by Jan Malasek | Feb 24, 2021 | Strategic Sourcing
A PE-owned mid-market ground moving equipment manufacturer needed to quickly drive procurement savings ahead of impending major transactions. With disaggregated spend and vendor concentration across direct and indirect categories, they were looking for an expert who could quickly identify opportunities and help them execute varied strategies to maximize savings in the shortest period of time. They turned to OnDemand and selected a member of our Professional Network Kenton Phillips. CHALLENGE The mid-market position and spend levels of the company required lean, rapidly executed initiatives to maximize the project ROI, but the diverse range of products and services in scope necessitated a range of category-specific approaches to achieve the maximum savings. Multiple categories with a wide range of volumes – the category characteristics and varying spend levels required multiple different sourcing strategies to be planned and executed in a short timeframe.Product specification rationalization – the rationalization of specifications required by some categories drove the review of hundreds of engineering documents and substantial engagement with engineering personnel across two company locations.Sole-source products and limited switching capability – other categories had limited alternative vendors or were limited in the client’s ability to switch leading to the need for sole-source, limited-source and time-phased sourcing strategies. APPROACH Client-tailored and category-specific approaches were designed to rapidly capture the greatest amount of savings within the limited timeframe. Assessment and quick hits – during the assessment, categories were grouped by sourcing technique and other characteristics to accelerate the capture of quick-hit opportunities and enable the most efficient and effective strategic sourcing execution. Some of the quickest savings results were achieved by leveraging group purchasing and volume concentration...
by Jan Malasek | Feb 10, 2021 | Strategic Sourcing
Sourcing is often designed as a cost saving exercise. However, in the case of complex services that are integral to an enterprise success, sourcing can often result in a better solution for the organization, not just savings. We like to think of this as a win-win opportunity – better service levels, lower costs – and if driven/supported by senior leadership can reap great rewards. Below I share an excerpt from Dave Stowe, a long-time member of our OnDemand Professional Network, that I think exemplifies this kind of complex sourcing – this time at a high-growth BioPharma company that was outgrowing the capabilities of it’s Pharmacovigilance Services (PV*) provider. SITUATION OVERVIEW A rapidly growing $1.3B biopharma company with 12 drugs on the market and ongoing drug development, needed to find a new supplier for PV services. As a result of the company’s rapid growth over the preceding 8 years, the incumbent supplier was unable to meet service level requirements creating a sizable business risk. The client had increasing concerns about the incumbent’s capability to respond to audits in a timely manner; rapidly scale to support spikes in volumes; and support advanced analytics and insights. As a result, executives including the EVP of R&D, CFO and CEO approved a sourcing effort to find a new service supplier and technology platform. To lead the sourcing effort, the client brought in Dave Stowe, a member of the OnDemand Professional Network with deep pharmaceutical industry sourcing expertise to work with the VP of Patient Safety, scientists and the IT organization. APPROACH The client created a core team with representatives from PV, IT and procurement...
