the number of suppliers and their performance managed effectively?
• What will be the costs and benefits of a digital procurement transformation programme?

Set a meeting with one of our consultants.

Spend Analytics

Have an overview over spend, negotiate and save money.

Spend analysis underpins cost-down and category management. It also provides insight into opportunities for supplier rationalisation, invoice reviews for cash recovery and the extent of on/off contract spend within an organisation.

To be successful, spend analysis relies on good data but this is rarely available on demand or from a single source. The scale of the tasks to extract, cleanse, classify and normalise spend data should not be underestimated. Automated spend analysis can help to provide insight but is unlikely to give the complete picture unless combined with validation by category managers.

A typical project lasts approximately 6 weeks, excluding data extraction, and can be a component of an opportunity assessment or is incorporated into procurement operations.

Find out more from our experts.

Cost Down Programme Management

Have more control over suppliers and better cost savings.

Cost down is not just a sourcing programme. A cost down programme covers an intensive, focused engagement period where targets are identified covering very specific cost savings, cost avoidance and efficiency savings. The achievement of these aims must not be to the detriment of the required standards of product and service quality, and time-sensitive activities such as negotiation must be fully considered when planning such a programme.

The scope and duration of a cost-down programme should be clearly defined and can cover a wide range of activities, including but not limited to:

• Specific savings targets
• Consolidation of suppliers and deliveries
• Purchasing from agreed catalogues
• Reviewing suppliers’ terms and conditions

Get in touch for more details.

Contract Reviews, Authoring & Management

Reduce risks and find new opportunities.

Contracts are legal documents and therefore must be fit for purpose. Great care must be taken in authoring and managing contracts and, once live, contracts should frequently be revisited to ensure that they continue to represent the scope and service levels to which they refer. Similarly, contract renewals should be actively managed and many procurement systems provide functionality to support this process.

We can help with the whole contract lifecycle and have considerable experience in this area, from both a process and systems perspective, including:

• Collating and reviewing contracts
• Recommending changes to existing contracts
• Work with suppliers and category managers to draft new contracts

Find out how from our consultants.

Sourcing

Find and select the best suppliers in less time.

Sourcing is a continuous, iterative and comprehensive activity which can profoundly impact the direction and effectiveness of an organisation. The scale and scope of sourcing projects can vary enormously and the approach to a project should be specific and appropriate. Supplier selection is a major component of any sourcing approach and technology can greatly facilitate many aspects of the sourcing process.

We have a powerful track record in this area and can help across the whole spectrum of sourcing activities, including:

• Review, develop and design category-specific or strategic projects
• Identification of low-cost sourcing opportunities
• Category-specific suitability assessment for e-auction
• Objective supplier selection

Let us help you.

Supplier Innovation

Transform your supplier collaboration into a competitive advantage.

Supplier-led innovation has the potential to give your company a competitive edge but needs to be built on a foundation of solid relationships and shared objectives. This foundation may not be achievable with all suppliers, however, and careful consideration should be given to identifying which suppliers might be suitable.

Once identified, such suppliers’ relationships should be developed to a greater level of business alignment through collaborative working, including:

• Increased sharing of information
• Enhancement of the relationship between procurement and the supplier
• Supplier involvement in new product development
• Identifying shared benefits or incentives
• Further innovation can be encouraged by incentivising through shared KPIs

Talk with one of our experts to find out how to innovate and update your company processes.

Digital Transformation Delivery

Take out the worries from implementing a digital transformation process.

We can manage the delivery of multiple workstreams within a digital transformation programme or individual activities as part of a wider programme. The scope and scale of digital transformation programmes varies enormously and we have the experience in delivering across the whole range, from localised, single country programmes to global, multi-business transformations.

Typical digital transformation programmes require careful consideration of the complexities within the organisation being transformed, such as:

• Business functions
• Internal business services
• Geographies

Scope of digital transformation is likely to impact processes, people and systems throughout the organisation and may require a phased approach rather than “big bang”. We can advise on the alternative approaches, highlighting pros and cons of each option.

Set a meeting and find out our approach.

Digital Procurement Upskilling

Embed change in your company with a digital transformation programme implemented successfully and sustainably.

For a digital transformation programme to succeed, there must be a strong emphasis on training and upskilling within the organisation. Simply identifying and applying changes without planning to make sure they “stick” would leave the transformation unfinished and would likely lead to the unravelling of much of the work carried out.

Our approach begins by focusing on understanding where there may currently be skills gaps and will then identify a range of solutions to address them, including:

• Coaching – technical, ways of working and soft skills
• Mentoring – leveraging the skills and resources within the organisation
• On the job support – dealing with real issues
• Recommendations for external training - to address specific skills gaps

Meet our experts.

Financial Supply Chain

Improve cash flow and get discounts from suppliers.

Inherently opposing positions within financial supply chain payments, whereby: suppliers usually want to be paid earlier, and buying organisations may prefer to delay payment can create friction around payment terms and can drive relationships apart rather than towards closer collaboration and innovation.

We have a partnership with Taulia, the global financial supply chain company. Taulia seeks to reduce this opposition through:

• Flexible Supplier Financing, where an organisation can choose to use its own or third-party cash to fund early payments to its entire supply chain; and
• E-Invoicing Tools - removing paper from the process and facilitating invoices to be approved and posted for early payment within days, maximising the opportunity for discount capture between the approval and payment date.

Talk to one of our experts or learn more about our partnership with Taulia.